大学审计委员会制度探讨

本文运用委托代理理论、公共物品理论和治理理论,分析了公立高校法人治理结构不完善的问题,提出了建立大学审计委员会制度:即在大学建立董事会制度,董事会下设立审计委员会,形成了决策、执行、监督三权分立的制衡机制。还探讨了大学审计委员会的设置及其与内部审计、审计委员会与外部审计之间的关系,指出了高校审计委员会的基本职责。     

公司治理中审计委员会制度有效性研究

审计委员会作为公司治理结构中的重要组成部分,能够有效地防止财务报告的不实披露、欺诈与舞弊。审计委员会制度旨在完善上市公司治理结构、促进上市公司规范运作。本文通过描述性统计,对我国上市公司审计委员会制度的有效性进行分析和实证研究．以期对我国审计委员会制度的构建和完善提供建议。     

审计委员会的本质属性及制度创新——基于新制度经济学视角

较早设立审计委员会的西方国家陆续出现震惊世界的公司财务舞弊案件,这次金融危机又凸显出公司治理及审计委员会的制度性偏差.我国审计委员会制度尚处在起步阶段,制度依赖和路径依赖比较小.结合我国国情、基于审计委员会的本质属性制定的我国审计委员会参与公司治理的新架构体现了"类金字塔"委托一代理理论,在审计委员会参与公司治理,处理与内部审计、外部审计、董事会、经理层、监事会等诸多方面的关系时有许多明显的优势.     

论构建全新的国有企业审计委员会制度框架体系

国有企业审计委员会隶属国有资产监督管理机构,其制度框架的构建直接影响着国有企业的管理与控制。如何发挥国有企业审计委员会的作用．并使其对国有资产的管理及国有企业的改革起到推动作用．各级国有资产监管机构有必要研究这个课题。本文在借鉴西方审计委员会制度的基础之上．结合中国国情,对目前国有企业审计委员会的现状和难点提出几点建议．试图为构建一个全新的国有企业审计委员会制度作出一些努力。     

影响审计委员会独立性的非正式制度因素

独立性一直是审计本质特征和灵魂所在。审计委员会制度设立的初衷就是为了确保独立审计师能够不受干扰地执行审计业务,从而确保财务信息的公允可靠,完成这个基本职能的一个必要条件是审计委员会保持必要的独立性。本文从新制度经济学角度出发,着重分析影响审计委员会独立性因素中的非正式制度因素,并提出提高中国公司审计委员会独立性的政策建议。     

美国上市公司审计委员会制度的发展及启示

美国在上市公司内部设立审计委员会，通过审计委员会对上市公司管理当局进行有效地监督，从而防止财务信息失真。本文试图在论述美国审计委员会制度发展的基础上，得出一些启示，以促进我国上市公司加强内部控制。 一、审计委员会制度的职责 在知识经济条件下，审计委员会的职责主要是对企业内部控制和风险管理进行监督。为缩小公众与公司管理当局之间的期望差距，提高外部审计人员的独立性，审计委员会的基本任务是帮助董事会在企业的财务报告、公司治理、内部控制等方面履行职责。具体包括：（１）在财务报告方面，一方面主持有关外部审计…     

论构建全新的国有企业审计委员会制度框架体系

国有企业审计委员会隶属企业董事会,其制度框架的构建直接影响着国有资产监督管理机构管控。要发挥国有企业审计委员会的作用,并使其对国有资产的管理及国有企业的改革起到推动作用,各级国有资产监管机构需采取如下措施为构建一个全新的国有企业审计委员会制度作出努力:一是借鉴国际经验与模式,设计出符合中国国情的外部董事制度;二是将审计委员会的职责与权限明确写入公司章程;三是抓好相关研究,提供务实性指南。     

审计委员会制度的确立与完善

一、审计委员会制度的兴起与发展 审计委员会制度的起源，是由于公司舞弊案并牵涉到注册会计师独立性及审计责任的归属。最早设立审计委员会是为了选择注册会计师并洽谈审计业务约定问题，以增强注册会计师的独立性。1940年，美国证券交易委员会(SEC)在会计系列公告(ASR)第19号中，首倡在董事会中设立审计委员会。1967年7月     

审计委员会职能研究

审计委员会是公司治理的一种重要制度安排。本文对审计委员会的职能进行理论研究．指出审计委员会具有计划、监督和报告三大职能。并从发挥审计委员会职能的条件和评价等角度作了理论分析。     

中国审计制度回顾与展望

本文将审计制度纳入国家政治架构的现实选择和发展中,简要回顾了中国审计制度的变革历程．总结把握了审计制度发展规律,展望未来改革路径,尝试性提出四条建议：逐步实现中国特色社会主义立法型审计制度,保证审计独立性;完善绩效审计制度,顺利转型现代审计;加强法治建设,规范国家审计行为;完善审计公告制度,增强审计透明度。     

独立董事、战略审计与公司绩效

关于独立董事与公司绩效呈现弱相关关系的一个假说性解释是:独立董事对于作为关键绩效驱动因素的公司战略管理过程参与不足。独立董事积极参与公司战略管理的功能定位是战略监督与评价,而战略审计作为正式的战略监督与评价程序,是独立董事深入公司战略管理过程以提高其绩效贡献的有效途径。本文认为,在我国推行独立董事战略审计制度,必须解决独立董事人数与比例、审计委员会设置、独立董事来源与结构以及激励与权益保护等相关问题。     

当前我国国家审计制度存在的问题及对策研究

当前,我国国家审计制度尚不完善.针对所存在的问题,可以通过采取一系列的措施来加以完善,如在人大常委会设立审计委员会、地方审计机关实行垂直管理、改进审计机关的人事制度、完善审计公告制度、健全审计后的问责制度等.     

审计师变更、审计收费与审计委员会效率

本文首先研究了审计委员会与外部审计师变更之间的关系,发现设立审计委员会的公司,外部审计师发生变更的可能性显著降低。表明审计委员会能有效缓解管理层与外部审计师之间就如何运用公认会计原则产生的分歧,并在相互的冲突中向外部审计师提供支持。本文还研究了外部审计师变更时,设立审计委员会与年报审计收费变化之间的关系。无论从变化方向和变化数量的角度,公司设立审计委员会都与审计收费变化显著负相关。这说明外部审计师显著降低了对已设立审计委员会公司的审计收费。这为审计委员会能够改善内部控制环境,降低外部审计的控制风险提供了间接证据。     

审计委员会海归背景与商誉减值计提

审计委员会中海归成员日益增多,其对审计委员会治理的有效性有何影响值得关注。基于此,以商誉减值计提为切入点,选择2008—2016年间中国资本市场发生商誉事项的A股上市公司为样本,试图通过检验审计委员会海归背景与商誉减值计提之间的关系来分析审计委员会治理的有效性。研究发现:(1)审计委员会海归背景能够显著促进商誉减值计提程度的提高;(2)盈余管理程度越高,审计委员会海归背景对商誉减值计提程度的正向促进作用越显著;(3)审计质量弱化了审计委员会海归背景对商誉减值计提程度的正向促进作用;(4)审计委员会海归背景增加审计费用,且商誉减值计提在这一过程中发挥了中介作用。研究结论丰富了海归人员经济后果领域的相关文献,有助于明晰审计委员会海归背景对商誉减值计提的影响机理。     

Corporate social and environmental disclosure as a sustainable development tool provided by board sub-committees: Do women directors play a relevant moderating role?

The aim of this research is to examine the impact of three audit committee characteristics on corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSR) disclosure: the existence of an audit committee, audit committee independence, and audit committee financial expertise. Moreover, this research analyzes the moderating effect of board gender diversity between these audit committees' attributes and CSR reporting. The results of analyzing 13,178 firm-year observations of non-financial companies show that the presence of an audit committee and audit committee financial expertise are positively associated with CSR disclosure. However, a higher proportion of non-executive directors in audit committees has a negative effect on the disclosure of CSR information. These findings suggest that some audit committees' features play an important role in ensuring the reporting of environmental, social, and economic information. Our evidence also indicates that the presence of female directors on boards increases the positive impact of financial expert membership of audit committees on CSR disclosure, while women directors moderate any negative effect of the percentage of independent directors on audit committees on CSR reporting by increasing the latter. In addition, female directors moderate the positive impact of the existence of an audit committee on the disclosure of CSR information by reducing the latter.     

Audit committees and financial reporting quality: The 8th EU Company Law Directive perspective

In order to increase corporate governance quality, the 8th EU Company Law Directive enacted a mandatory audit committee in publicly listed companies in the EU and defined its tasks and responsibilities. In response to the directive, we examine the incremental value of audit committee monitoring effectiveness and audit committee competencies over the mere existence of an audit committee. We find that audit committee monitoring effectiveness and competencies are positively associated with financial reporting quality, whereas, somewhat surprisingly, the effect of the existence of an audit committee is negative. This finding shows that the existence of audit committees is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for enhancing financial reporting quality. Collectively, the study’s findings suggest that the 8th Directive has had a positive effect on corporate governance quality and, in turn, financial reporting quality in the EU.     

Experience of Audit Committee Members and Audit Quality

Abstract

We investigate whether the experience of audit committee members is associated with audit quality. In order to comprehensively analyse the experience of audit committee members, we include audit committee member tenure, age and multiple-directorships in our analysis. Using observations from 2001 to 2012, we undertake analysis on 13,155 firm-year observations and find that all our proxies of audit committee member experience are positively associated with audit fees. A range of additional tests, including using discretionary accruals as an alternative measure of audit quality and differences-in-differences analysis, support our main findings and our results consequently make a number of contributions to both the literature and policy making. One possible policy contribution is that regulators may wish to consider audit committee characteristics representing experience when framing recommendations to improve audit quality and thereby, financial reporting by firms.     

Audit committee effectiveness and the audit fee

The UK is the only major country within the European Union the majority of whose listed companies have formed audit committees composed of non-executive directors to monitor financial reporting, the external auditors, and internal control strength. The adoption of audit committees in contrast to the approach in Europe has arisen despite the lack of evidence on their effectiveness even in the USA and Canada, where they have been mandatory since the 1970s. This paper seeks to establish whether audit committees are effective in ensuring audit quality by protecting the auditors from fee cuts which might affect audit quality, and signal tighter internal controls which help to reduce audit time and hence audit fees. The problem is that the audit committee may be expected to exert a two-way pressure on audit fees. To the extent that audit committees should enhance audit quality, partly by ensuring that audit hours are not reduced, an audit committee may be expected to increase total audit fees. At the same time, an audit committee may reasonably be thought to be a proxy for internal control strength. Ceteris paribus, companies with strong internal controls may be expected to pay lower audit fees than those with weak internal controls. Our paper argues that the ‘quality’ aspect of the audit can be captured through a dummy firm size variable, whilst the internal control aspects can be captured through dummy risk and complexity variables. The hypotheses examined are that size related audit fees are higher in companies with an audit committee; and that risk- and complexity-related audit fees are lower in companies with audit committees. The hypotheses are tested by developing a regression model for audit fees of a sample of the companies which comprise the FT-SE 500, with variables being included for the presence or absence of an audit committee. The results show that the relationship between size-related audit fees and the presence of an audit committee is positive and statistically significant, but that although there is a negative relationship between risk- and complexity-related audit fees and the presence of an audit committee, the relationships are not conclusively significant. The findings provide support for the contention that audit committees are at least partially effective in preventing reductions in the audit fee to levels where the quality of the audit may be compromised.     

关于审计委员会在中国发展的思考

本文通过分析美国审计委员会失效的成因和中国审计委员会的引入背景，展望审计委员会在中国的发展，提出若不改变对审计委员会成员（独立董事）身份的认识和加强对审计委员会制度的立法建设，审计委员会终将归于无效。     

The ‘Company with Committees’: Change or Continuity in Japanese Corporate Governance?

Corporate governance practices are arguably diffusing across the world. This paper examines the adoption of the committee‐based governance system (i.e. audit, nomination, and remuneration) in Japanese firms, a practice common in Anglo‐American capitalism but potentially contestable in Japan. The study finds that firms that are internationally exposed through cross listing are more likely to adopt the committee system. Moreover, more experienced and highly cross‐held firms, with larger proportions of foreign ownership, are more likely to adopt the committee system. On the other hand our study finds partial support for the hypothesis that larger proportions of bank ownership are negatively associated with the adoption of the committee system, suggesting a gradual withdrawal by banks from the traditional monitoring of firms. This paper adds to the longstanding debate on the convergence on or persistent divergence from the Anglo‐American corporate governance system. The study thus provides insights into corporate governance changes in non‐Anglo/American countries that face a struggle between global capital market forces for change and deep‐seated institutional practices of continuity.