Top executive gender diversity and financial reporting quality

We examine whether gender diversity of chief executive and chief financial officers (CEOs and CFOs) is associated with financial reporting quality. The CEOs and CFOs of publicly traded companies are both required to certify the appropriateness of their financial statements and annual disclosures. We argue that gender diverse dyads (groups) of executives can bring different perspectives and professional skepticism to financial reporting. Using a sample of different CEO/CFO gender dyads during 2006–2019, we postulate and find evidence of higher accruals quality among firms led by gender-diverse dyads compared to accruals quality reported by firms led by all-male CEO/CFO pairs. Additional analyses reveal that the auditors of firms with gender-diverse executive dyads issue audit reports later, charge higher audit fees, and are more likely to be one of the Big 4 firms. These findings support the view that top executive gender diversity enhances financial reporting quality, which has important implications for corporate governance mechanisms.     

Corporate social responsibility committees and the use of corporate social responsibility assurance services

This study examines whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) committees associate with the external assurance of CSR reports. Specifically, we consider the presence and effectiveness of CSR committees. Using a sample of Australian firms over the period 2004–2016, we show the mere presence of a CSR committee is not related to the external assurance of CSR. However, CSR committee effectiveness is positively related. In addition, firms with higher CSR committee effectiveness are more likely to seek external assurance provided by the Big4 accountancy firms and acquire financial audit and CSR assurance services from the same provider. Taken together, CSR committee effectiveness plays an active role in CSR assurance services. Our results are particularly relevant to those with interests in understanding the demand and choice of external CSR assurance services, as well as the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on these services.     

论审计证据的选择:说服性抑或结论性

本文阐述了说服性审计证据与结论性审计证据的实质,从审计程序的性质、时间和范围入手,分析了说服性审计证据的形成原因。说服性而非结论性的审计证据是注册会计师和财务报表使用者等多方选择的结果,注册会计师只能为财务报表不存在重大错报提供合理保证。充分性和适当性是对审计证据说服性特征的度量。自觉遵守职业道德规范、严格遵循审计准则的规定和切实贯彻质量控制制度是注册会计师获取说服性审计证据的三大措施。     

Maximin choice of voting rules for committees

In the context of a probabilistic voting model with dichotomous choice, we investigate the consequences of choosing among voting rules according to the maximin criterion. A voting rule is the minimum number of voters who vote favorably on a change from the status quo required for it to be adopted. We characterize the voting rules that satisfy the maximin criterion as a function of the distribution of voters’ probabilities to favor change from the status quo. We prove that there are at most two maximin voting rules, at least one is Pareto efficient and is often different to the simple majority rule. If a committee is formed only by “conservative voters” (i.e. voters who are more likely to prefer the status quo to change) then the maximin criterion recommends voting rules that require no more voters supporting change than the simple majority rule. If there are only “radical voters”, then this criterion recommends voting rules that require no less than half of the total number of votes.Received: June 2003, Accepted: September 2004, JEL Classification: D71Salvador Barberá, Carmen Beviá, Mirko Cardinale, Wioletta Dziuda, Joan Esteban, Mahmut Erdem, Bernard Grofman, Matthew Jackson, Kai Konrad, Raul Lopez, Jordi Massó, Hugh Mullan, Shmuel Nitzan, Ana Pires do Prado, Elisabeth Schulte, Arnold Urken and two anonymous referees provided helpful comments. Finally, I also acknowledge financial support from Capes, Brazilian Ministry of Education and Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (Project BEC2002-02130).     

独立审计质量的经济学透视

本文从需求和供给两方面分析了独立审计市场中的审计质量均衡状况及其成因,研究发现:一方面,由我国公司治理不完善而引发的对独立审计的代理需求不足,以及特定融资制度下对低质量审计的融资需求强劲,使得我国独立审计的自愿性需求严重匮乏,从而审计师缺乏提高审计质量的内在经济动机;另一方面,现有法规对审计师的激励不足、约束不够,因此目前审计师提供的审计服务质量难于达到社会公众的期望-《独立审计准则》的要求.最后,笔者针对出现的问题提出相应的政策建议.     

监事会财务监督有效性的实证研究

以上海和深圳证券交易所的指数成份股公司为样本，研究了上市公司监事的财务监督有效性问题。数据统计结果显示，除了在引入独立董事制度当年横截面数据回归结果不显著外，面板数据和其余年度的横截面数据都表明，监事会规模越大，线下项目的盈余管理程度越低，但监事会活动强度与盈余管理的关系不显著。总体而言，监事会对盈余管理起到了弱遏制作用。     

注册会计师审计独立性的思考

独立性是审计的本质特征,是注册会计师行业的灵魂。一旦独立性受到影响,审计意见就不可能做到客观、公正。过度的竞争会损害注册会计师的独立性,进而影响到审计的质量。文章从影响注册会计师独立性的内部和外部因素入手,分析注册会计师行业审计独立性不高,违规操作頻頻出现的原因,并提出采取积极的应对措施进行控制。     

社区经济自治存在的问题及制度创新

从业主经济自治组织制度建设存在的问题出发,剖析了业主自治组织处境艰难,不能有效行使管理主体的权利,同时也难以承担管理主体责任的原因,进而对北京社区物业管理中业主经济自治组织的制度创新提出了若干建议.     

The Effects of Auditor Social and Human Capital on Auditor Compensation: Evidence from the Italian Small Audit Firm Market

Abstract

This study examines whether social and human capital influence the compensation of individual auditors in the small audit firm market. We employ a sample of Italian auditors and use measures from the network and auditing literatures to capture their professional connections, representing social capital, and their industry expertise, representing human capital. Our findings show a positive and economically meaningful association between these individual attributes and auditor compensation. We run several tests to address potential endogeneity issues in our research design. Our results suggest that, in the small audit market, clients perceive as valuable those auditors with higher social and human capital, and as a result, are willing to pay a premium for these specific auditor attributes.     

MBO——管理层收购审计问题探讨

本文通过剖析管理层收购(MBO)在我国的现状,揭示了我国MBO操作中的不透明和暗箱操作现象,提出了从收购主体合法性审计、定价审计、信息披露审计以及MBO后的审计等方面,对管理层收购审计的策略与重点。