Client importance and non-Big 5 auditors’ reporting decisions

In this paper, we examine the effect of the trade-off between economic dependence and reputation protection on the link between client size and the audit reporting decisions of non-Big 5 auditors. We find that non-Big 5 auditors, like Big 5 auditors, do not allow their larger clients greater leeway to manage earnings. In fact, there is some evidence that non-Big 5 auditors treat their larger clients more strictly. In addition, non-Big 5 auditors, like Big 5 auditors, are at least as likely to issue a going-concern report to their potentially financially distressed larger clients as they are to their otherwise smaller clients.     

Audit committee quality,auditor independence,and internal control weaknesses

In this paper we investigate the relation between audit committee quality, auditor independence, and the disclosure of internal control weaknesses after the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We begin with a sample of firms with internal control weaknesses and, based on industry, size, and performance, match these firms to a sample of control firms without internal control weaknesses. Our conditional logit analyses indicate that a relation exists between audit committee quality, auditor independence, and internal control weaknesses. Firms are more likely to be identified with an internal control weakness, if their audit committees have less financial expertise or, more specifically, have less accounting financial expertise and non-accounting financial expertise. They are also more likely to be identified with an internal control weakness, if their auditors are more independent. In addition, firms with recent auditor changes are more likely to have internal control weaknesses.     

The impact of corporate governance on auditor choice: Evidence from China

As the largest and fastest growing emerging market, China is becoming more and more important to investors throughout the world. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of firms’ auditor choice in China in respect of their corporate governance mechanism. Normally firms have to take a trade-off in their auditor choice decisions, i.e., to hire high-quality auditors to signal effective audit monitoring and good corporate governance to lower their capital raising costs, or to select low-quality auditors with less effective audit monitoring in order to reap private benefits derived from weak corporate governance and less-transparent disclosure (the opaqueness gains). We develop a logit regression model to test the impact of firms’ internal corporate governance mechanism on auditor choice decisions made by IPO firms getting listed during a bear market period of 2001–2004 in China. Three variables are used to proxy for firms’ internal corporate governance mechanism, i.e., the ownership concentration, the size of the supervisory board (SB), and the duality of CEO and chairman of board of directors (BoDs). We classify all auditors in China into large auditors (Top 10) and others (non-Top 10), assuming the large auditors can provide higher quality audit services. The empirical results show that firms with larger controlling shareholders, with smaller size of SB, or in which CEO and BoDs chairman are the same person, are less likely to hire a Top 10 (high-quality) auditor. This suggests that when benefits from lowering capital raising costs are trivial, firms with weaker internal corporate governance mechanism are inclined to choose a low-quality auditor so as to capture and sustain their opaqueness gains. On the other hand, with improvement of corporate governance, firms should be more likely to appoint high-quality auditors.     

基本公共服务体制变迁与制度创新——惠及13亿人的基本公共服务

经过30年的改革发展,我国正由生存型向发展型社会过渡,全社会公共需求快速增长同基本公共产品短缺、公共服务不到位成为阶段性突出矛盾。当前,贯彻落实党的十七大报告精神,加快制度创新,逐步建立适合我国国情的基本公共服务体制,推进基本公共服务均等化,增强政府提供基本公共服务能力,已成为我国共建共享和谐社会的重大任务。本文从新阶段基本公共服务制度的现实需求出发,结合改革开放30年中基本公共服务制度变迁的实际进程,对基本公共服务城乡、地区、不同社会群体之间的差距进行了系统的评估,并提出了新阶段基本公共服务制度创新的相关对策和建议。     

审计师-客户长期关系、强制轮换与审计质量

本文从审计师-客户长期关系的视角出发,对审计师强制轮换与审计质量之间的关系进行了探讨.研究发现:对于财务状况较差的公司,若审计师与客户之间不存在长期关系,则强制轮换后的审计质量显著提高,若审计师与客户之间存在长期关系,则强制轮换后审计质量的提高被弱化;而对于财务状况较好的公司,无论审计师与客户之间是否存在长期关系,强制轮换后的审计质量均未发生显著变化.本文研究对审计师强制轮换的监管具有借鉴意义.     

深圳产业结构变动对能源效率的影响研究

本文运用因素分解法,对深圳市1987~2008年间产业结构变动与能源效率之间的关系进行了实证考察和测度,并对其影响机制进行了分析。结果表明,从长期来看,产业结构变动对能源效率的影响相对较小,而技术进步则是能源效率提升的主要原因;从短期来看,技术进步绝大部分年份仍然是能源效率提升的主要原因,但产业结构变动已经在很大程度上影响着能源效率;从工业内部结构变化对工业能源效率的影响机制上来看,重化工业趋势明显与工业能源效率提升并存的主要原因在于规模以上装备制造业的迅猛发展及其增加值在工业增加值中比重的提高。     

官员腐败、审计师选择与公司价值

本文根据近年来披露的腐败官员的案例为基础,以涉及省部级腐败官员的上市公司为样本,实证分析了官员腐败、审计师选择与公司价值三者之间的关系。研究发现,行贿的公司倾向于选择低质量的审计师,非行贿的公司倾向于选择高质量的审计师;行贿公司的公司价值在短期内显著高于非行贿公司;以审计师选择为传导机制与实现途径,官员腐败对公司价值的影响会显著提高。     

经济政策变化是否影响了银行资产证券化发展?——基于经济政策不确定性的视角

以经济政策不确定性为主要特征的经济政策频繁变化将对银行产生不利冲击,并通过银行行为的变化推动资产证券化发展。文章以2011-2018年中国银行业数据为研究样本,基于经济政策不确定性对经济政策频繁变化进行衡量,充分识别经济政策不确定性与银行资产证券化发展的内在关系,以及相应的异质性特征。结果表明:(1)经济政策不确定性越大,银行发展资产证券化的动机越强;(2)影响机制检验发现,银行期限错配、风险承担及盈利水平的不利变化,是经济政策不确定性影响银行资产证券化发展的中介效应;(3)经济政策不确定性对银行资产证券化发展的促进作用,在非上市银行、城商行及农商行中更为显著。文章认为,鉴于银行发展资产证券化的目的在于应对外部环境及其对自身微观行为的不利冲击,监管部门应针对资产证券化的功能定位监管措施,并且尽量营造透明公平的环境,稳定银行机构对未来政策的预期,同时中小银行也要积极推动经营转型,主动增强适应宏观经济环境的能力。文章从经济政策不确定性这一宏观视角出发,拓展了银行资产证券化的研究维度,基于银行微观结构的变化深化了对经济政策变化及不确定性影响效应的认知。     

Voluntary CSR disclosure,institutional environment,and independent audit demand

Using a sample of A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, this study examines the impact of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on independent audit demand in different institutional environments. The sample covers the 2008–2016 period and excludes firms that are required to disclose CSR information. The findings show that compared with companies that choose to not disclose such information, companies that voluntarily disclose CSR information prefer to employ “small” accounting firms for auditing services, although the auditing fees are much higher. However, as the institutional environment improves, this preference is weakened. Further analyses show that this preference is stronger in enterprises where CSR disclosure is driven by strong political motivations and managerial self-interest motivations. Legitimate motivations and economic motivations do not significantly impact the preference for “small” audit firms. Furthermore, this preference is more obvious in enterprises with poor operational performance and low information disclosure quality, and it increases as CSR disclosure level decreases. The study enriches our understanding of the economic consequences of voluntary CSR disclosure and the factors that influence independent audit demand. The results also have implications for the construction and regulation of China’s system for supervising CSR information disclosure in the transitional phase.     

Earnings Management in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

We study the impact of earnings management prior to bankruptcy filing on the passage of firms through Chapter 11. Using data on public US firms, we construct three measures of earnings management: a real activities manipulation measure (abnormal operating cash flows) and two accounting manipulation measures (discretionary accruals and abnormal working capital accruals). We find that, controlling for the impact of factors known to influence earnings management and firm survival in bankruptcy, earnings management prior to bankruptcy significantly reduces the likelihood of Chapter 11 plan confirmation and emergence from Chapter 11. The results are driven primarily by extreme values of earnings management, characterized by one or two standard deviations above or below the mean. The findings are consistent with creditors reacting positively to unduly conservative earnings reports and negatively to overly optimistic earnings reports. We also find that the presence of a Big 4 auditor is associated with a higher incidence of confirmation and switching to a Big 4 auditor before filing increases the incidence of emergence.