论事务所规模化与审计质量保证

本文从会计师事务所规模和审计质量相关性的两个主要理论出发,分析了声誉机制和法律风险机制的运行效率,并指出当前我国的会计师事务所只有在“法律风险-声誉积累-规模化”的共生互动中才能真正走上做大做强的发展之路.     

代理成本与审计师选择行为研究综述

根据代理理论,独立审计的产生源自于降低代理成本的需求.代理冲突的程度将导致不同的审计质量需求,因此产生对异质审计师的需求.西方大量关于审计师选择和审计师变更的经验研究证实了这一点.但是,这一结论建立在有效的价格保护机制前提之下,对于市场发展和公司代理关系均与英美有较大差异的转型经济(包括我国)未必成立.     

Book Review Section

J. Hoggett and L. Edwards Accounting in Australia
K. Langfield‐Smith, H. Thorne and R. W. Hilton Management Accounting. An Australian Perspective
B.M. Cunningham, L.A. Niokolai and J.D. Bazley Accounting—Information for Business Decisions
M. Greenstein, and T.M. Feinman Electronic Commerce: Security, Risk Management and Control     

上市公司审计、财务困境与会计师事务所更迭——基于2000-2003年上市公司数据的实证研究

上市公司会计师事务所的更换越来越引起市场、投资者以及研究者的关注。本文主要基于国外的相关研究和中国股市及上市公司的特征，提出八个研究假设，然后构建Logistic回归模型，依据2000-2003年上市公司年报数据进行假设检验，主要考察非标准审计意见、审计者规模、财务困境和审计迟滞与会计师事务所更迭之间的关系。综合Logistic回归分析结果，基本上可以认为，在同等条件下，上年度及本年度被出具非标准审计意见、由规模小的会计师事务所审计、每股经营现金流为负(处于财务困境中)、上年度和本年度审计迟滞时间长的上市公司更有可能更换会计师事务所。同时，被ST以及公司规模小的上市公司更有可能更换会计师事务所。     

法律环境、审计独立性与投资者保护

独立审计的根本功能是为投资者提供保护,但其投资者保护功能的实现需要相应的法律环境作为保障.本文通过模型分析,将法制因素与会计师的独立性变量引入到投资者保护中,考察法律环境、审计独立性与投资者保护之间的关系.我们的研究结果表明:法律对投资者的保护是第一位的;独立审计对投资者的保护是第二位的,当法治环境较薄弱时,其可以充当法律的替代机制为投资者提供保护.     

Disclosure of fees paid to auditors and the market valuation of earnings surprises

We investigate if the SEC’s recently mandated disclosure of fees for audit and nonaudit services paid by firms to their incumbent auditors affected the market’s perception of auditor independence and earnings quality. Following the initial fee disclosures in 2001, we find that the market valuation of quarterly earnings surprises (earnings response coefficient) was significantly lower for firms with high levels of nonaudit fees than for firms with low levels of such fees. In contrast, in the year prior to the new fee disclosures, there was no reduction in earnings response coefficients for firms that subsequently reported high nonaudit fees. Our evidence suggests that mandated fee disclosures provided new information that was viewed by the market as relevant to appraising auditor independence and earnings quality.

The impact of the Social Security Fund on auditor litigation risk

In this study, we examine the effect of the Social Security Fund on auditor litigation risk. Using audit fees as a proxy for auditor perceptions of litigation risk, we find that the Social Security Fund significantly reduces auditor litigation risk. Furthermore, we show that the Social Security Fund influences auditor litigation risk through reducing both the audit risk and the business risk of public companies. In addition, the impact of the Social Security Fund for reducing auditor litigation risk is more obvious in the group of firms with low levels of internal governance, which indicates that the Social Security Fund plays an important governance role as a high-quality institutional investor. In summary, we verify that the Social Security Fund, when acting as an institutional investor, plays an important role in corporate governance, and that it helps to reduce auditor litigation risk. Our results provide empirical support for expanding the governance role of the Social Security Fund as an institutional investor in China’s A-share market.     

The distraction effect of non-audit services on audit quality

Regulators have expressed concerns that an emphasis on non-audit services (NAS) could distract from the audit function, even for clients with minimal NAS purchases. Motivated by this concern, we examine whether a greater emphasis on providing NAS to audit clients generally (i.e., not to a specific client) can distract from the audit function, thus reducing audit quality. We find evidence of an NAS distraction effect, where a greater emphasis on NAS at the audit office-level results in more client financial statement restatements, even after controlling for client-specific NAS. Further, the association exists among clients that purchase minimal NAS, suggesting that this association relates to distraction effects in addition to independence issues examined in prior research. This study should be of interest to audit firms, audit committees, and regulators because it provides new evidence regarding issues related to a business model that includes both audit and non-audit services.     

The Impact of R&D Intensity on Demand for Specialist Auditor Services*

The audit fee research literature argues that auditors' costs of developing brand name reputations, including top‐tier designation and recognition for industry specialization, are compensated through audit fee premiums. Audited firms reduce agency costs by engaging high‐quality auditors who monitor the levels and reporting of discretionary expenditures and accruals. In this study we examine whether specialist auditor choice is associated with a particular discretionary expenditure ‐ research and development (R&D). For a large sample of U.S. companies from a range of industries, we find strong evidence that R&D intensity is positively associated with firms' choices of auditors who specialize in auditing R&D contracts. Additionally, we find that R&D intensive firms tend to appoint top‐tier auditors. We use simultaneous equations to control for interrelationships between dependent variables in addition to single‐equation ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic regression models. Our results are particularly strong in tests using samples of small firms whose auditor choice is not constrained by the need to appoint a top‐tier auditor to ensure the auditor's financial independence from the client.     

注册会计师审计独立性影响因素分析及对策研究

我国新颁布的会计准则和独立审计准则于2007年开始实施,这对注册会计行业的发展具有重大意义。我国的注册会计师由于行业起步晚,其审计的独立性还存在着很多问题,既受会计师事务所以及注册会计师内部因素的影响,也受宏观经济环境以及证券市场等外部因素的影响,本文在分析了这些因素后提出相关建议,以期对注册会计师执业实务和理论提供参考。