Do practitioner assessments agree with academic proxies for audit quality? Evidence from PCAOB and internal inspections

This study investigates the degree of concordance between fifteen measures of audit quality used in academia and two measures of audit process quality determined either by audit firms’ internal inspections or by Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspections of individual engagements. Using two confidential datasets of these assessments of audit process quality, I find that three of the measures of audit quality used by academics have significant associations with both measures of audit process deficiencies used by auditors and regulators: (i) the propensity to restate financial statements, (ii) the propensity to meet or beat the zero earnings threshold, and (iii) audit fees. Seven academic proxies are significantly associated with only one audit process quality measure, and five have insignificant associations with both practitioner assessments. Overall, the significant associations indicate that practitioners and academics share common ground in identifying low-quality audits. These findings can provide guidance for future studies in selecting audit-quality proxies suitable for different research questions.     

The empirical relationship between ownership characteristics and audit fees

The present study examines the empirical relationship between ownership characteristics and audit fees. The basic premise is that the level of ownership sophistication and the extent to which ownership is large and substantial impact the effectiveness of stockholder monitoring on corporate affairs including the financial reporting process. Furthermore, high managerial ownership firms may experience a decline in agency problems in financial reporting due to a decrease in managerial propensity to misreport financial results. By employing a cross-sectional least squares regression analysis for a sample of 358 New York Stock Exchange-listed firms audited by the Big Five auditors, we find evidence of a significantly positive relationship between diffused institutional stock ownership (i.e., having less than 5% individual shareholding) and audit fees, and a significantly negative relationship between institutional blockholder ownership (i.e., having 5% or more individual shareholding) and audit fees. Finally, we document that managerial stock ownership is negatively associated with audit fees. We do not, however, find evidence of any relationship between noninstitutional blockholder ownership (with at least 5% individual stock ownership) and audit fees. The study's main results hold in various specification tests including when the effects of board-related and audit committee variables are factored in the analysis. Based on the observed relationship between the ownership variables and audit fees, we suggest that the ownership characteristics of a firm as a part of its governance mechanism constitute an important determinant of audit fees.

Fee or free checking? Noninterest checking account fees,competition and multimarket banking

This article analyses noninterest checking (NIC) account fees using a unique data set covering 11 875 observations on 1880 banks from 2008 to 2012. These data identify whether the bank has free or fee checking on NIC accounts and, where relevant, the fee and minimum balance to avoid the fee. Appealing to shrouded equilibrium theory, we hypothesize that banks, and particularly small banks, will avoid drawing the attention of myopic, low-income types by having stable policies, or will attempt to confuse depositors with contradictory policy shifts in the fee and minimum balance requirements. Competition and small bank size should favour consumers, but the meaning of ‘favour’ is complicated by large depositors and the banks subsidizing small depositors with NIC accounts.

The results support the avoid attention hypothesis, particularly for single-market banks, and weakly support the confuse depositors hypothesis. The largest banks, including three too big to fail banks, are most responsive to competition, with single-market banks far less responsive. Competition may be responsible for a dramatic decline in free checking among the largest banks, and substantial increases in minimum balances for those banks, since these effectively reduced subsidies. Simultaneously, single-market banks became more likely to offer free checking.     

政策性负担与审计费用——基于企业冗员的证据

我国企业普遍背负一定的政策性负担,政策性负担对企业经营的影响是学术研究的重要话题。利用2007—2018年A股非金融上市公司数据,从审计费用视角,以企业冗员为例,检验了政策性负担对企业经营的负面效应。研究发现,企业背负的政策性负担水平越高,审计师收取的审计费用越高;经营风险、代理成本和盈余操纵是导致上述效应的三个渠道。进一步研究表明,政策性负担与审计费用的正向关系受到劳动保护程度的影响,劳动保护程度越高,政策性负担与审计费用的正向关系越强。政策性负担对审计费用的影响在国有企业更显著。另外,政策性负担对审计费用的增加既有审计师增加了审计投入的原因,也有风险溢价的原因。研究结果表明,政策性负担对企业存在明显的负面效应,审计师在做出审计收费决策时考虑了政策性负担对企业经营的负面影响。     

区域文化、会计信息质量与审计意见

基于区域文化环境这一非正式制度视角,采用2005—2016年沪深A股上市公司的数据深入分析区域文化对会计信息质量及审计意见的影响。研究结果表明：区域文化的不确定性规避水平越高,审计师越倾向于出具非标审计意见,区域文化的不确定性规避水平越低,审计师越倾向于出具标准审计意见;区域文化的不确定性规避程度越低,公司财务质量越低,审计师越倾向于出具非标准审计意见。据此,文化环境是影响会计信息质量进而影响审计意见的重要因素,这可以为信息使用者从文化视角理解审计师的行为提供实证支持。     

自愿性会计政策变更、审计费用与审计意见——基于A股上市公司数据的研究

以2011—2015年A股上市公司为样本,研究自愿性会计政策变更对审计意见和审计费用的影响。研究发现：自愿性会计政策变更利润影响数与非标准审计意见显著正相关,但较高的审计费用会降低自愿性会计政策变更利润影响数与非标准审计意见之间的相关性。进一步区分变更性质和产权性质后发现：发生恶意会计政策变更的企业、国有企业更易发生审计意见购买行为。     

共享审计可以提高并购绩效吗？——来自中国A股上市公司的经验证据

以2004—2016年我国A股上市公司的并购事件为样本,研究并购双方共享审计师对并购绩效的影响,并考察了信息不对称程度对两者之间关系的调节作用。结果表明并购双方共享审计师能显著提高并购方及目标方的并购绩效;对于信息不对称程度更大的跨行业、跨地域并购事件,共享审计对并购绩效的正向影响更为显著。进一步检验发现共享审计可以显著降低并购双方之间的信息不对称程度,进而导致较低的并购溢价。     

董事高管责任保险会增加公司的审计费用吗？

信息不对称程度较高时,董事高管责任保险（D&O保险）常常引发管理层更多的机会主义行为,这会影响审计师对于被审计单位的风险预期和审计定价。以我国2007—2016年沪深A股上市公司为样本,考察了D&O保险的购买对于公司审计费用的影响。研究发现,购买D&O保险会增加公司的审计费用;同时我们还发现,在低市场化程度以及高盈余管理的条件下,D&O保险与公司审计费用的正相关关系更加明显;进一步分析D&O影响公司审计费用的内在机理后发现,D&O保险、公司诉讼风险和公司审计费用之间存在显著的中介效应,这说明D&O保险是通过公司诉讼风险进而影响审计费用的。     

A Comparison of Household Recycling Behaviors in Norway and the United States

This paper investigates empirically the determinants of household recycling in Norway and compares the results with a similar, recently published, study of households in the United States. The comparison focuses on the relative importance of user fees on waste disposal, community recycling programs, and socioeconomic factors. Both data sources are nationwide, material-specific, and at the household level. One major finding is that a disposal fee provides a significant economic incentive to Norwegian households, whereas its effectiveness in the United States is still up for debate. Providing households with convenient recycling options, such as curbside and drop-off recycling, appears generally effective, but less so in Norway than in the United States. Socioeconomic characteristics are less important predictors of behavior in Norway than in the United States. Qualifications on the comparison are provided throughout and two extensions for future research are suggested at the end.     

浅议信用卡交易的运作模式

本文试从分析信用卡组织及商业银行在从事信用卡业务过程中发生的成本与从该业务中获得的收益入手，逐步分析勾勒出信用卡运行体系的框架，说明信用卡交换费的制定在整个信用卡交易体系中处于中心位置，对整个体系的运作效率有着重要的影响。