治理环境污染的经济制度安排

环境问题的外部性和环境资源的公共财产属性,决定了解决环境污染问题不能单纯依靠市场机制,需要政府的必要调控和干预,政府干预包括有关法规的制定和经济制度的安排。经济制度具有不可替代的效率作用,且应针对不同的情况安排与市场机制相沟通的不同制度形式,如“排污收费”,“治污收费”,“开征环境税”和“排污权交易”等,将环境保护由过去的政府行为转变为一种由政府调控与经济利益机制驱动相结合的市场行为和企业行为。     

香港与内地商业银行收费之比较

通过对香港银行业和内地商业银行的收费进行比较,找出内地商业银行收费（主要是中间业务收费）中存在的问题,并提出相应的解决办法。     

我国独立审计收费现状的博弈思考

审计收费在独立审计中占有重要地位,它是联系审计服务供求双方的桥梁。首先全面介绍了我国独立审计收费普遍较低的现状;然后深入分析了会计师事务所之间、事务所与被审计单位之间在审计收费方面的博弈行为;并在此基础上提出了相应的解决办法,以期规范我国的独立审计收费,促进注册会计师行业的健康快速发展。     

企业金融化、内部控制与审计质量

企业金融化在资本市场与金融市场领域的研究比较深入,但学者对企业金融化在审计领域的研究关注较少。以2010—2018年我国A股上市公司为研究样本,实证检验企业金融化对审计质量的影响以及内部控制对两者关系的调节作用。研究发现,企业金融化与审计质量显著负相关,内部控制能显著抑制企业金融化对审计质量的负向影响。进一步研究发现:审计业务复杂程度和审计风险在企业金融化对审计质量的影响中发挥显著的中介效应,即企业金融化通过增加业务复杂程度和审计风险,从而降低审计质量;来自四大的审计师具有更强的专业胜任能力和独立性,且连续审计中,其能更好地利用内部控制以应对企业金融化带来的风险;内部控制五要素中内部监督能显著抑制企业金融化对审计质量的负向影响,而内部环境、风险评价、信息沟通、控制活动均未能显著抑制企业金融化对审计质量的负向影响。研究结论丰富了企业金融化与审计质量领域的相关文献,拓展了企业金融化经济后果的理论边界,同时也为推行建立健全良好的内部控制制度提供了经验证据。     

审计费用的事前确定、异常审计费用与审计质量

实务中,我国部分上市公司年报审计费用采取事前确定方式,也就是在审计工作开展之前的董事会上确定。事前确定审计费用的动机何在,会产生什么样的审计后果?已有国内外文献尚缺乏这方面的研究。本文以2008～2017年全部A股上市公司为样本,通过实证考察审计费用事前确定方式对异常审计费用以及审计质量的影响发现:基于低价揽客或折价维持客户的经济动因,事前确定的审计费用显著偏低。进一步研究表明,在事前确定审计费用方式下,客户的审计质量更低。本文研究丰富和拓展了审计费用及审计质量决定因素的相关文献,同时也为监管机构规范审计费用确定方式提供了经验证据。     

Option implied volatilities and the cost of issuing equity

The structure of a firm-commitment Seasoned Equity Offering (SEO) resembles a put-option underwritten by an investment bank syndicate (Smith, 1977). Employing implied volatilities from issuers’ stock options as a direct forward-looking measure, this paper examines the impact of expected price risk around SEO issue dates on the direct cost of issuing equity. Using a comprehensive sample of 1208 SEOs between 1996 and 2009, we find issuers with higher option implied volatilities raise less external equity capital and pay higher investment bank fees in the stock market, ceteris paribus. The effect of implied volatility on the investment bank fees is stronger for larger issuers with lower pre-SEO abnormal realized stock volatilities, and for SEOs with higher expected price pressures around issue dates. These relationships are robust to adjustments for correlations among control variables, sample selection bias and also simultaneous determination of offer size and SEO fees.     

Auditor Independence,Current and Future NAS Fees and Audit Quality: Were European Regulators Right?

Abstract

European Union adopted the Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, which in practice prohibits the joint provision of audit and most types of non-audit services (NAS). Regulators presume that NAS fees weaken auditor independence and, as a result, impair audit quality. As the evidence at the European level does not support this view, the question of whether the new regulation will enhance auditor independence remains open. We examine the association between future NAS fees and audit quality by distinguishing among tax, audit-related and other services. We base the analysis on a sample of Spanish listed companies for the period between 2005 and 2016, finding a consistent negative association between future other NAS fees and audit quality. This suggests that the expectation of future purchases of this type of NAS may impair auditor independence. Conversely, for tax and audit-related services results are not significant. Taken together, results suggest that European regulators should seek for further evidence before banning NAS, as some of them may in fact enhance audit quality.     

Gender-diverse boards and audit fees: What difference does gender quota legislation make?

We investigate the effect of board (audit committee) gender diversity on audit fees in the French context. We also examine whether the relationship between the proportion of female directors and audit fees is moderated by the enactment of the gender quota law in 2011. We use the system GMM estimation approach on a matched sample of French firms listed in the SBF 120 index between 2002 and 2017. Consistent with the supply-side perspective, we contend that female independent directors and female audit committee members, by improving board monitoring effectiveness, affect the auditor's assessment of audit risk, resulting in lower audit fees. Our findings also document that, by breaking the glass ceiling, the effectiveness of the gender quota law lies not in increasing the proportion of female insider directors, but in boosting the appointment of female independent directors and female audit committee members. Using the difference-in-difference approach, our results reveal that female independent directors and female audit committee members are more willing to assert their monitoring skills after the quota law, leading to lower audit fees. Moving beyond tokenism, we show that, after the quota law, the negative impact on non-audit fees is strengthened only for female independent directors.     

Investor Sentiment,Misstatements, and Auditor Behavior*

High investor sentiment has been linked with opportunistic managerial behavior in the face of more optimistic investors and analysts. We extend this line of work by documenting that the likelihood of misstatements is higher when sentiment is high. Although this would suggest elevated audit risk, we posit that a contemporaneous reduction in auditors' litigation cost could drive down audit fees and going concern opinion (GCO) reporting conservatism in order to please clientele. Consistent with this notion, we document that auditors charge lower fees and report GCOs less conservatively when sentiment is high. However, this reduction in reporting conservatism is unwarranted; results reveal that auditors are less likely to issue GCOs to clients which subsequently file for bankruptcy during high sentiment periods. We conduct additional tests to examine whether auditors' litigation costs indeed vary with sentiment and document that auditors are less likely to be sued and the market reacts less negatively to misstatement announcements when sentiment is high. Collectively, our findings suggest that, although misstatement risk is increasing with sentiment, auditors' litigation risk actually declines.     

基于经济因素的审计收费标准的确立

很多因素影响审计收费标准的确立。根据审计所降低的筹资资本成本与代理成本数额所确立的审计收费标准是理论上一个最佳平衡点，结合潜在的诉讼准备成本、会计师事务所的正常利润与地区之间经济发展因素可以确定审计收费标准的区间。建议以特定行业社会平均利润率和注册会计师审计行业的平均利润率作为确定企业资金成本与会计师事务所正常利润水平的参考值，参照既住审计纠纷的判决结果来确定潜在的诉讼准备成本。