Do goodwill impairments affect audit opinions? Evidence from China

There has been a steady growth of goodwill impairments in the Chinese stock market since the adoption of the impairment approach in accounting. The influence of goodwill impairments on a firm’s financial position and profitability give reason to doubt its current and future performance. We examine whether auditors, as a crucial external monitor, identify the information risks of goodwill impairments and express their concerns about financial reporting quality in their audit opinions. Using a sample of firms listed on China’s A-share market from 2007 to 2017, we test the association between goodwill impairments and the type of audit opinion received in the same financial period. Our findings are as follows. First, the probability of receiving a modified opinion increases with the amount of goodwill impairments. Second, the positive association between goodwill impairments and modified audit opinions is driven primarily by earnings management risks. Third, this positive association is more salient when auditors are industry experts and there is no auditor–client mismatch. Fourth, auditors are more sensitive to the amount of goodwill impairments than to their mere existence. Overall, we document that auditors perceive goodwill impairments as a signal of information risks and communicate their concerns to investors to avoid litigation.     

Some issues in blockchain for accounting and the supply chain,with an application of distributed databases to virtual organizations

This paper reviews some recent blockchain‐based applications for information capture, distribution and preservation. As part of that review, this paper examines two key concerns with current blockchain designs for accounting and supply chain transactions: data independence and multiple semantic models for the same information distribution problem. Blockchain applications typically integrate database, application and presentation tiers all in the same ledger. This results in a general inability to query information in the ledger and other concerns. Further, since most applications appear to be private blockchain applications, there is a concern of agents needing to accommodate multiple blockchains depending on who their trading partners are and what they request. Finally, this paper uses a distributed database to design a ‘blockchain‐like’ system for virtual organizations.     

Audit Firm Attributes and Auditor Litigation Risk

This study examines the association between auditors' litigation risk and audit firm attributes. Using professional liability insurance premiums as a proxy for auditors' litigation risk, we present evidence that the risk is lower in audit firms having: (1) separate non-audit and audit divisions; (2) a higher proportion of partners; and (3) a higher annual growth in number of CPAs employed. Additionally, we find that the risk is higher in audit firms having: (1) operating losses; and (2) high revenue growth. Our results are consistent with the idea that audit firms' financial condition and organizational structure affect their independence/ expertise, and, in turn, their litigation risk. Our results are broadly supportive of the PCAOB's (2015) and US Department of Treasury's (2008) views that investors, audit committees, management, and other regulators could benefit from having access to financial and organizational information about audit firms.     

Comparing the True Cost of Living Indices of Demographically Different Households

The comparison of true cost of living indices between demographically different households (relative equivalence scale) is argued to be sensitive to the way demographic characteristics enter demand analysis. In particular, parameters reflecting the cost of demographic characteristics at base prices, though themselves do not have welfare (equivalence scale) interpretation, can alter the benchmark from which demographically varying inflation effects are measured. The empirical analysis, based on a rank‐3 demand system applied to UK individual household data, shows that the inflation adjustment of child benefits can vary with the way demographic costs at base period prices are specified.     

电子商务的风险管理与审计研究

电子商务尽管现在处于低潮期，但是作为重要的变革力量，它仍然是2l世纪的一个必然趋势。另外，电子商务发展受阻的一个重要原因就是电子商务的安全问题，这一问题影响了消费的决策，也极大地改变了企业的整个风险结构。本从外部审计与内部审计两个角度分析了审计可以在应对电子商务风险中发挥的重要作用。从外部审计来看，数据完整性与机密性是网站审计与认证的重要方面，从内部审计来看，审计应该在包括了电子商务风险的全面风险管理框架内发挥重要的作用。     

政府审计成本管理探析

随着近年来审计公开力度的加大,审计透明度的增强,社会公众对审计监督的期望也越来越高。但长期以来审计任务繁重与审计资源相对短缺之间的矛盾也很突出。在审计经费有限的条件下,必须借助审计成本管理的手段来解决这一矛盾。本文就加强审计成本管理的必要性,审计成本管理的原则以及如何实现对审计成本的控制等方面进行了分析和探索。     

审计师对舞弊报表说不了吗——来自配样本的初步证据

本文以1998—2005年上市公司舞弊样本与配对样本作为研究对象,实证分析了非标审计意见与舞弊报表的关系。研究结果表明,审计师能够以出具非标审计意见的方式揭露报表舞弊。     

Financial reporting consequences of natural disasters: Evidence from the impact of resource constraints at audit offices on non-affected clients

Disaster-affected clients demand significant additional effort from their audit office, and hence strain the audit office’s resources available to other non-disaster-affected clients. We consider audit offices with disaster-affected clients to be strained offices and find that, compared with clients audited by non-strained audit offices, non-disaster-affected clients audited by strained audit offices are more likely to have their financial statements restated. This result suggests the financial reporting quality of companies not directly exposed to disasters could also be negatively affected by the disasters, due to their auditors’ strained-resource issue. We further find such a negative effect is more pronounced when the degree of resource constraints is greater and when the audit office lacks client experience or industry expertise. We offer novel evidence of financial reporting consequences of natural disasters, focusing on the externality of disasters on companies not directly affected by disasters. The findings have important implications for regulators in making disaster-related policies, for auditors in managing their client portfolios, and for companies in making auditor choice decisions.     

建立健全内部审计制度的思考

本文从建立健全企业内部控制制度入手，分析了内控与内审的关系；其次，从分析我国内审现状着手，陈述了内审现状不容乐观；最后，在具体如何强化方面，主要涉及内审的职能转变、结构模式的转变、人员素质的提高及多元化、与外部审计的结合，事后审计向事前事中审计的转变及向行业管理转变建立内审职业规范等措施。     

内部审计面临的新问题及出路

当前，我国建立社会主义市场经济体制，实行现代企业制度。在这种条件下，怎样摆正内部审计的位置和充分发挥内部审计的作用，则是需要解决的一个理论问题和实践问题。本文就目前我国内部审计的现状及完善措施提出一些看法。