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.     

The mechanism of credit risk contagion among internet P2P lending platforms based on a SEIR model with time-lag

The credit risk contagion of Internet peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms is an important part of Internet financial risk management and supervision. This study analyzes the contagion path of credit risk in Internet P2P lending. Based on complex network theory and the theory of infectious disease dynamics, the characteristics of Internet P2P lending development are combined to construct a SEIR model of credit risk transmission among Internet P2P lending platforms with time lag, and the robustness of the model is analyzed and proven. The influence of platform correlations, the susceptible immune rate, the platform elimination rate, contagion latency, the saturation coefficient, and the susceptibility input rate on credit risk contagion behavior among Internet P2P lending platforms is analyzed, using the equilibrium point and threshold value. The impact of each variable is analyzed by simulation. Corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are proposed to prevent and control credit risk contagion among these platforms.     

Consumption and stock markets in Asian economies

This paper investigates the causal links between stock market performance and consumption for five Asian economies by applying the bound tests of Pesaran et al. and lag augmented VAR of Toda and Yamamoto . We find two‐way causal relationships between stock market performance and consumption in the cases of Hong Kong and Taiwan in the long run. The existence of such two‐way causal links indicates that stock market performance and consumption mutually affect each other, implying that the previous studies may have overestimated the wealth effect of the stock markets without taking account of the reverse causation from consumption to the stock markets. The short‐run effect of the stock market on consumption is more visible than the long‐run effect in most of the sample economies, suggesting that changes in consumption directly reflect stock market fluctuations.     

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。     

会计基本准则中会计信息质量要求逻辑的思考

财政部于2006年2月15日正式发布了企业会计准则体系，并规定自2007年1月1日起在上市公司范围内施行。本次会计准则体系制定的主要思路之一是参照国际财务报告准则，并充分考虑中国现阶段的国情，以使按企业会计准则体系编制的财务报表能够更加真实、公允地反映企业的价值。基于这一出发点，企业会计准则体系在规范会计信息质量要求上实现了诸多突破。本文拟从基本会计准则的理论指导层面。分析这些突破的东龙去脉。并提出了封基本准则会计信息质量要求的不足和改进意见。     

现金制与应计制财务报表有用性的问卷调查分析

中国的《企业会计准则——现金流量表》要求所有企业从1998年开始编制现金流量表，它克服了传统财务报表所体现的、与应计制会计确认和计量程序相关联的局限性。但是现金流量表、资产负债表和利润表的决策有用性是否存在差异，还缺乏经验证据。本文设计调查问卷，要求财务报表使用者在21种决策背景下封三大报表的有用性追行评级。结果表明，现金流量表在许多决策背景下可以与利润表和资产负债表相媲美，而在以下决策背景下，现金流量表的评级大大高于其他两张报表：评价流动性，评价短期偿债能力，评价支付股利的能力，评价净利润的质量，突出净利润与现金余额之间的差异，预测财务危机，以及预测未来现金流量的金额与时间。     

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。     

Optimising a Probabilistic Model of the Development of Play in Soccer

We present a probabilistic model based on the one developed by Hernández Mendo and Anguera (Revista de Psicologíca Social, 16(1), 71–93, 2001). Here we have tried to break down the interaction contexts that the opposing teams are able to generate and transform during the game. We are aware that a given player or team does not produce consistent behaviour in similar situations. However, a degree of uncertainty is assumed to exist regarding whether the results obtained are a specific function of the analysis used. In order to carry out this research a category system which optimized that used in the previous model was developed. This system should enable the interaction between teams to be observed within the actual play of a soccer game. A lag sequential analysis was performed on the basis of a coding of the behavioural flow. After describing the behavioural patterns obtained a probabilistic model of the development of play in soccer is proposed.     

新公共管理理念与政府财务报告的完善

新公共管理是目前世界各国政府公共管理改革的方向,信息透明性是建立新公共管理模式的基础。本文根据新公共管理的特点结合我国政府公共财政管理改革的实际,针对目前我国政府财务报告中存在的问题,提出了相应的改进建议。