标准审计报告改进与投资者感知的审计人员责任——一项实验证据

Proposed Amendments to the Standard Audit Report and Investor Perception of Auditor′s Responsibility——An experimental evidence

近期,国际审计与鉴证准则理事会发布了新制定的审计报告准则,美国公众公司会计监督委员会也提议修改审计准则,其中最主要的变化是在标准审计报告中增加披露重要审计事项。本文采用实验研究方法,检验了增加披露重要审计事项的标准审计报告对投资者感知的审计人员责任的影响。研究发现,在审计之后发现重大错报的情况下,标准审计报告中披露重要审计事项减轻了投资者感知的审计人员的责任;相对于标准审计报告中披露的重要审计事项与之后发现的重大错报事项不一致情况,当两者一致时,投资者感知的审计人员责任最低。本文对监管部门了解改进后审计报告可能的影响具有重要意义。

Recently, the IAASB has release its new auditor reporting standards. Meanwhile, the PCAOB was also pro- posing to revise the corresponding standards. Among the new or proposed auditor reporting standards, the main change is the requirement of disclosing key audit matters in auditor＇s standard report. Using an experimental study, our paper investigates the effects of mandate disclosure of key audit matters on investor＇s perception of auditor responsibility. The results indicate that disclosing key audit matters in standard auditor＇s report decreased the investor＇s perceived auditor responsibility when a material misstatement discovered subsequently after the issuance of that report. Moreover, investor＇s perception of auditor responsibility is lower when the key audit matter is related to the subsequently discovered misstatement as compared to when they are not related. This paper will have significant implications for regulator＇s under- standing of the possible influence of the revised auditor＇s report.