三个审计师签字与审计质量

Three Signing Auditors and Audit Quality

作为市场自发行为,上市公司年度财务报告中出现三个审计师签字的现象逐年增多,该市场行为的经济后果尚不清楚。本文以2010~2019年A股上市公司为研究对象,考察三个审计师签字对审计质量的影响。研究发现,与两个审计师签字相比,三个审计师签字的财务报告中,向上调节的应计盈余更少,审计质量更高,该现象在前"十大"事务所中更为显著;从作用路径看,三个审计师签字通过增加审计投入,促进审计质量提升。进一步研究发现,第三名审计师签字次数越多,审计质量越高;同一会计师事务所中,三个审计师签字的财务报告审计质量更高。本文既丰富了现有研究文献,为审计师个体特征相关研究提供了新视角,也为监管部门、上市公司以及会计师事务所提高审计质量提供了新的实践路线。

As a spontaneous market behavior,the phenomenon that three auditors sign off one annual financial statement of a listed company is increasingly common.And the economic consequences of that are still unknown.By selecting Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019 as samples,this paper examines whether and how three signing auditors affect audit quality.The results show that three signing auditors exhibit significant variations in audit quality.The effects that three signing auditors have on audit quality are both economically and statistically significant,and are pronounced only in"Big Ten"audit firms.Three signing auditors improve audit quality by increasing audit input.Further analysis shows that the more a third auditor signs,the higher the audit quality is;the audit quality of financial statements signed by three auditors is also higher in the same audit firm.This paper enriches the related literature for the individual characteristics of auditor and audit quality.The research results can serve as reference for concerned regulators,listed companies and audit firms with regard to improving audit quality.