审计质量、交易成本与商业信用模式

Audit Quality,Transaction Cost and Mode of Trade Credit

本文通过考察审计质量与商业信用模式选择行为的关系,研究了独立审计在企业与供应商合约关系中节约交易成本的作用。以应付账款、应付票据和预付账款等商业信用模式的不同选择来衡量交易成本的大小。实证结果发现,审计质量越高时,交易双方更容易形成信任关系,从而更倾向于采取交易成本较低的商业信用模式;当宏观签约环境更好时,审计质量对减少交易成本的作用更大。这意味着审计不仅可以减少股东、债权人与公司之间的代理成本,在减少与供应商购销双方之间交易成本过程中也起着重要作用。

By examining the relation between audit quality and mode of trade credit, this paper explores the role of auditing in the contract of firm and its suppliers. Using accounts payable, bills payable and prepaid accounts as the measures of transaction cost, we find that, when the audit quality is higher, the supplier trust more with the firm and offer the credit terms with lower transaction cost; this relationship would be more obvious in better market environment. Our results indicate that auditing can be useful in reducing the agency costs not only with finns＇ shareholders and debt holders, but also with the suppliers.