审计师独立性与审计意见信息含量——来自中国会计师事务所合并的经验证据

Auditor Independence and the Information Content of Audit Opinion

本文以2000-2010年本土会计师事务所合并案例及对应A股上市公司为研究样本,检验证券市场对事务所合并前后不同审计意见类型的市场反应,并运用事务所规模品牌效应,共谋和审计意见信息含量理论解释事务所合并的经济效果。结果表明,证券市场对会计师事务所合并前后出具的标准审计意见有不同的反应,合并后会出现更为积极的反应;证券市场对实际控制人为地方政府的上市公司在合并后收到的标准审计意见会出现更为积极的反应。证券市场对事务所合并前后出具的审计意见的不同反应在一定程度上说明:事务所的合并有助于提高审计师独立性从而提高审计质量。

This paper set local audit firms which were involved in mergers from 2000 to 2010 as direct object to examine the market reaction of different types of audit opinions. We have incorporated theory of relationship between audit firm size, reputation and audit quality, collusion and theory of information content of audit opinion to analyze our empirical results. Regression results using data which requires that the observations both before and after mergers are complete show that: stock market reacts differently to standard audit opinions issued by audit firms after mergers compared with those before mergers, and the difference is significantly positive. Then we divided the non-strict matching data into three groups according to the actual controller of listed companies. Regression results using these data show that: stock market will make a more positive response to listed companies controlled by local governments who are audited by the merged firms. This means that the combined firm will help to improve audit quality.