审计师惩戒与审计定价——基于中国证监会2008-2010年行政处罚案的研究

Auditor Sanction and Audit Pricing——Based on the data of listed clients of auditors disciplined by CSRC

本文利用中国证监会2008—2010年做出的关于会计师事务所的行政处罚决定,采用配对的方法,实证考察了审计师行政惩戒对审计定价的影响,结果发现,就受到证监会处罚的事务所而言,事务所在受处罚后,其审计收费显著高于受处罚前;与未受处罚事务所相比,受处罚事务所在受罚前后审计费用的提高幅度显著更高。进一步研究表明,审计师受处罚后,其客户操控性应计的绝对值确实显著下降。这表明,审计师在受处罚后可能会提高其努力程度以提高审计质量、重塑声誉,这将会提高审计成本并导致审计收费的相应提高。研究还发现,若上市公司客户所在地区法律环境好,则审计师受处罚后审计定价有显著提升,而在法律环境差的地区,审计师受处罚后审计定价并不会显著提高。

Using the data of listed clients of auditors disciplined by CSRC from 2008 to 2010 and their matched samples, this paper investigates the influence of auditor sanction on audit fee. The author finds a significant in- crease in audit fee and audit quality for the clients of auditors disciplined by CSRC following the sanctions. This finding demonstrates that auditors may increase their efforts to avoid future audit failure after the disciplinary actions and the reputation effects do play roles in China. Further analysis shows that audit fees would increase significantly only when legal institution is strong. So, the effect of auditor sanction on audit fee depends on legal environment.