论会计师事务所合并对审计质量的影响

On the Influence of Accounting Firm Merger on Audit Quality

文章以中国2006年发生的3起会计师事务所合并事件为研究对象,比较本土与国际"四大"会计师事务所之间的审计质量差异在合并前后发生的变化,从而检验事务所合并对客户审计质量的影响。经研究发现,合并使得经本土事务所审计的企业可操控性应计利润值由原来高于四大变为显著低于四大的客户,说明本土会计事务所经过合并,审计质量得到了一定的提高。但合并结束的两年后,合并的本土事务所的审计质量又低于四大的审计质量,说明审计质量在完成合并后又有所下降,这可能表明以审计质量的提升刻画的合并成效暂不具备持续性。

With a study of three cases of accounting firm merger in China in 2006, this paper makes a comparison of the audit quality between the four major international accounting firms and home firms be-fore and after the three mergers to examine the effects of merger on audit quality. The findings reveal that the discretionary accruals of the clients of home accounting firms get much lower than that of the clients ofthe four major international accounting firms. It indicates a conspicuous improvement of the audit quality of home accounting firms after merger. However, the audit quality of home accounting firms goes down un-der that of the four major international counterparts within two years after merger. It indicates that the positive effects of merger are unsustainable.