法律环境、法律责任与审计师独立性——来自中国会计师事务所转制的证据

Legal Environment,Legal Liability and Auditors' Independence:Evidence from Structure Transformation of Chinese Accounting Firms

本文基于中国不平衡的法律环境和始于2010年的大中型事务所组织形式转制提供的天然实验场所,运用2010至2012年期间发生的事务所转制案例数据,研究法律制度与审计师独立性之间的关系,发现事务所转制与出具非标准无保留意见的概率显著正相关,事务所转制引致的法律责任增加有助于促进审计师独立性的提升;在法律环境差的区域,事务所转制与非标准无保留意见出具概率不相关,在法律环境好的区域,事务所转制与非标准无保留意见出具概率显著正相关。说明法律环境影响审计师的行为,审计师法律责任的增加更加有助于审计师独立性的提高。

Whether the legal system can safeguard auditors' independence is of great importance to the development of capital market and protection of investors' interest. Against the background of China's unbalanced legal environment and structural transformation of accounting firms initiated in 2010,this paper applies the data of 2010 to 2012 of accounting firms undergoing the transformation in a research on the relationship between legal system and auditors' independence. The results show that the enhancement of legal liability induced by the accounting firms' structural transformation promotes the improvement of auditors' independence,and the legal environment influences auditors' behavior in that in districts of better legal environment,greater legal liability encourages more solid improvement of auditors' independence.