会计信息可比性、审计师行业专长与审计时滞

Accounting Information Comparability,Auditor Industry Expertise and Audit Delay

会计信息可比性有助于降低审计师的信息搜索成本,进而能够更快地出具审计报告,此逻辑可视为效率假说;而在片面追求更高的可比性时,会计信息的客观公正性受到损害,进而导致审计师花费更多的时间降低审计风险,此逻辑可视为替代假说。那么,会计信息可比性与审计时滞的关系究竟是上述两种假说的哪一种?运用OLS方法对2003-2016年我国A股上市公司数据进行回归分析,实证结果表明,会计信息可比性与审计时滞显著正相关,即替代假说得到验证。在进一步考虑审计师行业专长的调节效应后,发现行业专长水平越高的审计师越能及时地出具审计报告,这表明审计师行业专长水平是决定会计信息可比性对审计师是否有显著影响的先决条件。

The accounting information comparability is conductive to reduce auditors＇ information search cost,and thus enables faster issuance of audit reports,which can be regarded as efficiency hypothesis. However,blindly pursuit of higher comparability undermines reliability of accounting information,causing auditors to spend more time to reduce audit risks,which can be regarded as alternative hypothesis. So what is the real relationship between the accounting information comparability and audit delay？ What hypothesis dominates in the relationship？ Based on the A-listed companies from 2003 to 2016,the paper uses OLS regression and finds that accounting information comparability is significantly positive with audit delay,which means the substitution hypothesis is verified. Further study takes the moderating effect of auditor industry expertise into consideration,and finds that higher auditors＇ industry expertise is,the more timely the audit reports are issued,which means the auditor industry expertise is a prerequisite for the effects of accounting information comparability on audit delay.