殷勤款待与审计独立性:天下有白吃的午餐吗?

Hospitality and Auditor Independence:Do Gifts Blind the Eyes?

中国审计市场存在一些公司为其审计师提供殷勤款待的现象。"吃人的嘴软"、"天下没有免费的午餐"。本文用"免费餐饮"作为殷勤款待的替代变量,实证检验了殷勤款待对审计独立性的影响。以2001-2010年间中国上市公司为样本,本文发现上市公司对审计师的殷勤款待与可操控性应计显著正相关;进一步,殷勤款待显著降低了审计师出具非标审计意见的概率。上述研究结果表明,一些上市公司通过对审计师提供殷勤款待,从而与审计师建立了绑定关系,进而侵蚀了实质上的审计独立性。

In the Chinese audit market, some firms provide hospitality to their auditors. ＂Gifts blind the eyes＂ and ＂there is no such thing as a free lunch＂. The phenomenon provides researchers with a unique setting to examine whether hospitality （proxied by free food and drink） can impair ac- tual auditor independence. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms over 2001-2010, my findings show that hospitality is significantly positively associated with discretionary accruals, but hospitality is significantly negatively associated with auditors＇ propensity to issue modified audit opinions. These findings, taken together, imply that some Chinese listed firms compromise auditor independence and establish bonding relations with their auditors via hospitality. This study validates the impairment of hospitality on actual auditor independence.