证券交易所年报问询函影响了审计收费吗?——基于沪深股市上市公司的经验证据

Does the Annual Report Inquiry Letter Affect the Audit Fees?——Empirical Evidence Based on Listed Companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges AND SHENZEN STOCK EXCHANGE

以2015—2016年沪深证券交易所对上市公司发出的年报问询函为样本,研究证券交易所年报问询函对上市公司审计收费的影响。研究发现:在控制其他因素后,收到年报问询函的上市公司比没有收到年报问询函的上市公司支付了更高的审计费用。进一步对问询函的特征分析发现,企业收到年报问询函中所涵盖问题数量越多、问询次数越多,支付的审计费用也就越高。研究丰富了审计费用与外部监管的相关文献,不仅揭示了审计师在面对客户潜在风险变化时对审计费用的调整模式,同时也证明问询函对审计师的外部监督工作起到了早期的风险预警作用。

This paper takes the annual report inquiry letters sent by Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges between the years of 2015 and 2016 as samples to study the impact of the annual report inquiry letters of stock exchange on the audit fees of listed companies. The results show that： after controlling other factors, the listed companies which receive the annual report letter pay higher audit fees than the listed companies which do not receive the annual report letter. Furthermore, the analysis of the characteristics of the inquiry letter shows that the more the number of questions covered in the annual report and the more the number of the times that inquiries are made, the higher the audit fees are. This study enriches the related literature of audit fees and external supervision. It not only reveals the auditor＇ s adjustment model of audit fees in face of the potential risks of customers, but also serves as an early warning to the external supervision of auditors.