自愿披露内部控制审计费用会产生积极效应吗?——基于信号传递与信息甄别的视角

Does Voluntary Disclosure of Internal Control Audit Fees Have a Positive Effect?——Based on the Perspectives of Signal Transmission and Information Selection

越来越多的上市公司在年报中自愿披露内部控制审计费用。为了深入理解上市公司的这一行为,本文利用2012～2016年沪深两市A股上市公司的经验数据,对内部控制审计费用披露情况及其经济影响进行了考察。研究发现:(1)自愿披露内部控制审计费用具有积极的信号传递效用,自愿披露公司的内部控制审计质量与财务报表审计质量均更高。(2)从审计意见购买的角度进一步分析发现,自愿披露的公司总体上不存在审计意见购买迹象,而未披露公司中存在审计意见购买迹象。这一结论从侧面解释了在自愿披露行为具有积极信号传递作用的背景下,仍有部分企业选择不披露该费用的原因。(3)未披露内部控制审计费用公司的潜在审计意见购买迹象能够被投资者识别出且产生实际的经济后果。

More and more listed companies begin to voluntarily disclose internal control audit fees in their annual reports. With the sample of China＇s A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2016, this paper examines the disclosure situation of internal control audit fees and its economic impact. The results show that the voluntary disclosure of internal control audit fees has a positive signal transmission effect and can improve internal control audit quality and financial statement audit quality. From the perspective of opinion-shopping, further analysis finds that there is no sign of opinion-shopping for companies that voluntarily disclose internal control audit fees. But for companies that don＇t disclose internal control audit fees, the sign of opinion-shopping exists. To some extent, this result further explains why some companies still don＇t disclose internal control audit fees, despite this disclosure may do good to their audit quality. In addition, the signal of whether companies voluntarily disclose internal control audit fees or not can be recognized by investors to a certain extent, and lead to actual economic consequences.