审计师延迟披露与审计质量——基于借款逾期公司的研究

Auditors Delayed Disclosure and Audit Quality: Research on Firms with Overdue Loans

以2001—2016年中国A股存在逾期借款的公司为研究对象,从审计师延迟披露信息的视角探讨了审计质量问题。结果发现:与企业公开存在逾期借款的前一年相比,审计师更倾向于在逾期当年出具非标准审计意见和提示逾期风险信息,即存在延迟披露行为;分组检验显示该现象只在借款逾期信息产生负面影响较大的情况下显著; 2006年破产法实施后,审计师延迟披露行为明显减少。这表明在法律风险较低、相关审计准则相对模糊的环境下,审计师并没有及时披露企业的逾期风险信息,降低了审计报告的信息含量,是一种低质量审计的体现。

The initial sample of this paper includes listed firms with overdue loans between 2001 and 2016.From the perspective of whether the auditors delay to disclose the modified audit opinions,the paper explores audit quality in a brand new way.The results indicate that:Compared with the previous year when the company publicly defaulted on overdue loans,auditors are more inclined to issue modified audit opinions and indicate the overdue risk information just in the overdue year,exhibiting apparently the auditors’delayed disclosure.This phenomenon only significantly exists when the information content of overdue loan risk is relatively high.After the implementation of the 2006 bankruptcy law,auditors significantly reduce their delayed disclosure behavior.The findings above suggest that:When the legal risks are low and the auditing standards are relative fuzzy,the auditors haven’t disclosed clients’default risks,which reduce the content of audit report and is a reflection of low audit quality.