投资者情绪与审计收费——基于审计师执业风险视角

Investor Sentiment and Audit Fees:Evidence Based on Auditor Engagement Risk

投资者情绪的涨落是资本市场中的常见现象,其对审计收费决策的影响值得充分探讨。采用2007—2018年度我国A股非金融类上市公司为样本,探索了投资者情绪与审计收费的关系。研究发现,投资者情绪会正向影响审计收费,且在经营风险较高和信息透明度较低的企业中,这一效应更加显著。进一步研究显示,高涨的投资者情绪会降低企业的资源配置效率,也会降低高管薪酬契约的有效性,从而引起经营风险和固有风险的增加。此时审计师会采取增加审计成本投入和收取更高风险溢价的方式对冲风险,上述行为导致审计收费的上升和审计质量的改善。研究结论丰富了投资者情绪经济后果和审计收费影响因素两方面的研究,为事务所制定更加合理的审计定价策略提供了借鉴。

Fluctuations in investor sentiment will cause a firm's stock price to systematically deviate from its fundamentals.However,there is limited evidence on whether it affects the level of auditor engagement risk and audit pricing.Based on the data from 2007 to 2018,this paper attempts to extend the literature by investigating whether and how investor sentiment affects audit fees.The result shows that investor sentiment is positively associated with audit fees,and the fee increase during high sentiment periods is more pronounced for firms with higher business risks and for firms with lower information transparency.This paper also identifies two possible mechanisms through which investor sentiment affects audit fees:reduced investment efficiency and decreased sensitivity of managerial compensation to firm performance.Overall,our results suggest that auditors may invest more audit cost or charge a fee premium in response to higher investor sentiment in order to mitigate potential engagement risks,which leads to an increase in audit fees and audit quality.Our findings should be of interest to auditors who actively manage engagement risks and to regulators who are interested in mitigating the effects of investor sentiment on the real economy.