行业专家审计师会充分披露关键审计事项吗?

Will Industry-Specialist Auditors Adequately Disclose Critical Audit Matters?

审计师能否挖掘被审计单位重大错报风险,并充分披露关键审计事项是影响审计报告改革成效的关键问题。本文利用2016-2019年A股上市公司数据,考察了行业专家审计师对关键审计事项披露的具体影响以及可能产生的经济后果。研究发现,相比于非行业专家,行业专家审计师披露的关键审计事项数量更多、文本篇幅更长且更愿意采用结论性评价。从关键审计事项披露的具体类型来看,本文发现行业专家审计师更倾向于披露账户层面、行业共性层面、归因清晰的关键审计事项,并更愿意采用积极的结论性评价方式进行具体披露。此外,行业专家审计师披露充分的关键审计事项后,客户盈余操纵与财务重述行为显著下降。上述结果表明,审计师个人层面的行业知识、行业经验以及行业审计技能的培育有助于更好地披露关键审计事项,并实现审计报告改革的预期。本文的结论也为积极推进审计报告改革提供了可供参考的路径。

We investigate the e?ects of the individual auditor industry specialization on disclosures of critical audit matters(CAMs)and its economic consequences.Using the data of A-share listed companies from 2016 to 2019,we find that compared with non-industry-specialist auditors, industry-specialist auditors disclose CAMs more adequately, and are more willing to use conclusive evaluations.After distinguishing the types of CAMs, we find that industry-specialist auditors are more inclined to disclose the account-level CAMs and industry-level CAMs.We also find industry-specialist auditors tend to clarify reasons identified for CAMs and use positive conclusive evaluations.Finally, we find that after industry-specialist auditors disclose more adequate CAMs, the audit quality of company is significantly improved.The above results indicate that the industry knowledge and experience at the individual auditor level and the cultivation of industry audit skills can help to better disclose CAMs and realize the expectation of audit report reform.The results can also provide a feasible path to promote the reform of audit reports in the future.