上市公司“答非所问”程度与审计费用--基于年报问询函与回函的综合研究

Irrelevant Answers of Listed Companies and Audit Fees--A comprehensive research based on annual report inquiry and reply letters

年报问询函是证券交易所向年报披露存疑的上市公司发出的函件,有问有答才构成一次有效的问询回合,因此综合考察年报问询函和回函的经济后果更具意义。本文通过对2015-2020年间年报问询函及上市公司相应回函的文本分析构建了“答非所问”程度指数并实证考察了其对审计费用的影响,结果发现,“答非所问”程度指数越高,上市公司支付的审计费用越高,进而表明,有针对性的释疑能够降低审计费用,回函质量的高低直接影响上市公司因问询函而支付的审计费用“溢价”。该现象受到一系列公司内外部特征的影响,相对于问询函回函长度越长、内部治理水平和外部制度环境越差,审计费用受“答非所问”程度影响而提升得越明显。本文从审计费用的视角证实了高质量的回函对上市公司发挥了积极作用。

Annual report inquiry letters are sent by the stock exchanges to the listed companies whose annual report disclosure are questionable. An effective inquiry round consists of both questions and answers. Therefore,it is more meaningful to comprehensively examine the economic consequences of annual report inquiry letters and their replies. Based on the text analysis of annual report inquiry letters and corresponding reply letters of listed companies from 2015 to 2020, this paper constructs the degree index of irrelevant answers and empirically examines its impact on audit fees. The results show that the higher the degree index of irrelevant answers, the higher the audit fees paid by listed companies, which indicates that relevant resolution of doubts can reduce the audit fees, and the quality of reply letter directly affects the audit fees premium paid by listed companies for the inquiry letter. This phenomenon is influenced by a series of internal and external characteristics of the company.The longer the reply letter compared with the inquiry letter, the worse the internal governance level and the external institutional environment, and the audit fees increase more obviously under the influence of irrelevant answers degree. From the perspective of audit fees, this paper proves that high-quality reply letters play a positive role in listed companies.