司法效率与审计费用:基于司法改革试点的准自然实验

Judicial Efficiency and Audit Fees:A Quasi-natural Experiment Based on Pilot Judicial Reform

司法效率的变化会引起审计环境的变化,进而影响审计定价。本文以2012—2018年A股上市公司为研究对象,基于我国司法体制改革试点多期错层的特征,通过多时点双重差分模型考察司法效率如何影响公司审计费用及其作用机制。研究结果显示,相较于未受司法改革试点影响的公司,受司法改革试点影响的公司审计费用显著增加。机制检验结果显示,司法效率改变了审计环境,通过风险溢价路径而非成本补偿路径影响公司审计费用。进一步研究发现,相较于未受司法改革试点影响的公司,司法效率显著增加审计费用这一现象在媒体关注较少、分析师关注较少、内部控制质量较低、非国有企业、审计师行业专长经验越丰富的样本中更为明显。本文不仅从动态视角捕捉司法效率促进资本市场健康发展的新证据,而且丰富并拓展了审计费用影响因素的相关研究,同时也为司法改革的成效提供了经验证据。

With the changes in judicial efficiency,the audit environment undergoes great changes,which in turn affects audit pricing.Based on the characteristics of staggered occurrence in time and space of China's pilot judicial reform,this paper employs a difference-in-difference model to investigate the causal impact of judicial efficiency on audit fees and its mechanism with a panel of Chinese listed firms during the 2012-2018.We find that compared to firms in areas without pilot judicial reform,audit fees for firms in areas with pilot judicial reform have significantly increased.The mechanism test results show that judicial efficiency has changed the audit environment,affecting firms'audit fees through the path of risk premium rather than cost compensation.Moreover,the results indicate that the positive impact of judicial efficiency on audit fees is more prominent in firms with less media attention,less analyst attention,lower internal control quality,non-state-owned characteristics,and more experienced auditors.This paper not only captures new evidence from a dynamic perspective that judicial efficiency promotes the healthy development of the capital market,but also enriches and expands relevant research on the factors affecting audit fees,and further provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of judicial reform.