事务所重要性、中小投资者保护与审计费用

Importance of Accounting Firms,Minority Investor Protection and Audit Fee

本文考察在不同的中小投资者保护程度下事务所重要性与审计费用的关系。鉴于审计产品的特殊性以及公司与会计师事务所之间容易形成"默契"关系,事务所重要性会影响审计定价。当然,两者之间的关系取决于中小投资者保护程度的大小。实证检验发现,如果中小投资者保护程度低,事务所重要性与审计费用正相关;如果中小投资者保护程度高,事务所重要性与审计费用负相关。实证结果表明,事务所重要性对审计费用有显著影响,中小投资者保护机制在上市公司处理与外部审计师关系时能发挥作用。

This article investigates the relationship between the importance of accounting firms and audit fee under different reinforcement efforts of minority investor protection.In view of the specialty of audit and the privity easily established between companies and accounting firms,the importance of accounting firms will influence the audit price.Certainly,such a relationship depends on the degree of the reinforcement efforts of minority investor protection.It empirically finds that,the importance of accounting firms is positively correlated to audit fees under weak reinforcement efforts of minority investor protection,and exactly the opposite under strong reinforcement efforts.This demonstrates that the importance of accounting firms significantly impacts audit fee and minority investor protection mechanism can play an important role in the relationship between listed companies and external auditors.