Quality in Independent Auditing:A Research on Auditors

The aim of this study is to determine the opinion related to the audit quality of independent auditors in Turkey.For this purpose,a study was carried out on the auditors operating in the TRC 1 region and having an auditor certificate.Questionnaire method was used in the research.In the evaluation of the data,frequency,mean,and standard deviation were used as descriptive statistical methods.In addition,t-test and one-way ANOVA test were used to compare the data between independent groups.Research results show no significant difference between the opinions of the independent auditors according to various variables.

The Effect of the Board of Directors and Audit Quality on Disclosure of Internal Control Practices: Evidence from European Companies

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the board of directors,namely board size,board independence,and CEO duality,as well as audit quality on the disclosure of internal control information.The sample consists of 164 European companies listed in the STOXX Europe 600.Based on positive agency theory,the authors posit that board of directors and audit quality influence corporate internal control disclosure practice.The content analysis and the design of the evaluation criterion were used to calculate the disclosure index of internal control.Thus,multiple regression analysis is utilized to analyze the results of this paper.The average internal control information disclosure index was 0.285,indicating that most of the companies in our sample do not disclose enough information about the internal control.This low level of forward-looking information disclosure makes it very difficult for corporate stakeholders to determine the future performance of the company.Multivariate results indicate that internal control disclosure is positively and significantly associated with board independence,CEO duality,and audit quality.This study contributes to the literature on the various governance characteristics and disclosure by showing that the disclosure of internal control information in European countries is positively and significantly associated with board independence,separation of duties,and audit quality.Our study was based on a sample of European companies including countries regulating IC disclosure as well as unregulated settings.As noted by Bedard and Graham(2014),regulatory differences in countries can contribute insights on the costs and benefits of disclosure.Findings also have policy implications for investors,managers,and regulators.

Can industry information disclosure improve audit quality?

We investigate the impact of industry information disclosure(IID)on audit quality in Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2021,by constructing a staggered difference-in-differences model based on the implementation of the IID guidelines in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in 2013 as an exogenous shock.Audit quality is significantly improved after the implementation of the IID guidelines.We also use a parallel trend test,different measurements of key variables,propensity score matching,a placebo test and different samples,to ensure the validity of our findings.IID enhances audit quality by improving auditor independence,professionalism and audit engagement,particularly in firms with high-quality and numerous IIDs,high auditor rankings,strong auditor industry expertise,IIDs with a negative tone and low R&D investment.We demonstrate the effectiveness of the IID guidelines from the perspective of auditing.

Risk-preparedness mechanism and audit quality:Evidence from mandatory increase of professional indemnity insurance and professional risk fund

We examine the risk-preparing benefits of Chinese audit firms’professional indemnity insurance(PII)and professional risk fund(PRF)by using the Notice on Adjusting the Application Requirement of Audit Firms for Securities Qualifications as an exogenous shock.This policy requires audit firms to raise the sum of the cumulative compensation limit of their PII and PRF from 6 million to 80million yuan.It is found,first,that the capital market regards this policy revision as a signal to strengthen investor protection and responds positively;client firms with high audit risks have a stronger response.Second,auditors’governance of financial information has strengthened,resulting in the significant improvement of their clients’financial reporting quality,with a stronger effect on firms with higher earnings management risk.There is no evidence that audit firms pass the costs on to their clients.Finally,the mismatch between auditors and new client firms is alleviated.We show that in an emerging market with weak investor protection,establishing a sound risk-preparedness mechanism for audit firms and strengthening the capacity for civil compensation ex post greatly improve the adaptive degree between international auditing standards and the legal environment of China,thereby enhancing the overall service quality of the audit market.

How does auditors' work stress affect audit quality?Empirical evidence from the Chinese stock market

With reference to the Job Demands-Control Model,we empirically examine the effect of auditors' work stress on audit quality using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies and their signature auditors from 2009 to 2013.The results show that(1) there is generally no pervasive deterioration in audit quality resulting from auditors' work stress;(2) there is a significant negative association between work stress and audit quality in the initial audits of new clients;and(3) the perception of work stress depends on auditors' individual characteristics.Auditors from international audit firms and those in the role of partner respond more strongly to work stress than industry experts.Auditors tend to react more intensively when dealing with state-owned companies.We suggest that audit firms attach more importance to auditors' work stress and rationalize their allocation of audit resources to ensure high audit quality.

Assesment of diabetes related quality of life and the impact of pharmaceutical care in its improvement

Objective:To assess the role of pharmaceutical care in improving quality of life in type II diabetes mellitus patients in a tertiary care hospital.Methods:A prospective observational survey study was carried out for a period of 9 months in the General Medicine Department of the hospital.A total of 106 patients were enrolled and were randomly allocated to the control and intervention groups with 53 patients in each group.Version-19 of audit on diabetes-dependent quality of life questionnaire were provided to the patients,at the time of admission and during review.At the time of admission the intervention group was provided with counseling for diabetes and with patient information leaflets on the disease.A data entry format comprising the socio-demographic details of the patients,their medical and medication history,laboratory results,etc.were used to note down the patient details.The prescribing patterns of different oral hypoglycemic agents were noted.Results:A total of 106 patients were recruited,51%being male.Age ranged from 32 to 80 years with a mean age of 60.210±10.045.The duration since diagnosis was 5-10 years for most of the participants(67%),10-20 years for 29%and>20 years for the remaining.At the time of study,17.9%of participants were received insulin treatment,and 82.1%on oral hypoglycemic agent.The average weighted impact of intervention group which improved from-1.7526±0.5630 to-1.668800±0.048013 was found to be statistically significant.Thus the study showed that pharmaceutical care has a positive impact on the quality of life of diabetes patients.Conclusions:Quality of life is worsened in diabetes mellitus patients,particularly for the'freedom to eat'domain,indicating that an intervention to improve dietary freedom might be a good way of improving quality of life.The study also showed that patient counseling played an important role in improving quality of life of diabetes patients.

The Impact of the External Audit Quality on the Financial Performance of Conventional and Islamic Banks

The continuing emergence of sudden financial crises and the bankruptcy of Big banks audited by the‘Big Four’auditors confirms that the external audit quality(EAQ)always remains insufficient compared to the desired quality.The quality weakness is due either to the bad audit company choice,although their sizes,or to the disrespect of the good audit rules.Because there is a lack of comparative studies in the framework of conventional and Islamic banks,this paper aims to compare the impact of EAQ on the financial performance(FP)of 180 conventional banks and 180 Islamic banks.FP and EAQ variables are collected from 56 countries over the period(2010-2020).To overcome the mystery of the best EAQ selection based on its impact on FP,this paper relied on the GLS estimator.Consequently,this paper concluded that the EAQ affected the conventional banks’FP,but it improved that of Islamic banks with a moderate impact.

Annual report readability and corporate agency costs

Annual reports are the main sources of information for outside investors' investment decisions and enable shareholders to supervise the management.Difficulties with the readability of these reports may therefore have serious consequences. Using 19,221 firm-year observations of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2001 to 2015, we investigate the association between annual report readability and corporate agency costs, where readability is proxied by report file length and/or file size. We find that firms with better annual report readability experience lower agency costs, and the negative association between readability and agency costs is more pronounced in firms with higher external audit quality, internal control quality or analyst coverage. These results hold after several robustness checks. The positive effect of annual report readability is stronger in private firms than in state-owned enterprises, and becomes stronger after the implementation of new accounting standards in 2007. Readable annual reports can help in monitoring corporate insiders' opportunistic behavior and thus reduce agency costs.