Against the background of China’s strengthening of finance and accounting supervision,this study examines the practice among listed companies of changing signing auditors at the last minute and explores whether Chine...Against the background of China’s strengthening of finance and accounting supervision,this study examines the practice among listed companies of changing signing auditors at the last minute and explores whether Chinese investors can capture this information in a timely manner.We find that China’s capital market responds significantly negatively to these last-minute changes,implying that investors perceive a potential negative impact of this behavior.Crosssectional analyses suggest that the characteristics of the change event,recent corporate events,and accounting firm capability significantly affect the stock price response.Furthermore,in terms of the individual characteristics of signing auditors,external investors appear to comprehensively consider busyness level,industry experience,and the timing of the change to determine the causes and effects of the auditor change and make different market reactions accordingly.In addition,consistent with investor perceptions,we find that last-minute changes significantly impair the quality of financial statements,indicating that external investors’judgments based on information about changes in signing auditors are rational and effective.展开更多
基金support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grants No.72362023 and No.72062020)Social Science Foundation for Youth of Jiangxi Province(Grant No.23GL31)Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics“Class A”Discipline Innovation Team(Capital Market Financial Behavior Innovation Team).
文摘Against the background of China’s strengthening of finance and accounting supervision,this study examines the practice among listed companies of changing signing auditors at the last minute and explores whether Chinese investors can capture this information in a timely manner.We find that China’s capital market responds significantly negatively to these last-minute changes,implying that investors perceive a potential negative impact of this behavior.Crosssectional analyses suggest that the characteristics of the change event,recent corporate events,and accounting firm capability significantly affect the stock price response.Furthermore,in terms of the individual characteristics of signing auditors,external investors appear to comprehensively consider busyness level,industry experience,and the timing of the change to determine the causes and effects of the auditor change and make different market reactions accordingly.In addition,consistent with investor perceptions,we find that last-minute changes significantly impair the quality of financial statements,indicating that external investors’judgments based on information about changes in signing auditors are rational and effective.