会计系2019双周论坛第十四讲

主 题：Audit Production with Joint Fixed Costs: Theory and Evidence?

主讲人: Dan A. Simunic（Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia）

协调人: 张敏、廖冠民

时 间：2019-06-06 15:00

地 点：明德商学楼1007室

语 言：英文

讲座摘要：

We examine the role of discretionary investments that affect the production of audits of multiple clients. Given such investments and their associated joint fixed costs, the investment decision and production of audit services must be analyzed over a client portfolio, rather than on an audit-by-audit basis. We analyze this problem, and discuss its implications for the market for audit services. We develop four hypotheses concerning the relations between audit quality and (1) the magnitude of potential client-specific losses; (2) average client losses in a portfolio; (3) the number of clients in a portfolio; and (4) the variability of losses in a portfolio. Using discretionary accruals as the audit quality proxy, we find evidence consistent with these hypotheses. Using PCAOB inspection results, and financial statement restatements as proxies for audit quality, we find evidence consistent with hypotheses 2, 3 and 4 (albeit weaker). Our analyses and empirical results demonstrate the importance of conceptualizing audit production as involving both labor and capital investments – not simply labor, as is the case with virtually all existing auditing literature – and identify characteristics of client portfolios as important determinants of audit outcomes.

主讲人简介：

Dan A. Simunic is a Professor Emeritus at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. His research focuses on economics of auditing, empirical research in audit production, pricing, audit quality, auditor choice, and impact of legal liability on auditor behaviour. His work has been published in the The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research and so on.