회계감사는 기업과 투자자 사이에 존재하는 정보비대칭을 해소함으로써, 대리인비용을 감소시키고 자원의 효율적 배분에 기여한다. 따라서 정보비대칭이 큰 기업일수록 감사품질이 높은 감사인을 선임할 유인이 높아진다. 전통적으로 감사품질의 대용치(Proxy)로 Big4 또는 산업전문감사인 여부를 사용해왔으며, 해외의 선행연구에서는 일반적으로 이들이 높은 품질의 감사업무를 수행한다는 것을 보여 주고 있다.
논문접수: 2008. 2 1차수정: 2008. 10 2차수정: 2008. 12 3차수정: 2009. 1 4차수정: 2009. 2 게재확정: 2009. 3
*본 연구를 수행하는 데 도움을 주신 서울시립대학교의 이영한 교수님과 건설적인 의견을 제시해 주신 익명의 두 분 심자자님께 감사드립니다.
** 연세대학교 경영대학 박사과정 Doctoral Student, School of Business, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
(E-mail: jaimin@yonsei.ac.kr)
*** 연세대학교 경영대학 박사과정 Doctoral Student, School of Business, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
(E-mail: sangil@yonsei.ac.kr)
**** 연세대학교 경영대학 교수 Professor, School of Business, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
(E-mail: hylee@yonsei.ac.kr)
그러나 우리나라에서는 Big4 또는 산업전문감사인이라고 해서 회계정보의 질이 더 좋아진다는 일관된 실증 결과가 존재하지 않는다. 이는 회계정보의 질을 재량적발생액으로 측정하는 과정에서 생기는 측정오차의 문제에서 원인을 찾을 수도 있고, 우리나라 고유의 경제적 환경 때문일 수도 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 측정오차의 문제를 완화하기 위해 Dechow and Dichev(2002)가 제안한 발생액의 질을 회계정보의 질의 대용치로 삼아, 전통적인 감사품질의 대용치인 Big4 혹은 산업전문감사인 여부와의 관련성을 분석하였다. 또한 이들의 관련성이 감사위험의 차이 등 경제적 환경에 의해 달라지는지를 살펴보기 위해 외환위기 전후를 비교 분석하였다.
실증 분석 결과, 첫째, 외환위기 이전에는 Big4나 산업전문감사인의 발생액의 질이 오히려 낮았지만, 외환위기 이후에는 더 높게 나타났다. 둘째, Big4나 산업전문감사인은 외환위기를 거치면서 발생액의 질이 향상되었으나, 그렇지 않은 감사인은 오히려 하락하였다. 즉 외환위기 이후 기간이면서 Big4나 산업전문감사인인 경우에만 발생액의 질이 높은 사실을 발견하였다. 이와 같은 비대칭 현상은 외환위기 이후에 증대된 감사위험이 Big4나 산업전문감사인에게 상대적으로 더 큰 영향을 미쳤기 때문으로 추정되며, 따라서 Big4나 산업전문성 여부는 감사위험이 높은 경제 환경 하에서만 의미 있는 감사품질의 대용치로 사용될 수 있음을 제안한다. 셋째, 비교 목적으로 제시한 재량적발생액의 경우 대부분 감사인 특성이나 외환위기 전후에 따라 차이를 보이지 않았다. 다만 수정 존스 모형에서는 모든 감사인 유형에서 외환위기 이후에 오히려 재량적발생액이 증가하는 것을 관찰하였다.
이를 종합하면 외환위기로 인한 감사위험의 증가는 Big4 및 산업전문감사인과 그렇지 않은 감사인에 대해 차별적인 영향을 미쳤다고 볼 수 있다. 이처럼 Big4나 산업전문감사인의 회계정보의 질은 향상되었으나 그렇지 않은 감사인의 경우 오히려 하락한 원인으로는, 외환위기 이후 대형 감사인에 대한 소송의 집중과 대형 감사인의 시장 점유율 상승 등을 꼽을 수 있겠다.
External audit helps to minimize agency costs and optimizes resource allocation by reducing information asymmetry between a company and investors, creditors and many other interested parties. Thus, a firm with greater information asymmetry tends to appoint high quality auditors. Most prior studies have used Big4 or industry specialist auditors (hereafter ISP) as a proxy for audit quality. Prior studies in other countries have shown that Big4/ISP provide high quality auditing services. Prior studies in Korea show, however, inconsistent results on the association between Big4/ISP and audit quality. Possible reasons for this inconsistent results would be either a measurement error in computing discretionary accruals or the difference in legal/economic environment of Korea from other countries.
By investigating the associations between Big4/ISP and accruals quality, this study confirms whether an important assumption made by many prior audit studies is valid. Unlike most prior studies, we use both Dechow and Dichev (2002) and McNichols (2002) models to mitigate potential measurement errors in measuring quality of accounting information. A primary difference between discretionary accruals and the accruals quality is whether accruals are realized as cash flows or not. If discretionary accruals contain managers’ private information, they will be realized into cash flows in the future. Otherwise, discretionary accruals won’t be realized as cash flows. Thus, discretionary accruals with private information are likely to have a greater accruals quality than those without private information. Because accruals quality can measure the objective likelihood of conversion into cash flows from current accruals regardless of managers’ intention, it can be used as a better proxy for the quality of accounting information (Dechow and Dichev 2002; McNichols 2002).
Audit quality is defined as the joint probability of detecting errors or irregularities in financial statements and the probability of reporting the errors or irregularities found in the process of audit (DeAngelo 1981). Most previous studies have used Big4/ISP as a proxy for audit quality based on a belief that independence can be better maintained with Big4 auditors because they are well diversified across many clients. ISP can also provide a better audit quality because of their specialized knowledge and experience in client industry (O’Keefe et al. 1994; Balsam et al. 2003). Prior studies conducted with foreign data consistently report the quality of accounting information audited by Big4/ISP is higher. Simunic and Stein (1996), for example, show that Big4 auditors provide a higher audit quality because of a greater likelihood of litigation. Becker et al. (1998) and Francis et al. (1999) report lower discretionary accruals for firms whose financial statements are audited by Big6 auditors. Gramling et al. (2001) report that future cash flows can be better predicted with accounting numbers for firms whose financial statements are audited by ISP. Balsam et al. (2003) find that discretionary accruals are lower and earnings response coefficients are greater for firms whose financial statements are audited by ISP.
Our sample covers 2,836 listed firm-years on the Korea Stock Exchange between 1994 and 2006 excluding financial firms. Among 2,836 sample firm-years, Big4 audited about 65 percent while industry specialist auditors audited about 22 percent. Univariate tests show that prior to the economic crisis, no differences across the types of auditors (i.e., Big4/non-Big4 or ISP/non-ISP) are found with the two measures of accruals quality based on Dechow and Dichev (2002) and McNichols (2002). After the economic crisis, however, firms with Big4/ISP seem to have accruals that are high quality. Comparing the differences accruals quality between the pre- and the post-economic crisis, Big4/ISP seem to increase the accruals quality while non-Big4/non-ISP seem to decrease the accruals quality. However, using discretionary accruals provides inconsistent results.
Regression results are as follows. First, there are positive associations between Big4/ISP and accruals quality. Our findings give additional information to accounting researchers, investors, and regulators for their decision making relying on financial reports. Second, we further investigate the effect of changes in legal/economic environment on the association between Big4/ISP and accruals quality. We find that the above positive associations are valid only with the sample firm-years during the post-economic crisis in Korea. This finding suggests that the change of legal/economic environments as a result of Korean economic crisis in 1997 have affected auditors in different magnitude and/or possibly the direction depending on their response facing different levels of audit risk. Increased audit risk through economic crisis may have influenced Big4 or ISP more significantly. Thus, these auditors have enhanced their audit quality than before.
Third, we also present the empirical findings on the associations between Big4/ISP and discretionary accruals used in prior studies. No association between Big4/ISP and discretionary accruals is found in both the pre- and the post-economic crisis, suggesting that discretionary accruals may be subject to measurement errors as concerned by prior studies. Comparing Big4/ISP with non-Big4/non-ISP across the pre- and the post-crisis periods reveals that the quality of accounting information deteriorates after the economic crisis when using the modified Jones model in computing discretionary accruals. Discretionary accruals computed based on the performance matched discretionary model suggested by Kothari et al. (2005), however, do not provide any systematic difference between the pre- and the post-economic crisis.
In order to sort out the effect of Big4 from that of ISP on accruals quality, this study examines the sample firm-years only with Big4 auditors. The results show that ISP play a significant role in improving accruals quality after the economic crisis, suggesting that ISP provide an incremental contribution to the quality of accounting information.
