查核品質屬性、財務報表可比性與投資效率

Auditor Quality Attributes, the Comparability of Financial Statements and Investment Efficiency

本文旨在探討查核品質屬性（事務所任期與會計師經驗）是否會影響可比性的幅度與可比性是否會影響投資效率，參照De Franco, Kothari, and Verdi （2011） 衡量可比性，並以2005 年到2011 年間台灣上市櫃公司資料進行實證分析。實證結果發現當會計師事務所任期愈長或會計師個人簽證年資愈長者，公司之可比性愈高。再者，本文亦發現僅在事務所查核初期與中期時，會計師個人簽證年資才有助於可比性的提升。最後，在可比性的經濟後果方面，本文發現當公司可比性愈高時，可減少投資不效率的情形，但僅限於投資不足的改善。而進一步分析結果顯示可減少資本支出過度投資與投資不足的情形，但對於非資本支出之投資效率無顯著影響。 The aim of this paper is twofold: to investigate the impact of audit quality attributes,namely audit firm tenure and auditor partner experience on firm-level comparability,which was developed by De Franco et al. (2011), and to analyze the economicconsequences of comparability by examining its effect on investment efficiency. Afteranalyzing these aspects of Taiwanese publicly traded firms throughout 2005 to 2011, theempirical evidence shows that comparability increases with the level of audit firm tenureand audit partner experience. Furthermore, for short and middle tenure engagements, thispaper finds that audit partner experiences are positively related to the level ofcomparability. Alternatively, the long tenure results indicate an insignificant relationbetween audit partner experience and the level of comparability. Finally, this paperprovides evidence that documents a conditional positive association between the level ofcomparability and investment for firms operating in settings more prone tounderinvestment. After decomposing total investments into two components, namelycapital and non-capital expenditures, this paper finds that a higher level of comparabilitycan mitigate investment inefficiency, including both under- and overinvestment in capitalexpenditures; however, it has no effect on investment inefficiency in non-capitalexpenditures.

The aim of this paper is twofold: to investigate the impact of audit quality attributes,namely audit firm tenure and auditor partner experience on firm-level comparability,which was developed by De Franco et al. (2011), and to analyze the economicconsequences of comparability by examining its effect on investment efficiency. Afteranalyzing these aspects of Taiwanese publicly traded firms throughout 2005 to 2011, theempirical evidence shows that comparability increases with the level of audit firm tenureand audit partner experience. Furthermore, for short and middle tenure engagements, thispaper finds that audit partner experiences are positively related to the level ofcomparability. Alternatively, the long tenure results indicate an insignificant relationbetween audit partner experience and the level of comparability. Finally, this paperprovides evidence that documents a conditional positive association between the level ofcomparability and investment for firms operating in settings more prone tounderinvestment. After decomposing total investments into two components, namelycapital and non-capital expenditures, this paper finds that a higher level of comparabilitycan mitigate investment inefficiency, including both under- and overinvestment in capitalexpenditures; however, it has no effect on investment inefficiency in non-capitalexpenditures.