會計師事務所規模對於信用評等與揭露水準之影響

Credit Rating, Disclosure Level, and the Financial Reporting Quality of Big 4 vs. Non-Big 4 Audits

本研究受惠於台灣獨特之揭露和評等環境，檢視會計師事務所規模與客戶信用評等、資訊揭露之關連性。過去研究對於會計師事務所規模與客戶信用評等、資訊揭露之關連性有不一致之發現，故本議題值得再探討。本研究結果發現四大較非四大會計師事務所對於客戶信用評等和資訊揭露具較正向之影響，而較多之資訊揭露有助於連結會計師事務所規模對於客戶信用評等之影響。此外，本研究控制信用評等與資訊揭露間所存在之內生性問題和會計師事務所自我選擇之偏誤，實證結果仍維持一致。

This study examines the association among the audit firm's size, the client firms' credit ratings and information disclosure by taking advantage of the special disclosure and rating environment in Taiwan. Prior findings regarding the association among the audit firm's size, the clients' credit ratings and information disclosure are not conclusive, and the issue is hence worthy of further exploration. The results of this study indicate that Big 4 audit firms are more positively associated with their client firms' credit ratings and information disclosure than non-Big 4 audit firms. Moreover, increased information disclosure carries the influence of the audit firm's size to the clients' credit ratings. In addition, this study finds that the results remain unaltered after controlling for the endogenous relation between the credit ratings and disclosure level as well as the auditors' self-selection bias.