關鍵查核事項與分析師行為之關聯性研究

The Relation between Key Audit Matters Disclosures and Analyst Behavior

本研究以2016 年至2018 年台灣上市櫃公司為樣本，探討關鍵查核事項之揭露是否影響分析師盈餘預測之行為。實證結果發現，分析師並不因關鍵查核事項項目多寡而影響其預測行為，但，當揭露的關鍵查核事項有較詳細的描述時，分析師盈餘預測結果之準確率將提高，且分析師間的預測結果較趨於一致。本研究進一步將關鍵查核事項之內容區分為關鍵查核事項的描述以及會計師針對關鍵查核事項而提出的因應查核程序，用以探討何為分析師於形成盈餘預測過程中較為關切的內容並影響其盈餘預測行為。結果顯示，分析師較關注關鍵查核事項本身的說明，當事件的說明越詳細，則分析師之盈餘預測準確度會提升，但並不完全顯著影響分析師間的預測結果離散程度。本研究以專業財報使用者之角度來檢視新式查核報告之效果，並為該準則之效益提供本土之證據，也證實透過要求會計師提供關鍵查核事項，可使查核報告之資訊價值上升，並達到該準則設立之目的。

The objective of this study is to examine the effects of key audit matters (KAM) disclosures in the audit reports on the analysts’ earnings forecast. Using 2016-2018 Taiwan listed companies as sample, the results generally support the conclusion that KAM disclosure indeed increases the informative value of an audit report. We provide evidence that analysts’ forecast behavior is not affected by the number of KAM items. By contrast, when the audit report of a company has more detailed KAM disclosures, the more accurate and less dispersed the analysts’ earnings forecast will be. We further divide the content of KAM into descriptions of KAM items and the auditors’ corresponding audit procedures for each KAM item, doing so to uncover what analysts are concerned about and how these concerns influence their forecast behavior. We find that analysts are more concerned with KAM descriptions than with the corresponding audit procedures. Overall, this study provides local evidence for the effectiveness of the new standard from the perspective of professional users of financial report. The results enhance our understanding of the incremental information value of new audit report.