Regulatory Investigations of Audit Partners and Audit Quality Improvement

China Journal of Accounting Studies (Forthcoming)

36 Pages Posted: 5 Oct 2017

See all articles by Rui Ge

Rui Ge

Shenzhen University & Audencia Business School

Janus Jian Zhang

Hong Kong Baptist University

Date Written: August 29, 2017

Abstract

Prior studies of the effect of regulatory monitoring on audit quality focus on regulatory sanctions but ignore regulatory investigations. We hand-collected data on the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) investigations announced during 2001–2015 to examine the impact of CSRC investigations on the audit quality of the targeted partners. We find that after the audit partners are investigated by the CSRC, their clients exhibit a lower absolute value of discretionary accruals and the partners are more likely to issue modified audit opinions. Our results suggest that CSRC investigations lead to improvement in the audit quality of the partners involved in the investigations. In contrast, CSRC sanctions have a relatively weak effect on the audit quality of the involved partners. Overall, our study provides evidence that CSRC monitoring helps to improve the audit quality of audit partners, and the effect manifests around CSRC investigations.

Keywords: audit partners, audit quality, CSRC investigations, regulatory monitoring

JEL Classification: M42, M41

Suggested Citation

Ge, Rui and Zhang, Janus Jian, Regulatory Investigations of Audit Partners and Audit Quality Improvement (August 29, 2017). China Journal of Accounting Studies (Forthcoming), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3047636

Rui Ge

Shenzhen University & Audencia Business School ( email )

Shenzhen

Janus Jian Zhang (Contact Author)

Hong Kong Baptist University ( email )

Renfrew Road 34
Kowloon Tong
Hong Kong

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