报告主题：Does audit partner workload compression affect audit quality?

报告人：韩洪灵 副教授（浙江大学）

时间：2016年11月3日（星期四），下午2:00-3:00

举行地点：综合楼802会议室

内容提要：

The effect of workload compression on the behavior of auditors has received extensive attention from regulators and scholars. We study this effect by taking advantage of two unique institutional features in the Chinese capital market, as the auditor signature requirement reveals audit partner identities and the uniform December 31 fiscal yearend intensifies audit partner workload compression. Specifically, we find that accruals quality is inversely associated with audit partner workload compression. Further, this association is driven by workload compression of review partners rather than of engagement partners; subject to the moderating effects of auditor industry specialization, auditor interim-audit experience, and auditor engagement tenure; and concentrated in upward earnings management, especially in situations of loss avoidance. Our extended analyses suggest that when facing workload compression, audit partners are less likely to issue modified audit opinions and more likely to delay audit report releases. Collectively, we document that audit partner workload compression negatively affects audit quality. Our evidence sheds insights into the recent PCAOB suggestion to monitor individual auditor workloads.

韩洪灵简介：厦门大学会计学博士、浙江大学工商管理博士后；现为浙江大学管理学院副教授、会计与财务系副主任。入选财政部全国会计学术领军人才及浙江省新世纪151人才培养工程，美国纽约州立大学（State University of New York at Binghamton）访问学者。主要研究方向为资本市场与信息披露、内部控制与审计理论、公司治理与公司财务等。在国际及国内权威刊物Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting、Journal of Business Ethics、《会计研究》、《审计研究》、《中国工业经济》、《财贸经济》等杂志上发表论文30余篇；担任Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting、China Accounting and Finance Review、《会计研究》、《南开管理评论》、《财经论丛》等杂志匿名审稿专家；曾主持国家自然科学基金、浙江省自然科学基金、中国博士后科学基金等多项研究课题。