會計師查核負擔與盈餘管理之關聯性

本研究以2010年至2016年由國內上市、櫃公司共計9,679筆觀察值為樣本，探討會計師查核效率是否改變企業之盈餘管理，當會計師查核效率提高對審計品質越好，但當查核家數過多成為查核負擔時，是否可能導致審計品質變差。本文分別以會計師事務所之查核家數及查核企業之總資產捕捉會計師之查核效率，並以應計項目盈餘管理及實質盈餘管理作為審計品質的代理變數，探討隨著會計師查核負擔越大，是否會影響會計師的審計品質。實證結果顯示，審計產業專家及會計師查核效率分別對裁決性應計數絕對值及實質盈餘管理綜合指標呈顯著負相關。此結果代表會計師的產業查核經驗豐富可提升審計效率、且查核家數越多所累積查核技巧越好，使查核效率越高，因而會計師較可抑制公司進行應計項目盈餘管理及實質盈餘管理。但當審計產業專家的查核家數過多成為查核負擔時，將使產業專家會計師之審計品質下降。

關鍵字

查核負擔；應計項目盈餘管理；實質盈餘管理；審計產業專家

並列摘要

In this study, a total of 9,679 observations from Taiwan’s listed and OTC companies were sampled from 2010 to 2016 to examine whether the auditing efficiency of auditors affects the earnings management of the company. When the auditing efficiency of the accountants improves, so does the audit quality. However, when the auditor’s number of clients become excessive, audit quality may deteriorate. This paper uses the number of firms audited by the accounting firm and the total assets of the audited company to capture the auditing efficiency of accountants. In addition, accrual-based earnings management and real earnings management are used as proxy variables for audit quality. This research explores whether higher audit burden will affect the audit quality of accountants. The empirical results show that auditor industry experts and auditing efficiency have a significant negative correlation with the absolute value of discretionary accruals (|DA|), and real earnings management (REM). This suggests that the auditing experience can improve auditing efficiency and the more audits performed, the better the accountants’ skills. Auditors with higher auditing efficiency are better able to curb the company’s level of accrual-based earnings management and real earnings management. However, when the number of audits become excessive, the audit quality of industry expert accountants will decline.