감사인 지정제도가 상장예정기업의 이익조정에 미치는 영향 (The Effect of Auditor Designation System for IPO Firms on Earnings Management)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국회계학회
· 수록지 정보 : 회계학연구 / 38권 / 3호 / 409 ~ 441페이지
· 저자명 : 김용원, 이재경

초록

본 연구는 2005년부터 2010년까지 상장지정신청을 하여 증권선물위원회로부터 감사인을 지정 받은 기업을 대상으로 감사인 지정전과 감사인 지정후의 이익조정 측정치를 측정하여 감사인 지정이 기업의 회계투명성을 개선시켰는지를 검증했다. 기존의 선행연구는 상장예정기업 중에서 38%에 해당하는 실제로 상장한 기업만을 대상으로 검토하였으나, 본 연구에서는 상장한 기업뿐만 아니라 상장하지 못한 62%에 해당하는 기업도 포함하여 분석하였다. 이익조정의 측정치는 재량적 발생액에 기초한 이익조정과 실물활동을 통한 이익조정을 사용했다.
1,121개의 상장예정기업을 대상으로 실증분석한 결과 첫째, 상장예정기업의 경우 감사인이 지정된 후 재량적 발생액을 이용한 이익조정이 유의적으로 감소하여 회계정보의 투명성이 개선되었음을 확인했다. 둘째, 상장예정기업으로 감사인을 지정받았으나 상장하지 못한 기업은 감사인 지정 이후에 재량적 발생액을 이용한 이익조정이 유의적으로 감소하였으나, 상장한 기업의 경우에는 재량적 발생액을 이용한 이익조정의 유의적 차이를 발견하지 못했다. 즉, 상장예정기업에 대한 감사인 지정제도는 상장한 기업과 상장하지 못한 기업에 차별적으로 영향을 미쳤다. 셋째, 상장예정기업으로 감사인이 지정되더라도 실물활동을 통한 이익조정은 유의적인 변화가 없었다. 따라서 상장예정기업으로 감사인이 지정되면 회계기준상 문제가 되는 재량적 발생액을 이용한 이익조정은 감소하지만, 회계기준에 저촉을 받지 않는 실물활동을 통한 이익조정에는 영향이 없다.

영어초록

The Financial Supervisory Service (“FSS”) of Korea designates a statutory auditor to any company which falls under certain conditions stipulated by the External Audit Law of Korea. It is called the external auditor designation system and has been adopted to supplement the auditor’s independence resulting from competitive audit contract environments. The companies applying for initial public offering must have a designated statutory auditor. Public informations of unlisted companies are less than those of listed companies, which may give rise to asymmetric information between IPO firms and their investors. In order to improve the accounting transparency and reduce asymmetric information between IPO firms and their investors, FSS has introduced auditor designation system for IPO firms.
There are two ways to validate whether the auditor designation system for IPO firms effectively protects investors. First method is to validate whether auditor designation system prevents companies with low accounting transparency from going public. Second method is to validate whether auditor designation system improves the accounting transparency of companies which is successful in going public. Existing researches (Choi, K. and Kim, M. C. 1997; Choi, J. H. 2006; Kim, J. H. and Jung, J. W. 2009; Hae. J. Y. et al. 2009; Kim, M. H. 2011) are to validate effectiveness of auditor designation system for companies successfully going public and the results are not consistent. Companies appling for IPO from 2005 to 2011 was 1,121, among which only 431 companies were successfully going public. Therefore, it is anticipated that auditor designation system for IPO firms was operated more effectively for the companies which fail to be listed.
This study uses 1,121 companies appling for IPO whose auditors were designated by FSS from 2005 to 2011, and divides those into two groups, companies successfully going public and companies failing going public. Prior studies on the auditor designation system used only successfully listed companies. However, since only 431 companies (38%) of the companies having applied for an IPO were successful in going public, this study includes all the companies having applied for IPO in the analysis, regardless of success in IPO. This study is designed to validate whether the external auditor designation system improves the accounting transparency of companies going public by comparing the earnings management measures of companies before and after external auditors are designated. This study also validates whether the external auditor designation system has different impacts on the companies applying for IPO, depending on whether a company is successful in going public or not.
Graham et al.‘s (2005) survey finds that managers prefer real earnings management activities compared to accrual-based earnings management. This is the case since real earnings management activities are less likely to be scrutinized by auditors and regulators, and thus potentially have a greater probability of not being detected, although the consequences of such activitives can be economically significant to the firm. This study uses discretionary accruals and real earnings management to proxy for earnings management. Discretionary accruals are estimated using the modified Jones model developed by Dechow et al.(1995) and Kothari et al.(2005). Real earnings management are measured by three types of real activity-based earnings management including extraordinary operating cash flow, extraordinary production cost and extraordinary selling and administrative expenses, suggested by the cross-sectional models developed by Roychowdhury(2006). Existing researches use earnings management measures of immediately preceding IPO year not auditor designation year and the effect of auditor designation system may not be estimated correctly. This study compares the earnings management measures before and after external auditors are designated and minimizes noise occurring when auditor designation year is different from immediately preceding IPO year.
The major findings of this study are summarized as follows.
First, accrual-based earnings management of a company having applied for an IPO decreases significantly after an external auditor is designated by the FSS and as a result, the accounting transparency of such companies improves. Secondly, accrual- based earnings management activities decreases significantly for the companies which fail to be listed, while accrual-based earnings management decreases but not significantly for the companies successful in going public. The external auditor designation system has different impacts on the companies applying for IPO, depending on whether a company is successful in going public or not. After FSS designated auditors for the companies appling for IPO, it might not influence accrual-based earnings management activities of the transparent companies in accounting and these companies are successful in going public as planned. With respect to the companies appling for IPO with low accounting transparency, designated external auditors might influence their accrual-based earnings management activities and these companies might delay or give up going public plan. Auditor designation system might reduce companies with low accounting transparency to go public and be operated effectively along with its purpose. Thirdly, real earnings management is not much influenced by whether an external auditor is designated for IPO or not. After FSS designated external auditors for the companies appling for IPO, accrual- based earnings management activities desreased but real earnings management activities are not much influenced, which is consistent with the research results of Graham et al. (2005).

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