감사인과 이익조정: 감사인 지정을 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relation between auditor-related variables and earnings management. More specifically, it attempts to empirically analyze what effect auditor designation imposed by the Korean SEC have on discretionary accruals, proxies of earnings management in this study. Moreover, dichotomized auditor size(Big4 versus NonBig4) is used as an interaction variable to see if the effects on discretionary accruals of auditor designation vary on the auditor size. Auditor-related data and financial variables in this study are collected from Kis Value database, and auditor designation data are obtained from the Korean SEC. Three measures of discretionary accruals are measured in this study; discretionary accruals using modified Jones model, performance(ROA) controlled discretionary accruals, and performance(ROA) matched discretionary accruals. Both bivariate and multi-variate statistical analyses are performed for listed non-financial institutes Korean firms during 2002-2007, of which fiscal year ends at December. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows: To see if earning management by firms is suppressed by auditor designation, this study performs some empirical analyses for both newly designated firms sample and all(newly and continuingly) designated firm sample. Statistical test results produce some evidences that firms whose auditors are newly or continuingly designated by regulatory bodies tend to have significantly lower discretionary accruals than non-designated firms. This result suggests that designated auditors be more conservative than free-engaged auditors. As to auditor size, there seems no significant difference in discretionary accruals among auditor-designated firms. These results cast a strong doubt on the argument that auditor quality may differ depending on the auditor size, at least in Korea.