감사시간의 공시 불일치, 감사인 대응 그리고 감사품질

This study analyzes auditors consider inconsistent disclosure on audit hours released in annual report versus audit report (hereinafter “disclosure inconsistency“) as control risk and reflect it to audit price and effort. And, the study investigates whether such inconsistency is related to audit quality. Using a sample of listed companies in Korea from 2014 to 2016, the study did not find a significant relationship between the degree of disclosure inconsistency and audit fees. However, we found a significant negative relationship between the degree of disclosure inconsistency and audit hours. This shows that auditors do not perceive the disclosure inconsistency, which is less likely to be penalized by regulatory bodies and other stakeholders, as a sign of significant audit risk. In addition, auditors consider firms with a high level of disclosure inconsistency as one which are less interested in audit information, thereby reducing auditing efforts. Furthermore, disclosure inconsistency was positively related to discretionary accruals, indicating that it is associated with the deterioration of audit quality. The results of this study have the following policy implications. First, the control risk without active response of auditors is related to the deterioration of audit quality. Second, this study suggests that continuous monitoring about auditors’ audit hours by the regulatory authorities is necessary to ensure that auditors spend enough audit hours for audit risk.