기업특성에 따른 자율공시수준과 감사보고시차 간의 관련성에 관한 연구

Many previous studies have studied the relationship between information asymmetry and voluntary disclosure level, and the relationship between information asymmetry and audit report lag, respectively. However, no studies have validated the assumption that voluntary disclosure level can influence audit report lag. The purpose of this study is to clarify whether the voluntary disclosure level mitigates or deepens information asymmetry by verifying the relationship between voluntary disclosure level and audit reporting lag. The results can be described in two ways. First, two measures (VD, VDS) indicating the voluntary disclosure level have a significant negative relationship with audit report lag. These results suggest that the high level of voluntary disclosure is regarded as the manager's effort to alleviate information asymmetry with external stakeholders, which leads to a quick consensus between managers and auditors on financial statements, thereby reducing the audit report lag. Second, the negative relationship between voluntary disclosure level and audit report lag was more pronounced in companies with lower earnings management and capital costs, and higher foreign investor equity, credit ratings and audit fees. Based on previous studies, which information asymmetry is relatively low in these companies, the high level of voluntary disclosure can be interpreted as contributing to the reduction of information asymmetry. This study is the first attempt to verify that the voluntary disclosure level is the determinant of audit report lag, and contributed to previous studies by presenting evidence that the voluntary disclosure level mitigates information asymmetry.