기업과 감사인의 책임을 강화한 외감법 개정이 감사인 교체에 미치는 영향

[Purpose] This study analyzes the impact of the revision for the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies (External Audit Act) on auditor selection. Therefore the purpose of this study is to confirm the effect of the revision of the external audit. [Methodology] We review the contents the revised the Act on External Audit and prior research related to the auditor selection. Specifically we select 8,425 samples for the period from 2015 to 2019 and conduct an empirical analysis with a regression model. [Findings] This study show that more firms have replaced auditors than before since the implementation of the New External Audit Act. Furthermore an analysis of the auditor’s direction of change confirmed that many firms are switching to Non－Big 4 accounting firms. We find audit committee, which is proxy variable for corporate governance, has no significant effect. These results reflect the tendency of managers to appoint external auditors with relatively low audit quality to increase the likelihood of arbitrary profit adjustment and avoid strict audit procedures despite the revision of the External Audit Act to enhance accounting transparency and reliability. It seems difficult to judge the effect of the introduction of the external audit method positively as the auditors are replaced by auditors with relatively low audit quality. [Implications] This study is meaningful in that it confirmed the effect of the revision of the external audit law on companies from the pespective of managers. However since the analysis was conducted on the initial stage of implementation of the amendment of the external audit law it is necessary to add a future analysis period to verify the effectiveness of the external audit law revision.