감사투입시간과 감사품질 및 이익투명성

초록

Auditors determine the amount of time to be put into audit work based on audit risks. If audit risks are high, auditors will make additional efforts in to reduce the audit risks. On the other hand, if audit risks are low, audit hours may be reduced. Based on the results of previous studies indicating that there are positive(+) relationships between audit hours and audit quality, and between audit quality and accounting transparency, it can be inferred that the decrease in audit hours will lead to a drop in audit quality. The decline in audit quality will lead to a decline in accounting transparency. Namely, higher accounting transparency may reduce audit hours, resulting in lower audit quality and accounting transparency. This study examines whether audit quality improves as audit hours increase, and analyzes whether earnings transparency improves as audit quality improves. In addition, this study tests whether audit hours decrease as accounting transparency increases. This study uses earnings transparency as a proxy for accounting transparency. We find that audit quality is improved as audit hours increase, and that earnings transparency is improved as audit quality increases. Also, we find a significant negative relation between earnings transparency and audit hours. It indicates that audit quality and earnings transparency are improved by increased audit hours. However, the audit quality and earnings transparency may be reduced again due to the subsequent reduction in audit hours. Namely, this study shows that accounting transparency can be improved or deteriorated depending on audit hours. While prior studies focused on testing the effects of audit hours on audit quality and accounting transparency, this study differs from prior studies in that it tests the effects of accounting transparency on audit hours. Also, this study will provide implications for companies, auditors, and supervisory agencies. According to the findings of this study, decreases in audit hours are highly likely to act as a factor that deteriorates accounting transparency. Therefore, auditors should put at least a certain amount of audit hours in order to maintain a certain level of accounting transparency. In addition, the results of this study provide implications for the validity of the introduction of the standard audit hours, which requires sufficient and consistent input of audit hours.

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