재무기준 요건에 의한 외부감사인 지정제도 도입이 잠재적 지정대상회사의 이익조정 및 감사인의 감사시간에 미치는 영향

The Effect of Adoption of a New Mandatory External Auditor Designation System Based on Financial Criteria on Both Earnings Management and External Audit Hours

우리나라는 낮은 회계투명성을 제고하기 위하여 2014년도 하반기에 새롭게 재무기준 요건에 의한 외부감사인 지정제도를 도입하였는데, 본 연구는 이 제도가 적용되기 전에 잠재적 외부감사인 지정 대상회사 경영자의 이익조정과 그 회사 외부감사인의 감사시간에 어떤 영향을 미쳤는지를 실증분석하였다. 연구는 과거 2개년 이내에 한번 이상 부채비율 200% 초과이면서 이자보상배율 1 미만의 경험이 있는 회사를 분석표본인 잠재적 지정대상회사로 선정하고 통제표본으로 유사 비교가능회사를 선정하여 두 집단 간 재량적 발생액에 기초한 이익조정과 실물활동을 통한 이익조정 그리고 감사시간에 차이가 있는지를 분석하였다. 분석결과 잠재적 지정대상회사의 경우 재량적 발생액에 기초한 이익조정에서는 그 관계가 통계적으로 유의하지 않았으나, 실물활동을 통한 이익조정에서는 유의한 양(+)의 관계가 확인되었다. 이는 잠재적 지정대상회사가 이 제도 하에서 외부감사인이 지정될 경우 지정외부감사인의 엄격한 회계감사와 더 높은 감사보수 그리고 부실회사라는 인식에 의한 자본조달비용의 증가가능성 등 정치적 비용의 부담을 회피하기 위하여 재량적 발생액에 기초한 이익조정 보다는 실물활동을 통한 이익조정 을 할 가능성이 높다는 것을 시사한다. 잠재적 지정대상회사의 외부감사인의 경우도 감사시간에서 유의한 양(+)의 관계가 나타났는바, 높아진 감사위험을 낮추기 위하여 상대적으로 더 많은 감사시간을 투입할 것이라는 가설이 지지되었다. 본 연구결과는 새롭게 도입된 재무기준 요건에 의한 외부감사인 지정제도의 사전적 효과를 파악한 연구로 감독당국이 이 제도의 도입효과를 파악하고 향후 정책방향을 수립하는데 도움을 줄 수 있다. 또한, 본 연구는 이 제도와 이익조정 및 감사시간의 관련성을 분석한 최초의 연구로, 새로운제도의 효과적인 정착을 위한 사후적 연구에 대한 기초자료를 제공하며, 새로운 제도 하에서 외부감사인 지정회피 목적의 이익조정 동기에 대한 일련의 기존 연구를 확장한다.

In order to improve accounting transparency in Korea, the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies was partially amended in the second half of 2014. The amendment involves adoption of a new mandatory external auditor designation system based on financial criteria(MADSFC) such as debt-to-equity ratio and interest coverage ratio, which is in effect from 2015 fiscal year. According to this amendment, any public company whose debt-to-equity ratio is more than 200%, more than 1.5 times of its respective industry average ratio, and whose interest coverage ratio is less than 1, is required to be audited by the external auditors designated by the Financial Supervisory Service(FSS) of Korea for the following fiscal year. This study empirically investigates the economic effects of the new MADSFC on managements’ financial reporting decision and external auditor’s decision in the year prior to its enforcement. Specifically, this study addresses two research questions. The first empirical question is to investigate whether the entities subject to potential external auditor designation(ESPD) engage in earnings management in order to avoid the auditor designation by the new MADSFC. The second research question is to examine whether the external auditors of perform their audits on a stricter basis in order to reduce the higher audit risk due to higher likelihood of earnings management. This study includes 79 ESPD among the publicly traded companies in the Korean stock exchange and 79 control firms matched with ESPD by considering industries and asset sizes. To examine the first research question, this study uses two measures (DA: Discretionary accruals-based earnings management and RM: Real Activity–based earnings management) to proxy for earnings management. ??DA is measured by using two models: modified Jones model developed by Dechow et al.(1995) and modified Jones model suggested by Kothari et al.(2005) taking ROA into consideration. RM is measured by using the model used by Cohen and Zarowin(2010). Using both ??DA and RM??, this study examines whether ESPDs are associated with higher DA(hypothesis 1-1) and RM(hypothesis 1-2). To address the second research question, this study uses audit hours stated in the annual reports disclosed by the publicly traded companies in Korea. Based on the regression model used by Lee et al.(2010), this study examines whether ESPD is associated with more external audit hours. The main findings of this paper are as follows: First, this paper finds that ESPD is not significantly associated with higher DA. In other words, ESPD does not manage earnings using DA??more than control firms do. Second, this study finds that ESPD??is significantly associated with higher RM. ??ESPD does manage earnings using real activities such as sales and operating expenses more than control firms do. This paper also finds that ESPD is significantly associated with more external audit hours. Earnings quality can be influenced by interaction among management, external auditors and regulatory bodies such as FSS of Korea. In 2014 when adoption of the MADSFC was disclosed, FSS announced that it would increse its monitoring activities on intentionally lowering the debt-to-equity ratio or increasing interest coverage ratio at 2014 fiscal year end and would examine external auditors more strictly and impose heavier penalties against audit failure. Considering FSS’s announcement, may prefer earnings management using real activities to earnings management using discretionary accruals, which is consistent with prior studies such as Graham et al.(2005) and Zang(2012). Earnings management using discretionary accruals can be detected and be asked to be adjusted by external auditors facing more severe (or heavier) penalties in the case of audit failure. From the perspective of external auditors of??ESPD, they would input more audit hours in auditing ESPD which has incentives to manage earnings to avoid political costs