Does the Asset Impairment Enhance Analyst Forecast Accuracy?

정주렴,이호영 한국회계학회 2016 會計學硏究 Vol.41 No.3

This study examines how the asset impairment affects analysts’ forecasts. Regulatory boards suggest that asset impairment provides useful information in predicting future firm cash-flow, while several studies raise concerns on substantial high flexibility in timing, measurement, and disclosure contents of impairment. We first examine whether analysts’ forecast accuracy and bias for one to three years ahead earning differ in firms with asset impairment when compared to firms without impaired assets. Next, we examine whether analyst forecast accuracy for firms with asset impairment differs after the reinforced regulation with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption. Using the firm-years from 2006 to 2013 listed in Korea, we find evidence that asset impairment charges are related to more optimistic and less accurate analyst forecasts. This result implies that opportunistic recognition for earning management or complexity in measuring impairments may lower informative contents of asset impairment on future earnings. Secondly, we find that the enforced IFRS adoption has no significant impact on the association. These results are robust after controlling for firm characteristics or self-selection bias using Heckman 2 stage or propensity score matching. These findings have valuable implications for users of financial statements including financial analysts and regulators.

Predictive Ability of Unverifiable Fair Value Accounting: Evidence from Asset Impairment

정주렴,이호영 한국회계학회 2016 會計學硏究 Vol.41 No.4

This study investigates whether asset impairment disclosure better enables investors to incorporate future earnings using a future earnings response coefficient (FERC) model. Using Korean firm-year data from 2006 to 2011, we find that impairment disclosure and impairment charges are negatively associated with the FERC. This negative relationship is stronger for firms with income smoothing or big bath incentives and those with impairment of non-financial assets. However, external monitoring as reflected by majority shareholder ownership or industry specialist auditors mitigates this negative relationship. No significant impact of strengthened accounting rules through IFRS adoption on the FERC of asset-impaired firms is evident. These results are robust after controlling for firm characteristics and self-selection bias. These findings imply that disclosure of asset impairment does not provide useful forward-looking information, as the regulatory boards intended, and may even decrease the predictive ability of firms with opportunistic earnings management incentives. The findings also suggest that effective monitoring systems enhance information value, although reinforced regulation through IFRS adoption does not. These findings have valuable implications for regulators, academics, and investors.

경영자 능력이 기업의 투자효율성에 미치는 영향

정주렴,김범준,권세원 한국회계정보학회 2017 회계정보연구 Vol.35 No.1

This study empirically investigates how the management ability enhances investment efficiency. Following McNichols and Studden (2008), we define over- or under-investment when the firms invest more or less than optimal investment. Management ability is measured by Data Envelop Analysis used in Demerjian (2012). Using 4,744 listed samples covering the period of 2005-2014, we suggest that the managerial ability is positively associated with investment efficiency by reducing both over- and under-investment. Also we find that during financial crisis, manager ability further decreases over-investment. These results suggest that more abled managers invest more efficiently considering the overall economic circumstances around the firm. This study contributes the literature by suggesting additional evidence how the management ability enhances the firm performance suggested by Ko et al. (2013) and Demerjian et al. (2013), and by extending the recent researches on impact of management ability. Also this study provides valuable implication to investors and board of directors by providing evidence that the able managers consider the general economic circumstances and investment efficiently. 본 연구는 경영자 능력이 기업의 투자효율성을 제고하는지 실증적으로 분석하였다. 경영자능력은 Demerjian et al.(2012)의 측정치를 활용하였고, 기업의 투자효율성은 McNichols and Stubben(2008)의 측정방법을 이용하여 산출하였다. 분석결과, 경영자 능력이 높을수록 과소투자 및 과대투자가 감소하여 투자효율성이 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 글로벌 금융위기당시 능력있는 경영자는 과대투자를 적극적으로 감소시킴으로써 투자효율성을 제고한 것으로나타났다. Demerjian et al.(2012)이 DEA기법을 통한 경영자능력 측정방법을 제시한 이후 경영자 능력에 따른 이익조정, 조세회피와 같은 다양한 의사결정에 미치는 연구가 활발히 이루어져 왔다. 본 연구는 경영자의 능력에 따라 기업의 투자의사결정이 달라지며 투자효율성이차별적임을 제시함으로써 기존 연구를 확장하였을 뿐만 아니라. 경영자 능력이 기업 성과를높이는 선행연구(고창열등 2013, Demerjian et al. 2013)를 지지하는 추가적인 증거를 제시한다. 뿐만 아니라, 글로벌 금융위기와 같은 외부환경의 충격에도 경영자 능력이 높은 기업의 투자효율성이 높다는 점을 제시함으로써 이사회 및 투자자에게 중요한 시사점을 제시하고 있다.

The Effect of Asset Revaluation on the Cost of Debt: Evidence from Korea

정주렴,김영준,이호영 한국회계학회 2014 회계저널 Vol.23 No.3

During the 2007-2010 financial crisis, the Korean government allowed asset revaluation, which was to be introduced with the adoption of the IFRS, earlier than scheduled, in an attempt to strengthen firms’ financial position. As a result of this allowance, many firms introduced asset revaluation which increased the size of assets and stockholders’ equity. This paper studies whether asset revaluation during that period had an impact on firms’ cost of debt. More specifically, using the firm-years listed on the Korea Exchange during the recent financial crisis, we examine the changes in the cost of debt as proxied by credit ratings and bond spreads. We find that, on average, asset revaluation has no effect on the cost of debt. The positive effect of asset revaluation is limited to credit rating for highly-leveraged firms. Our findings suggest that bond rating agencies are sensitive to the likelihood of a debt covenant violation while bond market investors do not interpret asset revaluation as a fundamental improvement of the firm’s financial condition. Our results imply that asset revaluation can be marginally effective in mitigating the effects of the financial crisis.

재무분석가의 관점에서 살펴본 자산재평가 전후의 회계정보의 유용성 차이

정주렴 ( Ju Ryum Chung ),김영준 ( Young Jun Kim ),최종학 ( Jong Hag Choi ) 한국회계학회 2013 회계학연구 Vol.38 No.1

이사책임경감조항 도입 기업의 특성

김범준,정주렴,권세원 한국공인회계사회 2018 회계·세무와 감사 연구 Vol.60 No.1

In 2012, The Korean Ministry of Justice revised the Commercial Law to support firms in rapidly changing business environment. As part of revision, director’s liability limitation provision(LLP, hereafter) is newly introduced which limit director’s personal liability up to 6 times(3 times for outside director) of his/her annual salary and accordingly protect directors from personal indemnification for business decision. The Korean Ministry of Justice announced that this provision is included for the firms to hire capable managers more easily and promote proactive investment activities. Consequently, more than half of firms listed in Korean Stock Exchange adopted the LLP. However, critics argue that the LLP, by reducing management’s responsibility, would enhance managerial entrenchment and deprive investors and creditors’ benefit. In some firms it actually happens that the proposals to adopt LLP is rejected by institutional investor or some minor/foreign investors. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to empirically study whether the purpose of adoption LLP is achieved. In this paper, we try to address this issue by investigating firm characteristics of adopting director’s liability limitation provision. We use the 889 samples listed in Korean Stock Exchange for the period of 2012 to 2013. The empirical results are summarized as follows. First, the firms with lower growth potential, measured by market to book ratio, and higher stock return volatility are more likely to adopt the LLP. This result suggest the possibility that the management try to adopt LLP to avoid potential shareholder lawsuit, when they expect low performance and high stock volatility. Second, the firm tend to adopt the LLP more when the controlling owner is member of board of director or have higher ownership. This suggests that when the controlling owner has high responsibility, he/she tends to try to adopt the LLP. Lastly, the firms with less outside director and more frequent board meeting adopt the LLP more, which suggest that the deteriorated governance and lots of issues to be discussed positively affect the decision to adopt the LLP. Overall, the results of our study imply that the management tends to adopt the LLP to avoid potential personal liability rather than to recruit capable managers or more proactively involve in investment for future growth as the regulatory board expected. Our study contributes to literature, regulatory board and investors. First, even though LLP can highly affect the management behaviour, few studies except Yum et al. (2014) investigate how the LLP is implemented. This study extend Yum et al. (2014) by rigorously studying the motives of LLP adoption. Second, we suggest policy implication by providing evidence that LLP may be utilized as management’s opportunistic purpose, rather than as the regulatory board expected. Third, the investors may adjust the investment decision or propose the opinion in shareholders’ general meeting by understanding the characteristics of firms adopting the LLP. 본 연구는 개정된 상법에 따라서 정관에 도입이 가능해진 이사책임경감조항의 도입 유인을 분석하였다. 개정 상법은 주주에 대한 이사의 책임을 일정 금액 이내로 제한함으로써 유능한 이사를 쉽게 영입하고 이사의 진취적인 경영을 독려하기 위하여 제정되었다. 그러나 반대로 해당 조항이 경영진의 책임을 경감시킴으로써 주주와 경영진간의 대리인 비용을 증가시키고 경영진의 사적 이익을 위해 사용될 수 있다는 우려도 제시되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 이사책임경감조항을 도입한 기업 특성을 분석함으로써 이 문제를 실증적으로 검토하고자 하였다. 분석 결과, 성장잠재력이 낮고 주가변동성이 높은 기업일수록, 지배주주가 등기이사로 등재되어 있을수록, 지배주주의 지분율이 클수록, 사외이사 비중이 낮고 이사회 횟수가 많을수록 이사책임경감조항을 더 도입하는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 이사책임경감조항이 미래 성장을 위한 적극적 투자 목적보다는 경영진의 책임회피목적으로 도입되고 있을 가능성을 시사하고 있다. 본 연구는 이사책임경감조항이 법 제정 의도와는 달리 기회주의적인 의도로 사용될 가능성을 제시함으로써 규제기관에 시사점을 제시하고 있다.

핵심감사제 도입이 재무분석가 이익예측에 미치는 영향

양가보,정주렴 한국공인회계사회 2023 회계·세무와 감사 연구 Vol.65 No.1

The traditional audit reports consist of audit opinion, responsibility, and financial statement. However, recently this format is criticized that it often causes expectation gap between auditor and information users and the understandability of information is below than expected, and therefore needs improvement. PCAOB(2007) also comments the current audit reports should include more relevant discussion about the audit procedure, rather than current simple pass/fail opinion. Under this circumstances, the global regulatory authorities spur the research and development of audit report revision, one of which is Key Audit Matter(KAM, hereafter). The auditor select KAM after discussion with internal monitoring instruments such as audit committee, and includes explanation, reason, procedure and results of selected KAM in audit report. In Korea, KAM is introduced in the order-made production industry at first in 2016, and gradually adopted in all listed firms until 2020. Financial Supervisory Service suggests that the purpose of KAM is to provide more useful information to audit report users by adding the disclosure and evaluation on key business risk and therefore to enhance the information value of audit report. Therefore it is meaningful a t this moment to discuss whether KAM adopted i n Korea provides m ore useful information as intended. The prior literature which investigates the effect of KAM introduction mainly focuses on audit quality and stock market reaction. In this study, we empirically analyse whether KAM contributes to reduce the information asymmetry and enhance the usefulness of audit reports, as intended, to audit report users, especially financial analysts who is professional financial information users. Analysts produce the investment opinion and earning forecast using private information and disclosed financial information. Also they evaluate the reliability of financial statement produced by management and auditor. Their opinion and analysis affect the capital market, by being used by investors as key reference. Therefore this study contributes to the literature and regulatory authorities whether the KAM achieve what is intended by suggesting the impact on analysts forecast properties. Using the listed firm-years which adopt KAM from 2016-2021, we examine whether the adoption of KAM and number of KAM affects the number of analyst and forecast error. As a result of analysis, first, we find no significant association between KAM and number of analysts in general, but in small sized firm the number analysts reduced in firms which adopt KAM. This imply that KAM disclosure may confuse the information users in low-quality information environment. Second, the analyst forecast error in general increases after KAM adoption, especially big sized firm. Also the more KAM categories are, the less the number of analysts and the higher the analyst forecast errors are. These results may indicate that the excessive information makes the decision making more difficult. Lastly, the changes in number of KAM category compared to last year is negatively associated with number of analyst in small firm, and positively associated with earning forecast error. This results are rubost after excluding the period which could be affected by COVID19. This study has some caveats. First, the sample period may not be enough to analyze depending on the firm size, because the KAM adoption is finalized in 2020. Second, we acknowledge that the results is due to another economic reasons which we fail to find. Lastly the detailed characteristics of KAM category may affect the analysts, which i s not captured i n this study. Future studies could extend this study by adding the sample period and more detailed KAM information. 국내에서 핵심감사제는 회계투명성 및 분식회계 문제가 제기된 수주산업을 대상으로 2016년 우선시행된 이후 2018년부터 2020년까지 단계적으로 전체 상장사에 도입되었다. 도입된 핵심감사제는 개정 국제감사보고기준의 주요감사사항보고를 한국 실정에 맞게 수정 및 변형한 것으로, 기업의 주요 경영위험에 대한 정보를 제공함으로써 감사보고서의 유용성 및 정보가치를 제고하기 위한 제도이다. 이에 본 연구에서는 핵심감사제가 실제로 주요 재무정보이용자에게 유용한 정보를 제공했는지 검증하기위하여 전문적인 정보 이용자인 재무분석가를 대상으로 실증분석하였다. 그 결과 전반적으로 핵심감사사항 공시는 재무분석가 수에는 영향을 미치지 않았으나 정보환경이 상대적으로 좋지 않은 작은 규모의 기업의 경우에는 핵심감사사항을 공시하는 경우 재무분석가의 수가 오히려 감소하는 결과를 보였다. 또한 핵심감사제를 도입한 경우 재무분석가의 이익예측오차는 증가하였으며, 이러한 결과는 규모가큰 기업에서 더 뚜렷하게 나타났다, 마지막으로 핵심감사사항 항목 수 및 변동을 검토한 결과 항목 수가 많을수록, 그리고 항목수가 전년도 대비 증가하였을수록 이익예측오차는 증가하고 규모가 작은 기업의 재무분석가 수도 감소하였다. 이러한 결과는 코로나로 인한 영향을 제외하기 위하여 해당 기간을제외한 경우에도 강건하게 나타났다. 본 연구는 핵심감사사항이 도입 의도대로 감사보고서의 유용성제고에 도움이 되었는지를 실증적으로 검토하였다는 점에서 유관기관 및 관련 연구에 시사점을 제시한다.

연구개발투자가 경영자-감사인간 의견불일치에 미치는 영향

조은정,정주렴 한국회계정보학회 2022 회계정보연구 Vol.40 No.4

[Purpose] R&D investment is indispensable for long-term growth and survival in business and the amount involved is quite significant. However, the outcome and benefit are not visible in short term, which increase the information asymmetry between management and information users. Also R&D is often misused as a tool for real earning management or accounting treatment. Therefore in this study we analyse how the R&D affect the audit quality, proxied by management-auditor disagreement. [Methodology] The regression model is used with KSE and KOSDAQ listed firms. Also for robustness test, propensity score matching method is used to mitigate potential endogeneity issue. [Findings]We find that firms with larger research and development investment have less management-auditor disagreement, and this association weaken in big4 auditor group. This results imply that high audit risk decreases the audit quality, but high quality audit by big4 auditor could decrease the audit quality deterioration. Also the firm expensing all R&D investment rather than capitalization has higher management-auditor disagreement, which indicate that the auditor adjust capitalized R&D expenditure to expense. [Implications] This study could broaden the understanding on financial statement and audit quality by suggesting that R&D expenditure affects the audit environment.

감사인 특성이 경영자-감사인간 의견불일치에 미치는 영향

조은정,정주렴 한국공인회계사회 2021 회계·세무와 감사 연구 Vol.63 No.4

This study analyzes the effect of the various characteristics of the auditors reported in the accounting firm’s annual report on the audit quality measured by disagreement between management and auditors. Recently, regulators recognized the importance of accounting firms’ annual reports and have required the disclosure of them to the electronic disclosure system (DART) to facilitate access to relevant information, and expanded the scope of disclosure through law amendments. Based on these accounting firms’ annual reports, this study considers audit firm characteristics that could affect audit quality, which are classified into variables related to auditor’s ability(expertise) and auditor independence. We use partner ratio, auditor experience, and number of clients per partner as variables related to auditor’s ability. Then we use audit fee per partner, accounting firm debt ratio, and reserve for compensation ratio as variables related to auditor’s independence. In previous studies, audit quality was often measured by discretionary accrual, financial statement error correction or audit opinion, which uses financial statements, the output of external audits. However by the conceptual definition, audit quality should be the corrected earning during the audit process. In this study, we use more direct measure to measure audit quality, which is management-auditor disagreement. In Korea, it is mandated to disclosure the earning before external audit process if the firm expects the sales, operating income or net income to change more than 30% compared to previous year (15% if large firms). We use this earning before external audits as preliminary earning, and calculate the management-audit disagreement by deducting it from reported earning after external audits. Using the KOSPI listed firm-years from 2011-2017, we examine the relation between various characteristics of auditors and management-auditor disagreement. As a result of analysis, we find that audit quality as measured by management- auditor disagreement are positively associated with partner ratio. accountant experience is partially related, and the number of clients per partner is negatively associated. This implies that audit quality enhances as auditors’ ability increase. In addition, the higher audit fee per partner, the less management-auditor disagreement is. This results may indicates that the higher audit fee, which could lead auditors more economically subordinate to the client, makes independent audits difficult. Another measures related to the auditor's independence, the liability ratio and the liability reserve ratio, are not statistically significant to the audit quality. This study provides evidence on the validity of the regulators' policy to expand the disclosure of recent annual reports by showing that the information in the accounting firm's annual report is related to actual audit quality, using more direct measure. Also, this study contributes to the investors by enhancing the users’ understanding on the various information disclosed in the accounting firms’ annual report and providing criteria for the investors’ preliminary assessment of the audit quality. This study has some caveats. First, the results may be biased because the sample is limited to the firms which disclosure the preliminary earning. Second, we acknowledge that each firms’ specific auditor characteristic could be better proxy than current audit firms’ average characteristics, which we could not perform due to data unavailability. Future studies could extend the study if the disclosure of auditor information is extended. 본 연구는 회계법인의 사업보고서에 보고되는 다양한 감사인의 특성이 경영자-감사인간 의견불일치로 측정한 감사품질에 미치는 영향에 대해 분석하였다. 규제당국에서는 회계법인의 사업보고서에 대한중요성을 인지하고 관련 정보의 접근가능성을 용이하게 하기 위해 전자공시시스템(Dart)에 이를 공시하도록 하였고, 법 개정을 통해 정보의 공시범위도 확장하였다. 본 연구는 이러한 회계법인의 사업보고서를 바탕으로 감사품질에 영향을 미칠 수 있는 특성을 고려하였는데, 크게 감사인의 능력(전문성) 과 관련된 변수(파트너비율, 회계사 경력, 파트너 1인당 감사기업 수)와 감사인의 독립성과 관련된 변수(파트너 1인당 감사보수, 회계법인 부채비율, 손해배상준비금율)로 나누어 분석하였다. 선행연구에서주로 감사의 결과물인 재무제표의 품질을 통해 감사품질을 간접적으로 측정한 데 반해, 본 연구에서는감사품질의 개념적 정의에 보다 가까운 측정치인 경영자-감사인간 의견불일치를 이용하여 감사품질을측정하였다. 분석결과 법인 내 파트너 비율이 증가할수록 경영자-감사인간 의견불일치로 측정한 감사품질은 증가하였으며, 파트너 1인당 감사기업 수는 경영자-감사인간 의견불일치와 음(-)의 관계가 있었다. 이는감사인의 능력(전문성)이 증가할수록 감사품질이 증가함을 의미한다. 또한, 파트너 1인당 감사보수가증가할수록 경영자-감사인간 의견불일치는 감소하는 것으로 나타나 감사보수가 클수록 감사인이 피감사인에게 경제적으로 종속되어 독립적인 감사가 어려울 수 있음을 시사한다. 이 외에 감사인의 독립성과 관련된 측정치인 회계법인 부채비율 및 손해배상준비금율은 감사품질과 통계적으로 유의한 관계가 없었다. 본 연구는 정보이용자로 하여금 회계법인의 사업보고서상 공시되는 다양한 정보에 대한 이해를 증가시키고 해당 감사인의 감사품질의 사전적 판단에 대한 기준을 제공하였으며, 회계법인 사업보고서상정보가 실제 감사품질과 관련이 있음을 보여 최근 사업보고서 공시를 확대하도록 한 규제당국의 정책이 타당함을 뒷받침 하였다는 공헌점이 있다.

경제적 불확실성이 연구개발비 회계처리와 연구개발비 지출의 기업가치 관련성에 미치는 영향

김재은,정주렴 한국세무회계학회 2023 세무회계연구 Vol.- No.78

[Purpose] Even under economic uncertainty, research and development (R&D) investment is one of the main sources of corporate survival and success. However it is possible that management’s subjective judgment is involved in the R&D accounting treatment. Therefore it’s important to identify whether managers has made reasonable decisions, especially under economic uncertainty. This study tries to identify whether managers utilize R&D accounting as a means of profit adjustment, when economic uncertainty increases, and also how R&D expenditure affects firm value relevance in the midst of economic uncertainty. [Methodology] We conduct an empirical analysis of firms listed on the securities and KOSDAQ markets from 2001 to 2021. We use WUI to measure economic uncertainty, which is calculated by using text data by Ahir et al.(2018). [Findings] We find managers prefer to capitalized R&D when economic uncertainty increases. Also, investors perceive expensed R&D negatively in the midst of economic uncertainty, and capitalized R&D has no significant impact on stock market. This result is robust when we use dummy variable based on median value of WUI. We then divide the sample into R&D investment above 0.01%, 0.1% and 0.5% of total capital, and find that investors also react negatively to R&D capitalization in samples with R&D investment more than 0.5% of capital. [Implication] This study contributes the literature and regulators by identifying the effect of economic uncertainty on managers’ R&D accounting decision-making process and the effect of economic uncertainty on investors’ investment decisions on R&D expenditures. It also help investors on future investment decisions regarding to the R&D expenditure. [연구목적] 최근 COVID-19 전염병 대유행 및 러시아-우크라이나 전쟁 등 대형 위기가갑작스럽게 발생하고 산업환경도 급변하면서 미래를 예측하기 어려운 경제적 불확실성이 커지고 있다. 이러한 환경 속에서 기업의 적절한 연구개발 투자는 장기적인 기업의 생존 및 성공의 주요 원천 중 하나이다. 그러나 연구개발비는 투자결정 및 회계처리에 있어서 경영자의 주관적인 판단이 개입될 가능성이 존재한다. 이에 경영자가 기업 경영을 위한 장기적인관점에서 연구개발비를 합리적으로 의사결정하였는지 식별하는 것은 경제적 불확실성이 높아지는 상황 하에서 더욱 중요하다. [연구방법] 본 연구는 Ahir et al.(2018)이 제시한 WUI 지수를 활용하여 경제적 불확실성이증가하는 상황에서 경영자의 연구개발비 회계처리 및 이에 대한 시장 반응을 조사하였다. [연구결과] 2001년부터 2021년까지 국내 상장기업을 대상으로 분석한 결과, 경제적 불확실성이 커질수록 연구개발비 자본화 회계처리가 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 경제적 불확실성 속에서 투자자들은 연구개발비 비용화 회계처리를 부정적으로 인식하며, 연구개발비집중도가 커질수록 자본화 회계처리 역시 부정적으로 인식하는 것으로 나타났다. [연구의 시사점] 본 연구는 최근 더욱 커지고 있는 경제적 불확실성이 경영자의 연구개발비 회계처리 의사결정 과정 및 연구개발비 지출에 대한 자본시장 반응에 미치는 영향을 확인하였다는 점에서 공헌도가 있으며, 투자자 및 정책기관의 투자 의사 결정과 정책 수립 방향에 도움이 될 것으로 기대한다.