감사인 특성이 글로벌 금융위기 시 감사보수 할인과 감사품질에 미친 영향 = The Effect of Auditor Characteristics on Audit Fee Discount and Audit Quality during the Global Financial Crisis

국문 초록 (Abstract)

최근 코로나19 팬데믹으로 인한 글로벌 위기상황 때문에 기업 경영활동의 불확실성은 더욱 높아졌다. 이러한 위기의 시기에 회계시스템은 기존과는 다른 방식으로 운영될 것으로 예상된다. 본 연구에서는 과거 글로벌 금융위기 시기에 회계감사인이 피감기업의 감사보수 할인압력에 어떻게 대응했으며, 그 결과 감사품질에 어떠한 영향이 있었는지 살펴봄으로써 위기의 시기에 관련 시사점을 얻는 것을 목적으로 한다. 특히 감사인이 금융위기에 감사보수를 할인한 배경을 감사인의 능력을 반영하는 특성(예: 계속감사 여부 및 산업전문성)에 비추어 살펴본다. 본 연구의 실증분석 결과는 다음과 같다. 우선 국내 선행연구와 일치하게 금융위기 시기에 그 이전과 비교하여 감사보수 할인현상을 발견하였다. 그런데 이러한 감사보수 할인현상은 감사인 교체기업 표본에서는 발견되지 않고 계속감사기업 표본이며 산업전문가가 감사인이 감사한 표본에 한해 나타났다. 또한 계속감사기업 표본에서 산업전문 감사인들은 금융위기 시기에 금융위기 전과 비교하여 감사시간을 줄였으나 감사품질에는 유의적인 변화가 없었다. 이러한 사실은 산업전문 감사인들은 금융위기 시기 계속감사 중인 피감기업의 어려움에 동참할 목적으로 감사보수를 할인하지만 수익성을 금융위기 전의 수준으로 유지할 목적으로 감사시간을 줄였음에도 불구하고, 계속감사를 통해 누적된 피감기업에 대한 전문지식 및 산업전문성을 활용하여 감사품질을 훼손하지 않을 수 있었음을 시사한다. 반면 초도감사인 및 비산업전문 감사인의 경우 피감기업에 대한 누적된 지식 및 전문성 부족으로 글로벌 금융위기시 감사시간 조정을 통해 감사보수를 할인하는 등의 의사결정을 할 수 없었던 것으로 보인다. 본 연구는 불확실성이 높아진 경영상황에서 이에 대응한 감사인들의 전략적 의사결정을 실증적으로 제시하였다는 점에서 의미가 있다.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study investigates how auditors react to the fee discount pressure of client firms during the global financial crisis according to the auditor characteristics, which influences audit quality. In particular, we view that the auditors’ ability to adjust audit efforts will determine their decisions to discount audit fees during the recession. Using 3,688 Korean public firm-year observations from 2006 to 2009, we find that audit fees decrease in the crisis period (i.e. FY08 & FY09) than in the pre-crisis period (i.e. FY06 & FY07), consistent with prior findings. Above all, we find that the fee discount during the financial crisis is discovered only in the non-auditor-switching sample, not in the auditor-switching sample. Further, using the non-auditor-switching sample, we find that the fee discount is more pronounced when the client firms are audited by industry-specialized auditors. Relatedly, in order to find why these auditor characteristics (i.e. auditor tenure and industry expertise) induce audit fee discount, we additionally examine the change in audit hour and audit quality during the financial crisis. The results show that the industry-specialized auditors in the non-auditor-switching sample reduce audit hours but exhibit insignificant change in audit quality in the crisis period than in the pre-crisis period. We interpret that industry-specialized auditors who have an ability to adjust their audit efforts for the on-going audits using the accumulated information about client firms and their industry-expertise could discount audit fees without any decrease in profitability of the audit engagement and any deterioration of audit quality.

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