THE JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH.27 November 2018

收益公告中的不完整审计：对财务报告质量和市场对收益的反应的影响

作者：NATHAN T. MARSHALL（University of Colorado Boulder）

JOSEPH H. SCHROEDER（Indiana University）

TERI LOMBARDI YOHN（Indiana University and Northwestern University）

摘要：自2004年以来，选择在审计完成之前公布年度收益而非审计完成后公布的公司的数量大幅增加。在本研究中，我们认为在审计完成前公布的收益与较低的财务报告质量和投资者认为收益更可能被夸大的看法相关。与此预期一致，我们发现市场对审计完成后公布的收益（相对于审计完成前公布的收益）的好（坏）收益消息的反应更大（更少）。当我们扩大回报窗口以包括10-K提交日时，这种不同的市场反应依然存在，这表明差异回应并非是像之前文献中所提及的那样，由投资者对收益公告与10-K提交日之间的收益修订的临时担忧或者是收益公告中的差异GAAP披露所导致的。最后，作为对财务报告质量的直接测试，我们发现，和未经完整审计的盈余公告相比，通过完全审计宣布的收益在未来不太可能被重述，不太可能达到或超过预期，并且收益增加的可自由支配的应计利息更少。

关键词：审计完整性；盈利公告；市场反应；财务报告质量

An Incomplete Audit at the Earnings Announcement: Implications for Financial Reporting Quality and the Market’s Response to Earnings

NATHAN T. MARSHALL(University of Colorado Boulder); JOSEPH H. SCHROEDER(Indiana University); TERI LOMBARDI YOHN(Indiana University and Northwestern University)

ABSTRACT

There has been a substantial increase, since 2004, in the number of firms that announce annual earnings before audit completion as opposed to after audit completion. In this study, we argue that earnings announced before audit completion are associated with lower financial reporting quality and investor perceptions that earnings are more likely to be overstated. Consistent with this expectation, we document that the market places more (less) weight on good (bad) earnings news for earnings announced after audit completion relative to earnings announced before audit completion. We continue to find this differential market response when we expand the returns window to include the 10-K filing date, suggesting that the differential response is not driven by investors’ temporary concerns about earnings revisions between the earnings announcement and the 10-K filing date or by differential GAAP disclosures in the earnings announcement, as suggested in prior research. Finally, as a direct test of financial reporting quality, we show that earnings announced with a completed audit are less likely to be restated in the future, are less likely to meet or beat expectations, and are associated with fewer income-increasing discretionary accruals than those announced with an incomplete audit.

Keywords: audit completeness;earnings announcement;market response;financial reporting quality

原文链接：https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1911-3846.12472

翻译：王霄霄