Audit Fee Pressure and Audit Risk: Evidence from the Financial Crisis of 2008

선우혜정,안혜진,최아름 한국회계정보학회 2015 한국회계정보학회 학술대회발표집 Vol.2015 No.2

Recent literature on audit fee reveals that auditors are under pressure to reduce audit fees during crisis (Goelz 2010; Ettredge et al. 2014). This paper investigates a novel aspect of auditor behavior: how the downward pressure on audit fees during crisis affects the audit fee structure, and how the association between audit fee pressure and audit fee structure is different among client types. The results, using Korean data for the period from 2005 to 2010, reveal the following: First, consistent with prior studies, audit fees dropped significantly during the financial crisis period, supporting the existence of downward pressure on audit fees. Second, among the determinants of audit fees, the coefficients on client size decreased significantly while those on client risk increased during crisis. These findings suggest that auditors respond differently to small clients and risky clients when facing downward pressure on audit fees. Finally, the abovementioned findings are more pronounced when the client is under high pressure to reduce expenses (i.e., when the client has deteriorating performance or the client is under financial constraint), suggesting that these clients are more likely to induce auditors to change the audit fee structure during crisis. Collectively, the above results provide useful insights into how auditors behave when they are under pressure to reduce audit fees.

감사위원회의 역할과 효과에 대한 문헌검토 : 감사위원회 모범규준을 중심으로

선우혜정,송보미,김범준,정희선 한국국제회계학회 2022 국제회계연구 Vol.- No.106

[연구목적]본 연구의 목적은 감사위원회의 역할과 효과에 대한 선행연구들을 검토하고 앞으로의 연구방향을 제시하는 데에 있다. 2018년 11월 주식회사의 외부감사에 관한 법률의 전면 개정으로 인해 외부감사인 선임 권한이 회사의 경영진에서 감사위원회로 이전됨에 따라 감사위원회는 외부감사인 선임단계에서 이전보다 강력한 권한과 책임을 가지게 되었다. 이러한 시대적 요구에 따라 한국기업지배구조원은 감사위원회 모범규준을 제정하였고 본 연구는 감사위원회 모범규준이 실무에서 요구하는 감사위원으로서의 역할을 제시한다는 관점에서 모범규준을 중심으로 감사위원회 관련 선행연구를 조사하였다. [연구방법]본 연구에서는 감사위원회 관련 연구를 크게 일곱 가지로 구분하여 살펴보았다. 첫째, 감사위원회의 특성에 관한 연구로서 감사위원회의 전문성, 독립성, 활동성을 살펴보고, 둘째, 감사위원회의 구성과 관련하여 감사위원회의 다양성, 셋째, 감사위원회 운영과 관련되어 실무에서 제공하고 있는 감사위원회 교육에 대한 연구를 살펴보았다. 넷째, 감사위원에게 제공하는 보수와 다섯째, 감사위원회와 내부감사부서 (내부통제)의 관계에 관한 연구조사를 수행하였다. 여섯째, 감사위원회와 외부감사인 간의 관계, 그리고 마지막으로, 감사위원회의 활동공시 또는 공시와의 관련성을 살펴본 연구를 조사하였다. [연구결과]선행연구를 종합해보면, 학계에서 중요시하는 감사위원회의 영역과 실무에서 중요시하는 감사위원회의 역할에 다소 차이점이 존재하는 것을 알 수 있다. 여전히 감사위원회와 관련하여 실무계에서 요구하는 연구 분야가 존재하며, 이는 연구자들에게 미래 연구의 기회를 제공할 것으로 판단된다. 특히, 감사위원회의 다양성, 감사위원에 대한 교육, 감사위원에게 제공하는 보수의 적정성이나 보수의 형태, 또는 감사위원회 활동공시에 대한 연구가 부족한 실정이다. [연구의 시사점]본 연구는 학계와 실무계에 다음과 같은 시사점을 제공한다. 첫째, 학계에서는 본 연구를 기반으로 감사위원회 관련 과거 선행연구의 범위, 추세, 방법론 등을 현재 실무에서 중요시하는 주제와 비교하여 어떠한 분야에 대한 연구가 부족하고 앞으로 필요한 지 이해함으로써 후속연구 발전에 사용할 수 있을 것이다. 둘째, 실무계에서는 감사위원회 모범규준과 관련한 학술 연구를 참고함으로써 앞으로 감독업무나 감사업무를 수행할 때 감사위원의 효과성과 효율성을 높이기 위한 방안을 마련하는 데 도움이 될 것으로 판단된다. [Purpose]This study provides a literature review and guidance for future research on the role and effect of the audit committee (AC). In Korea, the new “Act on External Audit of Stock Companies” was enacted and enforced in November of 2018, which transfers the power to appoint new auditors from management to the AC, significantly mitigating the threat of management’s influence over the auditor selection process. In response to the rising need for guidelines for the AC, the Korea Institute of Corporate Governance and Sustainability has drafted the “Audit Committee Best Practice” which we use as the main themes within the topic of AC to conduct the literature review given its focus on practice. [Methodology]We provide a synthesis of the literature review based on seven classifications: (1) characteristics of the AC using the expertise, independence, and activities of the AC; (2) diversity of the AC; (3) training for the members of the AC; (4) compensation for the AC; (5) the relation between the AC and internal control system; (6) the relation between the AC and external auditors; and (7) disclosure of AC activities. [Findings]We find that there exist gaps between the current literature on AC and areas for future research, which will provide opportunities for future research. Specifically, we find that there are voids in the literature on the topics of AC in relation to its diversity, training for its members, compensation schemes, its relation to the internal control system, and disclosure of its activities. [Implications]We provide the following contributions to the AC literature. First, academics may refer to this research to develop new research ideas and to fill the void in prior literature covering topics of AC effectiveness. Second, this research would be helpful to standard-setters, management, and external auditors by summarizing findings from prior research based on thematic classifications suggested by “Audit Committee Best Practice”, which has its focus on practice.

Financial Crisis, Accounting Conservatism and Corporate Ownership Structure

선우혜정,김명인,최종학 한국회계학회 2014 회계저널 Vol.23 No.3

n this paper, we examine how controlling shareholders’ expropriation incentives affect the level of conservatism during crisis and non-crisis periods. While previous studies have extensively investigated the link between corporate governance and firm value during crisis, not much attention has been given to the link between corporate governance and conservatism during crisis. Extending the recent study which documents a negative relation between the ownership-control wedge and conservatism, we further examine the channel through which controlling shareholders pursue self-interested behaviors at the expense of minority shareholders by using the crisis setting in Korea. A set of literature on the effect of economic crisis shows that firms with weaker corporate governance suffer more during crisis because the controlling shareholders’ incentives to expropriate minority shareholders go up as the expected return on investment falls during the crisis period. This exacerbating-effect argument implies that the negative effect of the ownership-control wedge on conservatism should be more pronounced during the crisis period, relative to non-crisis period. However, it is possible that the crisis unravels problems related to corporate governance in a firm and promotes greater investor awareness about such problems. The prediction is that the expropriation activities by controlling shareholders will be limited during crisis due to higher monitoring by investors, which we call the mitigating-effect argument. Given these conflicting arguments, it is an empirical question whether the negative effect of the wedge on conservatism will be exacerbated or mitigated during crisis.

The Effect of Conditional Conservatism on Audit Fees

선우혜정 한국회계학회 2014 會計學硏究 Vol.39 No.2

In this paper, I provide evidence on the effect of conservatism on audit fees. While prior studies investigate a wide variety of issues related to conservatism, there is scarce evidence on the effect of conservatism on auditor-client negotiations, specifically, audit fees charged by audit firms. This study fills the gap by investigating whether accounting conservatism significantly affects audit fees. It is plausible to predict that accounting conservatism lowers auditor’s litigation and reputation risk by lowering net assets and curbing managements’ tendency to misreport, and that the lower litigation and reputation costs induce lower audit fees. However, another line of literature argues that firms with a strong tone-at-the-top or monitoring mechanism (i.e., conservative reporting) may require stricter audit procedure, thus resulting in higher audit fees. Thus, whether conservatism positively or negatively affects audit fees remains an empirical question. Using a sample of 9,543 firm-year observations during the 2000-2010 period in Korea, the empirical results suggest that a firm’s conditional conservatism has a significant negative impact on the firm’s audit fees. The negative effect is incremental to effects of other known determinants of audit fees documented by prior literature, as well as, factors including corporate governance, measures of discretionary accruals, and audit hours. Further, these results are robust to a battery of sensitivity checks. Importantly, the findings remain significant after replacing the audit fee variables with abnormal audit fees, robust to reverse causality, endogeneity, exclusion of risky clients, alternative measures of conservatism, and controlling for audit firm-specific characteristics. Overall, the findings of this paper are consistent with conditional conservatism being an important determinant of audit fees.

Audit Fee Structure, Financial Crisis and Corporate Governance

선우혜정,최아름,안혜진 한국회계학회 2017 회계저널 Vol.26 No.6

This study examines the effect of corporate governance on audit fees and audit hours during the financial crisis and pre-crisis periods. While the literature on the effect of corporate governance on audit fees is replete, the results are still mixed. By exploiting the crisis setting which represents exogenous shock unrelated to governance choices or auditing, we find that firms with strong corporate governance pay significantly higher audit fees and purchase additional audit hours. We also find that the sensitivity of audit fees and hours to the strength of corporate governance is higher during the crisis period relative to the pre-crisis period. Furthermore, the structure of audit fees and hours differs between the crisis and pre-crisis periods for firms with poor corporate governance. Collectively, the above results provide useful insights into the effect of governance on determination of audit fees.

The Relation between Accruals Quality and Split Bond Ratings: Focusing on the Effect of Information Environment

선우혜정 한국산업경영학회 2023 경영연구 Vol.38 No.4

This study examines the effect of information environment on the relation between accruals quality and disagreement among credit rating agencies. While the literature on the effect of information risk on the equity market is replete, more research on the debt market is called for. In this study, I examine how the level of information environment proxied by information risk affects the way ratings agencies determine bond ratings based on accounting quality (i.e., accruals quality). Information risk is captured by four proxies: delisted status (delisted), private placement (privatepl), negative profitability (roa_opp), and the extent of variation in return on assets (stdroa). Using a sample of Korean data consisting of 1,870 observations, I find that the relation between accruals quality and split bond ratings is pronounced for firms with higher information risk. Additionally, the main results are robust to the use of individual measures of accruals quality, the use of alternative measure of split bond ratings, exclusion of the influence of major economic events such as the Enron incident or the Global Financial Crisis, the use of matched sample based on entropy balancing and inclusion of additional variables. In summary, I find that the negative impact of poor accruals quality on the rating process is accentuated for firms with a lack of accessibility to information and with difficulties in assessing a firm’s performance.

경영자 예측정보와 비대칭적 원가행태

선우혜정,박진하 한국회계정보학회 2016 한국회계정보학회 학술대회발표집 Vol.2016 No.1

본 연구는 경영자의 매출액 전망 및 예측정보에 따라 원가행태가 어떻게 다른가를 살펴보았다. 선행연구에서는 매출이 증가할 때 원가가 증가하는 정도에 비해서 매출이 감소할 때 원가가 감소하는 정도가 더 작음을 발견하고 이러한 원가행태를 “하방경직적(sticky)”이라고 표현하였다. 경영자의 미래에 대한 전망은 이러한 비대칭적인 행태와 밀접한 관련이 있다. 경영자가 미래의 전망을 낙관적으로 예상한다면 매출이 감소하더라도 유휴자원을 유지할 것이고, 반면 경영자의 미래에 대한 전망이 비관적이라면 이러한 유휴자원을 적극적으로 처분할 것이기 때문이다. 지금까지 선행연구에서는 이러한 관계를 실증적으로 조사하기 위해 기업 특성, 매출추이, 또는 경기 등 경영자의 가치나 특성을 반영하지 않은 간접적인 측정치를 사용했다면 본 연구는 이를 보완한 경영자의 실제로 갖고 있는 전망의견을 이용하여 경영자의 미래에 대한 전망 그 자체와 자원의사결정 간의 관계를 살펴보고자 한다. 이를 위하여 2003년부터 2012년까지 경영자의 매출액 영업손익 등 전망/예측 자료를 한국거래소 상장공시시스템(kind.krx.co.kr)에서 직접 수집하였다. 공정공시제도에 따라 2002년부터 국내에서는 기업이 중요한 정보를 기관투자자나 애널리스트 등의 특정집단 뿐 아니라 모든 이해관계자들에 동시에 공시하도록 되어있다. 이러한 공시자료를 이용하여 분석한 결과, 경영자의 미래에 대한 전망이 낙관적일수록 원가의 하방경직성의 정도는 증가함을 확인하였다. 뿐만 아니라 경영자의 미래에 대한 전망이 낙관적일수록 매출증가에 대한 원가반응 정도 역시 증가하였다. 이와 같은 관계는 외국인주주지분율로 측정한 경영자 예측정보의 신뢰성이 높은 표본에서만 유의하였다. 이러한 연구결과는 경영자의 미래에 대한 전망이 자원조정에 영향을 미쳐 결국 원가행태에 반영되고 있으며, 또한 그 관계가 전망정보의 신뢰성에 따라 달라질 수 있음을 시사한다. 본 연구는 경영자가 공시한 전망 그 자체를 이용한 결과에서도 경영자의 전망이원가행태에 있어서 중요한 요인임을 검증하고 있다. 더 나아가 경영자가 자신이 전망한 바에 따라 자원계획을 하는지 여부를 직접적으로 관찰할 수 있다는 점에서 기존 논문과의 차별성이 있다. 본 연구의 결과는 공시정책 담당자뿐만 아니라 투자자들에게도 시사하는 바가 클 것으로 기대된다. In contrast to the traditional model of cost behavior in which costs move proportionately with changes in activity, costs are known to be sticky , consistent with costs increasing more when activity rises than they decrease when activity falls by an equal amount. Among many, stickiness is affected by managers expectations on a firm s revenue activity. Prior literature utilizes indirect proxy of manager s expectation on firms performance, such as macroeconomic growth, financial crises or past performance, to empirically test its effect on the sticky cost behavior. This study expands this line of literature by using a more accurate, direct proxy for management expectation - management forecast information. The data on management forecast is manually collected from the corporate disclosure channel provided by Korea Exchange. Exploiting this improved proxy for management expectation, we revisit the topic of the differential effect of management assessment on firms future performance on the sticky cost behavior. Using observations from 2003 to 2012 in Korea, we find that the degree of stickiness increases when managers are optimistic about a firm s future performance. Such relation is significant among firms in which foreign ownership is relatively high, indicating that the reliability and usefulness of management forecast affects the relation between cost behavior and managers expectations. Overall, using the improved methodology, our study reinforces the finding that managers make contracting decisions that increase (reduce) the adjustment costs associated with changing the levels of committed resources, for example, by using long-term permanent (temporary) employees when their expectation on future performance is optimistic (pessimistic).

The Effect of Corporate Governance on Audit Fees and Audit Hours During the Financial Crisis of 2008

선우혜정,안혜진,최아름 글로벌경영학회 2017 글로벌경영학회 학술대회 발표논문집 Vol.2017 No.2

This study examines the effect of corporate governance on audit fees and audit hours during the financial crisis and pre-crisis periods. While the literature on the effect of corporate governance on audit fees is replete, the results are still mixed. By exploiting the crisis setting which represents exogenous shock unrelated to governance choices or auditing, we examine (1) whether firms with strong corporate governance pay significantly higher audit fees and purchase additional audit hours; (2) whether the association between corporate governance and audit fees (hours) differs between the crisis and pre-crisis periods; and (3) whether the level of governance has a differential effect on the determinants of audit fees between the crisis and pre-crisis periods. Our empirical results are summarized as follows. First, firms with strong corporate governance pay significantly higher audit fees and purchase additional audit hours. Second, the sensitivity of audit fees and hours to the strength of corporate governance is higher during the crisis period relative to the pre-crisis period. Furthermore, the audit fee structure differs between the crisis and pre-crisis periods for firms with poor corporate governance. These results remain significant after using alternative measures of corporate governance and audit fees. Collectively, the above results provide useful insights into the effect of governance on determination of audit fees.

지분율 괴리도가 재무분석가의 이익예측치오차에 미치는 영향

선우혜정 ( Catherine Heyjung Sonu ),최종학 ( Jong Hag Choi ),이병희 ( Bryan Byung Hee Lee ) 한국회계학회 2010 회계학연구 Vol.35 No.2

본 연구에서는 지배주주의 의결권과 배당권의 차이인 지분율 괴리도로 측정한 기업의 지배구조 수준이 재무분석가가 발표하는 이익예측치의 오차와에 미치는 영향에 대해 살펴보았다. 한국 기업의 지배구조는 피라미드 형태의 계열사 소유구조와 계열사 사이의 상호출자에 의한 지배주주의 간접지배라는 두 가지 특징을 가지고 있다. 그 결과 소유주 또는 지배주주의 배당권(즉, 기업의 현금흐름 중 자신의 실질지분율)은 상대적으로 적은 반면, 의결권(즉, 지배주주의 계열사간 상호출자, 특수 관계자 등을 통한 간접 통제권을 반영한 지분율)은 상대적으로 높다는 특징을 가지고 있다. 이러한 지분율 괴리도가 커지게 되면 지배주주가 소액주주의 권리를 침해하여 자신의 사적 이익을 추구할 가능성이 높아지게 된다. 따라서 기업은 이러한 사실을 외부 이해관계자들로부터 숨기기 위하여 정보공개를 꺼릴 가능성이 존재한다. 그 결과 시장에 이용가능한 정보가 부족하게 되어 재무분석가들이 발표하는 이익예측치의 오차가 상대적으로 더 커질 수 있다. 또한 지분율 괴리도가 큰 경우 기업들이 이익조정을 더욱 활발하게 하기 때문에, 이로 인해 재무분석가들이 발표하는 이익예측치의 오차가 커질수도 있다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 가설을 실증자료를 이용하여 분석해 보았다. 분석 결과는 다음과 같이 요약된다. 첫째, 예상과 일치하게 지분율 괴리도가 증가할수록 재무분석가의 이익예측치의 오차가 증가하였다. 둘째, 의결권과 배당권을 별도의 변수로 분리하여 분석을 실시한 결과 의결권이 높아질수록 이익예측치의 오차가 증가하였으나 배당권은 이익예측오차와 유의적인 관계를 보이지 않았다. 셋째, 오차를 방향성에 따라 구분해본 결과 지배주주의 의결권은 낙관적 오차와 유의적인 관련성을 가지고 있었지만 비관적 오차와는 유의적인 관련성이 발견되지 않았다. 지배주주의 배당권은 재무분석가가 비관적인 예측을 하거나 낙관적인 예측을 하는지의 여부에 관계없이 재무분석가의 이익예측오차와 유의적인 관계를 갖지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 재무분석가가 낙관적인 이익예측을 한 경우에 지배주주의 의결권이 높아질수록 재무분석가의 이익예측치가 높아진다는 의미이다. 이러한 본 연구의 발견은 규제기관이나 학계, 실무 종사자들과 투자자들에게 유용한 많은 시사점을 제공하고 있다. This study examines the effect of corporate governance measured by the ownership wedge (the difference between voting rights and cash flow rights) on the error and bias of the earnings forecasts issued by financial analysts. Korean corporate governance practice are characterized by the dominance of large business conglomerate, so called Chaebol. The conglomerates normally have pyramidal structure and cross-shareholdings which enable controlling shareholders to control the entire companies belonging to the conglomerate even with only a small percentage of direct ownership. As a result, compared with the percentage of ownership, cash flow rights (or the rights to receive dividends that the controlling shareholders have) are relatively low, therefore, the controlling shareholders can control far greater percentage of control rights (voting rights that the controlling shareholders have). This type of ownership wedge can significantly influence the firms` and managers` behavior. As the ownership wedge increases, the chance that controlling shareholders expropriate minority shareholders increases. The controlling shareholders have less incentive to distribute the wealth of the firms to the minority shareholders because the controlling shareholders have less percentage of cash flow rights, but the controlling shareholders can transfer the wealth of the firms to themselves via hidden or intra-company transactions, in order to increase their personal wealth. It is possible because they have greater voting rights. The controlling shareholders also can try to build their personal empire or make entrenchment to pursue their personal wealth rather than to distribute the wealth to the minority shareholders. These kinds of behavior of the controlling shareholders can influence the characteristics of the earnings forecasts issued by financial analysts. First, as the wedge increases, firms may manipulate earnings more frequently in order to increase the controlling shareholders` personal wealth. Because analysts are not able to forecast how much firms manipulate earnings, it is possible that the difference between reported earnings by firms and analysts` forecasts for the earnings (i.e., the error of analysts` forecasts) increases as firms manipulate earnings more. As a result, the increased wedge can be related to the increased forecast errors. Second, as the ownership wedge increases, the firms have more incentives to transfer wealth from minority shareholders to the controlling shareholders. Firms would like to hide such incentives and their activity from minority shareholders. As a result, firms are likely to disclose less amount of information to the market to avoid being detected by the minority shareholders. As less information available in the market, it is more difficult for financial analysts to predict future earnings using the available information. Thus, the analysts` forecast error increases for those firms, resulting in the significant association between the ownership wedge and the forecast errors. This paper investigates this prediction using empirical data from listed firms in Korean Stock Exchange. The ownership wedge data are publicly available from 2003 to year 2008, which are disclosed by Korean Fair Trade Commission. The financial and stock price data are retrieved from KIS-VALUE LIBRARY database and KCMI (Korea Capital Market Institute) database, respectively. Finally, analysts` earnings forecast data are collected from DataGuidePro database provided by FnGuide. A total of maximum 547 firm-year observations are used in the empirical analyses. The empirical findings are summarized as follows. First, consistent with expectation, the ownership wedge is positively associated with the errors in analysts` earnings forecasts. Second, we separate the ownership wedge to cash flow rights and voting rights and re-perform the analyses. We find that the documented associations above are all driven by voting rights, not cash flow rights. As a result, as the percentage of the voting right increases, the errors in analysts` forecasts increase. Third, we separate the analysts` forecasts depending on the sign of the forecast error into optimistic or pessimistic forecasts. We find the significant association only for the samples with optimistically biased forecasts but fail to find any significant relationship for the samples with pessimistically biased forecasts. It implies that as voting rights increase, the likelihood that financial analysts issue optimistically biased earnings forecasts increases. It supports the argument that the uncertainty related to the firm performance for the firms with ownership wedge motivate analysts to issue more optimistic forecasts, which enable analysts to maintain close relationship with firms. The findings in this study are interesting and provide several valuable implications to regulators, academics, practitioners, as well as individual investors and controlling shareholders. Regulators and firms need to improve corporate governance practice to prevent this type of problems. Regulators may need to pay more attention to the firms that have greater wedge in order to minimize any potential detrimental effects and find a way to tone down optimistic bias in the forecasts issued by those firms. Investors also need to be careful when they invest in the firms with greater wedge. Researchers need to study the effect of the wedge in more detail and try to develop ways to minimize the effect of the wedge. Practitioners, such as auditors, also need to be careful when they audit the financial statements of such firms and invest in firms.

세대별 방송대 학습요구 분석 및 학생자원 창출방안 연구

정연희, 김명진, 이은경, 선우혜정, 양홍권, 최용득 한국방송통신대학교 2017 정책과제 Vol.2017 No.-

고등교육 보편화로 인해 대학미진학 인구가 감소하는 상황에서 사이버대학이나 학점은행제 같은 경쟁기관은 증가하면서 우리대학의 학생 규모가 급격히 감소하는 위기 상황이 대두되었다. 이에 우리대학에서는 학생 수 감소에 대응하여 학생자원 창출방안을 모색하는 연구들을 지속적으로 진행하였다. 본 연구는 지금까지의 연구성과를 바탕으로 세대 간 차이에 주목함으로써 학생자원 창출방안을 모색하고자 하였다. 학생자원 창출은 두 가지 측면에서 생각해 볼 수 있는데 신규 입학자원 확보와 학업중단 방지가 그것이다. 선행연구들에 따르면 연령은 이 두 측면 모두에서 중요한 영향을 미치는 변인으로 연령대에 따라 재학생 수의 증감추이가 다르게 나타났다. 본 연구는 방송대 재학생들을 연령코호트에 따라 세대로 구분하고 각 세대별 특성 및 학습 요구를 분석함으로써 입학자원 확보방안 및 학업중단 방지방안을 제시하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 연구대상의 범위는 방송대 학부는 물론 방송대 대학원과 프라임칼리지 학위과정을 포함하였다.