방역작업자의 브롬화메틸(methyl bromide) 노출수준과 생물학적 모니터링

이종성,이용학,신재훈,최정근,오차재,정호근 한국산업위생학회 2001 한국산업보건학회지 Vol.11 No.3

This study was performed to estimate environmental and biological monitoring of worker exposed to methyl bromide through quarantine fumigation. Airborne methyl bromide and it's metabolites were analyzed by gas chromatography and ion chromatography, respectively. The results are as followings; airborne concentration of methyl bromide(TWA) was 2.08±1.56 ppm(N=8). Dispersion and setting/degas groups were 0.67±0.12 ppm(N=2) and 2.54±1.53ppm(N=6), respectively. Bromide ion concentration in serum was 23.40±14.91㎎/ℓ(N=10) in the exposed workers and 4.74±0.82㎎/ℓ(N=21) in the non-exposed workers. Bromide ion concentration in urine was 35.56±26.89㎎/ℓ(N=11) in exposed group and 6.62±2.31㎎/ℓ(N=21) in non-exposed group. Good correlation was observed between concentration of serum and urine(r^2=0.890 p<0.01). No significant correlations of other determinanats were observed. Calcuated from a regressive curve. the biological half lifes of serum and urine were 10.7 and 5.9 days. In these results, biological monitoring of bromide ion of serum and urine provided useful information for evaluating exposure of workers to methyl bromide, so that an availability of bromide ion of biological samples was showed as biological monitoring indices for methyl bromide.

Editor`s Note

( Jong Seo Choi ),( Jong Hag Choi ) 한국회계학회 2015 會計學硏究 Vol.40 No.1

Research Articles : Editor`s Note

( Jong Seo Choi ),( Jong Hag Choi ) 한국회계학회 2014 會計學硏究 Vol.39 No.6

The Impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Clients` Audit Opinion Shopping Behavior

( Jong Hag Choi ),( Heesun Chung ),( Catherine Heyjung Sonu ),( Yoonseok Zang ) 한국회계학회 2016 회계학연구 Vol.41 No.3

This study investigates whether the tendency for audit clients to engage in opinion shopping becomes weaker after the enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). While Lennox (2000) provides evidence that U.K. firms successfully engage in opinion shopping, there is limited evidence on the mitigating effect of SOX on opinion shopping. Using observations collected from the period before and after the enforcement of SOX (year 2001, 2004 and 2005), we find that, for our sample period, firms are likely to switch (retain) their incumbent auditors when the likelihood of receiving a going concern opinion is lower (higher) from a successor auditor, suggesting evidence of opinion shopping. More importantly, we find that firms are less likely to engage in opinion shopping after the enforcement of SOX. These findings suggest that more stringent legal and audit environment in the post-SOX period, at least partially, restricts firms’ opportunistic behavior of shopping for a better audit opinion and enhances auditor independence. These findings provide valuable implications to regulators as well as academicians and practitioners.

Audit Market Concentration and Audit Fees: An International Investigation

Jong-Hag Choi,Jeong-Bon Kim,Eugenia Y,Lee,Hee-Yeon Sunwoo 한국회계정보학회 2018 한국회계정보학회 학술대회발표집 Vol.2018 No.1

[Purpose] Several large auditor consolidations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, along with Arthur Andersen’s collapse in 2001, facilitated concentration in the global audit market. Subsequently, regulators have expressed serious concerns regarding the potential detrimental effects of this market concentration, including potential cartel pricing by dominant large auditors. However, several practitioners and academics do not agree with such concerns. To provide answers for such controversies, our study investigates the association between audit market concentration and audit fees. [Methodology] We use international data from 25 countries and proxy for audit market concentration using the Herfindahl index. [Findings] Our study yields two principal findings. First, there is, on average, no significant association between audit market concentration and audit fees. Second, a country’s legal regime changes this association dramatically: while the association is significantly positive in countries with a weak legal regime, it becomes weaker and eventually turns negative as the legal regime becomes stronger. [Implications] These findings will provide regulators and other stakeholders with important insights into the effects of audit market structure on audit pricing.

태산엘시디의 KIKO(키코) 관련 손실이 재무제표에 미친 영향

최종학 ( Jong Hag Choi ),권혜진 ( Helen Hyejin Kwon ) 한국회계학회 2011 회계저널 Vol.20 No.4

태산엘시디는 1983년 설립된 전자기기 제조업체이다. 2006년에는 매출 5,946억원, 당기순이익 111억원을 기록하여 코스닥 시장에 상장된 중소기업 중에서 놀랄만한 실적을 보여주었다. 그러나 외환거래의 비중이 높아 환율변동에 취약한 특징을 가지고 있었다. 태산엘시디는 2007년 중 KIKO(Knock-in Knock-out)라 불리는 파생상품에 가입했다. KIKO는 환율이 일정범위를 벗어나면 큰 피해를 볼 수 있는 위험한 상품이었다. 2007년에는 큰 환율변동이 없이 환율이 약정환율 주변에서 움직였기 때문에 태산엘시디는 KIKO 거래로 인한 소규모의 이익을 기록했다. 그러나 2008년 세계 금융위기의 영향으로 원달러 환율이 1,500원을 넘어서면서 태산엘시디는 KIKO 및 PIVOT(피봇) 계약에 의해 막대한 규모의 파생상품 손실을 기록하며 파산했다. 태산엘시디는 뛰어난 기술력을 보유하고 있었기 때문에 채권단에서 공동관리를 통해 기업을 살려내기로 결정했다. 이후 환율이 다시 하락하면서 태산엘시디의 파생상품 손실도 줄어들고, 주채권은행인 하나은행에서 출자전환을 실시하면서 기업이 회복하는 모습을 보이고 있다. 그런 와중에서 KIKO를 구입했다가 막대한 피해를 입은 국내의 중소기업들은 은행과 사태의 책임을 놓고 분쟁을 거듭하고 있다. 본 사례는 국내에서 큰 논란이 되었던 KIKO 사태가 재무제표에 미친 영향을 중심으로 설명한다. 따라서 투자자 관점에서 관련 재무정보를 어디서 발견할 수 있고, 그 의미를 어떻게 해석할 것인가를 생각해 본다. 또한, 태산엘시디 및 은행의 관점에서 KIKO 계약의 적정성에 대해 생각해 보고, 마지막으로 정부의 정책 및 회계제도가 기업의 재무제표에 어떤 영향을 주는지 파악하고, 정책의 정당성에 대해 논의해 볼 수 있는 기회를 제공한다. TaesanLCD is a rising manufacturing company focused on electronics industry. However, the firm is vulnerable to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuation, because most of the sales and significant portion of the raw materials are traded in foreign currency. The firm purchased KIKO(Knock-in Knock-out), a kind of foreign currency derivatives, in 2007 to hedge the foreign currency exchange risk. One can earn small profit if the exchange rate moves within a predetermined range, but make huge loss if the rate moves out of the range. During 1998, due to world economic crisis, the US$/ Korean Won exchange rate skyrocketed and eventually exceeded the predetermined range by the KIKO contract. As a result, TaesanLCD become bankrupt, recording huge loss on the contract. The Hana Bank, the main provider of KIKO to TaesanLCD, engaged in debt-equity swap and took over the firm. Not only TaesanLCD but also many other small business suffered huge loss at the same time. Those firms blamed several banks for the faulty sales of the KIKO as the reason for the loss and started legal battle against the banks. This case illustrates how the loss related to KIKO influence financial statements. Especially, in view of financial statement users, how to find information on KIKO and how to interpret it. In addition, this case also provides the chances to think the fairness of KIKO contract in view of banks that sold the KIKO and firms that purchased the KIKO. Finally, this case provides a chance to judge the appropriateness of a few controversial government policies implemented at that time to resolve the crisis of firms that suffered heavy loss due to KIKO.

신화조선과 혁신조선의 자산재평가 의사결정 사례

최종학 ( Jong Hag Choi ) 한국회계학회 2010 회계저널 Vol.19 No.4

초도감사보수 할인이 감사품질에 미치는 영향: 감사인 강제교체기업과 자율교체기업의 차이

최종학 ( Jong-hag Choi ),안성희(교신저자) ( Sung Hee Ahn ),황문호(공동저자) ( Mun Ho Hwang ) 한국회계학회 2016 회계학연구 Vol.41 No.2

일반적으로 감사인은 신규 감사고객을 유치하는 과정에서 일정의 보수할인을 제공하는 것으로 알려져 있다. 선행연구에 따르면, 이러한 초도감사보수할인은 교체 첫 연도의 감사품질에 부정적인 영향을 미칠 가능성도 존재하는 한편 이들 간에는 유의한 영향관계가 나타나지 않을 가능성도 제기된다. 이에 본 연구는 초도감사보수할인과 감사품질의 관련성이 감사인 교체사유(강제교체 vs. 자율교체)에 따라 달리 나타날 수 있음을 연구가설로 설정하고, 이를 실증적으로 분석하였다. 감사인 강제교체제도가 적용되던 2006년부터 2010년 중 외부감사인을 교체한 1,100개 표본을 분석한 결과, 자율교체 기업에서는 초도감사보수의 할인규모가 클수록 감사품질이 유의하게 하락하는 결과가 발견되었으나, 강제교체 기업에서는 초도감사보수 할인과 감사품질 간에 유의한 관련성이 없었다. 이는 초도감사보수할인과 감사품질과의 관계가 감사인을 교체하는 사유에 따라 다르게 나타날 수 있음을 의미한다. 특히, 자율교체 기업에서는 후임감사인이 non-Big 4인 경우에 초도감사보수할인이 감사품질에 미치는 부정적인 영향이 뚜렷히 나타났는데, 이는 감사의견 구매와 같은 경영자의 기회주의적인 의도가 감사인 교체 의사결정에 반영되어 있음을 시사한다. Prior studies suggests that both frequent auditor switches and long auditor tenure could impair audit quality, through the impairment of auditor expertise and independence, respectively. Although the regulators abolished the 6-year mandatory rotation policy in 2010, it is still debating among politicians and media that the policy should be re-introduced to increase auditor independence. To resolve these conflicting views, Korean regulators adopted 3-year mandatory auditor retention and 6-year mandatory auditor rotation rules in 2003. Under the rules, after auditor change, clients need to hire the same auditor for at least 3 years, but have to change auditor after 6 years of auditor tenure. In this study, we define ‘mandatory auditor change’ as the change after 6 years of auditor tenure, while ‘voluntary auditor change’ as the change that occurred when auditor tenure is 3, 4, or 5 years. Unlike in the U.S. where the potential reasons for auditor change and circumstances surrounding auditor change are publicly reported through Form 8-K report, in Korea, any information that are potentially related to the reasons for auditor change is not disclosed. However, one can guess that there must be some reasons that clients voluntary change auditors before 6th year of maximum auditor tenure. Especially, clients have strong incentive to change auditors for the opinion shopping purpose. In that case, they are going to hire new auditors who are willing to acquiesce to client pressure (Choi and Chung 2015). In such a case, the low-quality auditors are likely to offer initial audit fee discounts. In contrast, it is less likely that mandatory auditor changes are related to opinion shopping motivations of clients, suggesting that the mandatory changes are less likely to lead to poor audit quality even in the case of low-balling. Thus, in this study, we try to examine the association between initial audit engagement year audit fee discount (i.e., low-balling) and audit quality in the auditor change year for voluntary versus mandatory auditor change clients. Through these analyses, we try to shed some lights into the potential reasons of voluntary auditor changes. We collect 1,100 auditor change observations from year 2006 to 2010 for the empirical analyses. It was the period that both mandatory auditor retention and rotation policy was in effect. We remove the observations that auditor was changed due to auditor assignment by Financial Supervisory Service. We also remove the observations from banking and finance industry and non-December fiscal year-end. Among our samples, 732 observations are those with the mandatory changes (after 6 years of auditor tenure) and the remaining 368 observations are those with voluntary changes. We define the low-balling as the case when actual audit fee is lower than estimated normal fee. Additionally, we use the magnitude of discretionary accruals of client firms, estimated by using Kothari et al.’s (2005) method, to proxy for the audit quality. Empirical results are summarized as follows. First, we find that both audit quality and hour of low-balling auditors is lower for the cases of voluntary auditor change. In general, low audit quality combined with smaller audit hour suggest that auditors exert relatively less audit efforts to lower the audit costs. Specifically, we observe that the poor audit quality occurs when success auditor is non-Big 4. However, in contrast to the case of mandatory rotation, we find that the audit quality is not associated with low-balling. We also find that the magnitude of earnings management was not differ between voluntary auditor change samples and mandatory change samples in the year before the auditor change. Thus, audit quality becomes poorer at the year of auditor change for the voluntary change samples when there exist low-balling. These findings can be interpreted as follows. Client firms opt to change incumbent auditors with shorter than 6-year of tenure (before the maximum length of the tenure) due to some specific reasons. For example, the client may fire incumbent auditor and hire new auditor who is likely to acquiesce to the request of the clients. When there exists low-balling, new auditors are not able to provide high-quality audit service due to the lack of enough resources or independence. However, for the mandatory auditor changes, because the changes are not driven by the clients’ incentives to shop for opinion, there is less possibility that even low-balling leads to impaired independence and thus poor audit quality. These findings have several valuable implications. Most importantly, regulators and practitioners need to aware of the potential audit risks of the clients who voluntary change auditors. Regulators may need to consider the disclosures of the reasons for the auditor changes. Investors also need to be watchful for the such firms.

사례논문 : ㈜ 튼튼중공업의 현금 및 유동성 관리

최종학 ( Jong Hag Choi ),선우혜정 ( Catherine Hyejung Sonu ) 한국회계학회 2012 회계저널 Vol.21 No.6

비감사서비스의 제공이 감사인의 독립성에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구들의 비판적 검토 및 제안

최종학(Jong-Hag Choi) 한국산업경영학회 2008 경영연구 Vol.23 No.1

  2001년 미국의 Enron사는 분식회계 결과가 공표된 후 파산하였고, Enron사의 회계감사를 실시하였던 Arthur Andersen 역시 청산되었다. 이러한 일련의 사건들은, 감사서비스와 더불어 비감사 서비스를 동시에 제공하고 있는 회계법인들의 독립성에 심각한 의심을 품게 하는 계기가 되었다. 미국 의회는 2002년 7월에 사베인스-옥슬리 법안을 통과시켜 동일 감사인의 비감사서비스 중 9가지 사항을 제한하였고, 이러한 움직임에 따라 금융감독원도 동일 감사인이 제공하는 비감사서비스의 종류를 일부 제한하였다. 이러한 상황하에서 현재 세계 회계학계의 가장 큰 관심사중의 하나는 비감사서비스의 제공이 과연 회계감사인의 독립성을 해치느냐 하는 것으로서, 현재 국내외에서 이 분야에 대한 수많은 연구들이 이미 진행되었거나, 현재 진행 중이다.<BR>  본 연구에서는 이 주제에 대한 선행연구들을 회계법인이 비감사서비스를 피감사 회사에 제공하는 것이 1) 회계감사의견, 2) 회계발생액(accruals), 3) 시장참가자의 반응, 4) 회계감사 보수와 어떻게 관련이 있느냐 하는 것과, 5) 비감사서비스 구매의 유형과 동기의 다섯 가지 세부주제로 구분하여, 이에 대한 종합적인 비판적 고찰을 수행하였다. 총 50개 이상의 선행연구들이 분석 대상이 되었다. 문헌연구가 빠지기 쉬운 나열식 해설이 아니라 전체적인 주제별 분류를 통하여 숲을 볼 수 있도록 하였으며, 각각의 연구들을 개별적으로 설명한 후 추가적으로 비판적 고찰을 통하여 기존 연구들의 연구주제 및 연구방법론상의 문제점들을 설명하였다. 추가적으로 미래에 가능한 후속 연구들도 소개하였다.<BR>  이러한 분석적 고찰은 실무계 및 규제기관의 담당자들이 회계학 학술연구의 결과를 보다 손쉽게 접할 수 있게 하여 의사결정에 이용할 수 있을 것이다. 학계에서도 본 연구를 이용하여 과거의 선행연구들을 손쉽게 정리 및 비교할 수 있을 것이며, 연구방법론 등을 학습하여 후속 연구에 이용할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다. 또한 본 연구에 소개된 미래에 연구가능한 주제들을 이용하여 후속 연구를 수행할 수도 있을 것이다.   Enron bankrupted in 2001 after revealing a massive accounting fraud. Subsequently, Arthur Andersen, the auditor of Enron, disrupted in turmoil. Public was in a shock and doubted the independence of auditors who provide both audit and consulting service to a same client, such as the case of Arthur Andersen. The U.S. congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July 2002, which restricted the provisions of several kinds of consulting service provided by auditors. The Financial Advisory Service of Korea is also considering a similar regulation. In this situation, one of the hottest topic in accounting research is if the provision of non-audit service actually impairs auditor independence.<BR>  This paper critically reviews prior research on this issue. This paper classifies the research into five categories based on the sub-subjects of the research. Those sub-subjects are the relationship between the provision of non-audit service by auditor and 1) audit opinion, 2) accounting accruals, 3) the response of the market participants, and 4) audit fee; as well as 5) the motivation/type to purchase non-audit service by clients. Within each subject, this paper reviews individual research to provide a clear understanding of the research as well as the subject itself to provide a general picture on the subject.<BR>  Practitioners and regulators may use this study in understating past scientific studies easily. It is also expected that this study help academics in summarizing strengths and weakness of past research and methodologies.