{"title":"Is expanded auditor reporting meaningful? UK evidence","authors":"Mohamed Elsayed , Tamer Elshandidy , Yousry Ahmed","doi":"10.1016/j.intaccaudtax.2023.100582","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In 2013, the United Kingdom (UK) Financial Reporting Council (FRC) mandated independent auditors to provide an expanded audit report to disclose the risks of material misstatement and application of materiality. This paper examines the information content and economic consequences of the expanded auditor’s report and offers three main results. We first investigate the usefulness of auditor reporting regime change and find evidence that the new reporting regime has some influence on market indicators. Second, we document that firms receiving an expanded audit report with a higher level of disclosure on risks of material misstatement (materiality) exhibit significantly higher (lower) idiosyncratic risk, beta, and cost of equity. That is, the expanded auditor’s disclosure meaningfully affects firms’ risk fundamentals. Third, we find that information conveyed by the expanded auditor’s report impacts bid-ask spread, trading volume, volatility of market returns, and analyst forecast dispersion. Collectively, our analyses suggest that auditors provide information that meaningfully reflects the risks that the audited companies face. Furthermore, this information is associated with significant economic consequences for capital market participants, implying that it is not generic. This firm-specific and useful disclosure supports the FRC (followed by International Auditing and Assurance Standard Board (IAASB) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)) decision mandating the expanded audit report and provides evidence-based insights to major recent structural reforms aiming at proposing remedies to audit and capital market problems in the UK, and beyond.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":53221,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Accounting Auditing and Taxation","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1061951823000617/pdfft?md5=94474de015f1a98e955a5f6d88305450&pid=1-s2.0-S1061951823000617-main.pdf","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of International Accounting Auditing and Taxation","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1061951823000617","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 4
Abstract
In 2013, the United Kingdom (UK) Financial Reporting Council (FRC) mandated independent auditors to provide an expanded audit report to disclose the risks of material misstatement and application of materiality. This paper examines the information content and economic consequences of the expanded auditor’s report and offers three main results. We first investigate the usefulness of auditor reporting regime change and find evidence that the new reporting regime has some influence on market indicators. Second, we document that firms receiving an expanded audit report with a higher level of disclosure on risks of material misstatement (materiality) exhibit significantly higher (lower) idiosyncratic risk, beta, and cost of equity. That is, the expanded auditor’s disclosure meaningfully affects firms’ risk fundamentals. Third, we find that information conveyed by the expanded auditor’s report impacts bid-ask spread, trading volume, volatility of market returns, and analyst forecast dispersion. Collectively, our analyses suggest that auditors provide information that meaningfully reflects the risks that the audited companies face. Furthermore, this information is associated with significant economic consequences for capital market participants, implying that it is not generic. This firm-specific and useful disclosure supports the FRC (followed by International Auditing and Assurance Standard Board (IAASB) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)) decision mandating the expanded audit report and provides evidence-based insights to major recent structural reforms aiming at proposing remedies to audit and capital market problems in the UK, and beyond.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation publishes articles which deal with most areas of international accounting including auditing, taxation and management accounting. The journal''s goal is to bridge the gap between academic researchers and practitioners by publishing papers that are relevant to the development of the field of accounting. Submissions are expected to make a contribution to the accounting literature, including as appropriate the international accounting literature typically found in JIAAT and other primary US-based international accounting journals as well as in leading European accounting journals. Applied research findings, critiques of current accounting practices and the measurement of their effects on business decisions, general purpose solutions to problems through models, and essays on world affairs which affect accounting practice are all within the scope of the journal.