ON THE MEASUREMENT OF AUDITING STANDARDS
质疑用审计师出具保留意见的比例来衡量其审计准则的做法，指出审计师会专业化、客户会自我选择，导致该比例未必反映准则差异，并用美国数据验证了这一点。
This study analyzes whether it is appropriate to use the percentage of qualified opinions issued by an auditor as a measure of his auditing standards, as is often done. It points out that incentives exist for auditors to specialize by auditing standards, and for clients to self‐select on this dimension. As a result, even if auditing standards affect the propensity to issue qualified opinions, the observed percentages of qualified opinions will not necessarily reflect differences in auditing standards. This proposition is supported empirically with US data. A sample of auditors was split between a “higher standard” and a “lower standard” category based on the percentage of qualified opinions issued. After controlling for client firm size, leverage, systematic risk and “unexpected” earnings, auditing standard category is found to have no significant relation with firm‐specific stock returns.