Do Investors Value Higher Financial Reporting Quality, and Can Expanded Audit Reports Unlock This Value?
通过理论和实验发现，投资者会为使用更高财务报告质量的公司赋予额外价值，而扩展审计报告（尤其是审计师评论）能有效传递这一质量信息，提升投资者支付意愿。
ABSTRACT We present new theory and experimental findings indicating that investors ascribe value to firms that use higher financial reporting quality (FRQ), controlling for the influence of higher FRQ on their estimates of these firms' fundamental value. To guide our investigation, we draw on the cooperation literature in accounting, finance, and psychology. We identify expanded audit reports, particularly auditor commentary, as a mechanism that credibly communicates whether a firm uses higher FRQ. Auditor commentary increases investors' willingness to pay (WTP) more for shares of a firm using higher FRQ than a competing firm using lower FRQ. We also provide process evidence that investors perceive higher FRQ as cooperative behavior by measuring their affective responses and cognitive beliefs, which mediate the influence of audit commentary on investors' increased WTP for higher FRQ. A second experiment bolsters the link between investors' affective and cognitive responses to a firm's FRQ and perceived cooperative behavior.