표준감사시간제도로 인한 감사보수의 증가가 감사인의 감사행위에 미치는 영향 - 교섭력과 재량적 발생액의 변동을 중심으로 -

초록

The existing market for financial auditors in Korea suffered from the issue of auditors receiving inappropriately low audit fees due to the inevitable power imbalance from client enterprises having more bargaining powers than the auditors. As an answer to the problem, a Standard Audit Hours Policy restricting auditing hours to appropriate times has been introduced and implemented since 2019. Since then, the auditors and client enterprises have had differing opinions on the policy. Amid such background and controversy this study confirms that audit fees and audit fees per hour have indeed increased since the implementation of the Standard Audit Hours Policy by 28.0% and 5.8%, respectively, compared to the previous years, as was expected. However, such increase in audit fees or hourly audit fees increased discretionary accruals in the negative(-) direction. This suggests that auditors tend to understate client earnings after the introduction of the Standard Audit Hours Policy. Their motivation is attributed to a greater risk of litigation for large scale management than for small scale management(i.e., asymmetric litigation risk). Such conservative auditing on the part of the auditor decreases the risk of litigation not only for themselves but also for management and the internal auditing committee. However, care is required not to undermine the inherent qualitative character of faithful representation for accounting information. While most prior studies of the bargaining power of clients and auditors in the financial auditor market focus on the increase and decrease of audit fees, this study is the empirical analysis of the Standard Audit Hours Policy, examining the effects of increased bargaining power of the auditor on their auditing activities.

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