Do investors care about auditor assignments?Evidence from last-minute changes to signing auditors

作     者：Yangyang Wang Yiqun Xie Huanmin Yan Rui Zhang 

作者机构：School of AccountingJiangxi University of Finance and EconomicsNanchangChina School of Economics&ManagementNanchang UniversityNanchangChina 

出 版 物：《China Journal of Accounting Research》 (中国会计学刊（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2024年第17卷第1期

页      面：132-156页

学科分类：120201[管理学-会计学] 120202[管理学-企业管理（含：财务管理、市场营销、人力资源管理）] 12[管理学] 02[经济学] 0202[经济学-应用经济学] 1202[管理学-工商管理] 020207[经济学-劳动经济学] 0201[经济学-理论经济学] 020106[经济学-人口、资源与环境经济学] 

基　　金：support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grants No.72362023 and No.72062020) Social Science Foundation for Youth of Jiangxi Province(Grant No.23GL31) Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics“Class A”Discipline Innovation Team(Capital Market Financial Behavior Innovation Team) 

主　　题：Annual Financial Report Auditing Changing Signing Auditors at the Last Minute Market Response Financial Statement Quality 

摘      要：Against the background of China’s strengthening of finance and accounting supervision,this study examines the practice among listed companies of changing signing auditors at the last minute and explores whether Chinese investors can capture this information in a timely *** find that China’s capital market responds significantly negatively to these last-minute changes,implying that investors perceive a potential negative impact of this *** analyses suggest that the characteristics of the change event,recent corporate events,and accounting firm capability significantly affect the stock price ***,in terms of the individual characteristics of signing auditors,external investors appear to comprehensively consider busyness level,industry experience,and the timing of the change to determine the causes and effects of the auditor change and make different market reactions *** addition,consistent with investor perceptions,we find that last-minute changes significantly impair the quality of financial statements,indicating that external investors’judgments based on information about changes in signing auditors are rational and effective.