The Influence Of Auditor's Types On Accounting Comparability

Recently,it's more and more important to improve accounting information quality.Mostly studies of accounting information quality are about accruals earnings quality,robustness and smoothness,fewer involves the comparability of accounting information.As an important part of accounting information quality,the comparability can help users of information to do some decisions.But compared with other chart eristic of accounting information,studies of the comparability are started not long time ago because it's very difficult to calculate.At the same time,certified public accountants industry develop rapidly,especially the local accounting firms,they expands quickly through many mergers.As the independent external auditor,accounting firms play an important role when producing financial reports,and they also can influence the accounting comparability.Therefore,this paper studies the impact of characteristics of accounting firm on accounting information comparability.Through the study we find that two companies audited by the same firm,subject to the same audit style,are more likely to have comparable earnings than two firms audited by two different firms with different style.By comparable we mean that two firms in the same industry and year will have a more similar accruals and earnings structure.Furthermore,we also find that two companies audited by the same Big4 audit firm will have more comparable earnings than two companies audited by the same non-Big4 audit firm;however,there is no significant relationship between local Big8 and local non-Big8.These conclusions imply that there are considerable gaps between the working rules and audit methodologies of Big4 and that of Big8.