Research On The Influence Of The Scale Of Accounting Firms And The Personal Characteristics Of Auditors On The Earnings Management Of Listed Companies

Earnings management has always been a hot topic in the academic circles of accounting.The impact of external audit on earnings management is an important research topic both at home and abroad in recent years.An excellent listed company needs not only a perfect internal governance structure,but also the external supervision of the audit institutions.Especially in China,where the market economy is not developed and the business activities between enterprises are increasingly complex,auditing is more important to the external supervision of listed companies.There are various scales of different accounting firms.There are also differences in personal characteristics among different auditors.Various differences will inevitably lead to differences in audit quality.Is there a significant difference between the of different scale of accounting firms and the different personal characteristics of auditors in suppressing the earnings management of the listed companies? Based on the above considerations,the paper selects the empirical evidence of 2014-2016 of A-share in Shanghai and Shenzhen,and studies the impact of accounting firms' scale and auditor personal characteristics on earnings management of listed companies.The paper defines the concept of two kinds of earnings management(accrual earnings management and real earnings management),the concept of accounting firms' scale and auditors' individual characteristics.The influence of the scale of the accounting firms and the personal characteristics of the auditors on the earnings management are theoretically analyzed.Meanwhile,combined with the theory of property right,the whole sample is divided into two samples of state-owned enterprises and non state-owned enterprises,and the moderating effect of property right on the relationship between accounting firms' scale and auditors' individual characteristics on earnings management are discussed.According to the research subjects,the explained variables,explanatory variables,grouping variables,controlled variables and sample data were selected.Based on the empirical research,we found:(1)The four major International accounting firms can effectively suppress the accrued earnings management of the listed companies than the local eight major accounting firms in the audit process.(2)The four major International accounting firms,eight local accounting firms and auditors are all hard to control the real earnings management of listed companies in the audit process.(3)The high degree auditor has a significant inhibitory effect on the accrued earnings management of the listed companies in the audit process.(4)There are significant differences in earningsmanagement between companies with different property rights.The degree of accruals and real earnings management in non-state-owned enterprises is significantly higher than that in state-owned enterprises.(5)Compared with state-owned enterprises,accounting firms and auditors have stronger inhibitory effect on the accruals earnings management of non-state-owned enterprises in the audit process.In this paper,the two kinds of earnings management are taken as explained variables.From both the accounting firm level and the auditor personal characteristics level,we study the inhibitory effect of external audit on earnings management of listed companies.Meanwhile,From the perspective of the development of accounting firms and the personal characteristics of auditors,the paper puts forward some policy recommendations on how to promote the development of accounting firms better and faster,so as to improve audit quality and effectively curb earnings management of listed companies.