Purpose

The study examines the changes in audit market concentration, auditor choice and audit quality in Russia following International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption. Scholars have called for further examination of the effects of IFRS adoption on auditors, with an emphasis on the importance of analyzing emerging markets that are characterized by enforcement challenges and lack of proper infrastructure. It focuses on a unique feature of Russian companies – dual audits under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) and IFRS – and investigates changes in audit concentration and audit quality for the two audit markets.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors rely on the audited financial statements of Russian public companies and perform pre-/post-IFRS adoption estimation using a logit regression to ascertain whether public firms change auditors from local firms with limited IFRS expertise to those with global reputation, namely Big 4 audit firms. Further, they examine whether the change in audit market concentration post-2012 affects audit quality as proxied by companies' propensity to receive a modified audit opinion and discretionary accruals. Auditor attributes were hand-collected from audited financial statements and matched with financial variables from Datastream.

Findings

The IFRS audit market was dominated by the Big 4 audit firms prior to 2012, and there is strong evidence that audit market share (concentration) increases for IFRS reports but not for RAS reports. In addition, companies are more likely to choose a Big 4 audit firm for an RAS audit, conditional upon a Big 4 firm conducting the IFRS audit. The authors do not find evidence of decrease in the probability of audit firms issuing a modified audit opinion under either RAS or IFRS, indicating that, in the Russian setting, increased auditor concentration post-IFRS adoption does not lead to enhanced risk or decline in audit quality. Moreover, they find that discretionary accruals decline post-2012. Overall, the findings indicate that the concern of global regulators regarding audit market concentration is not justified.

Research limitations/implications

The Russian reporting environment is unique and generally characterized by significant agency problems, and the study’s estimation sample is not large, compared to prior studies conducted predominantly in Western jurisdictions. Nevertheless, the authors shed light on the audit concentration phenomenon within emerging markets, for which empirical evidence is scarce. Future research could explore the impact of other capital market events and exogenous shocks, not limited to IFRS adoption, on the characteristics of Russia's audit market.

Practical implications

The IFRS reporting regime is commonly associated with enhanced reporting quality and improved information transparency among public companies. Yet, impairment of audit quality as a result of IFRS-driven increase in audit market share of Big 4 can potentially negate these capital market effects. This study shows that the concerns of global regulators are not valid and that audit quality does not change with increased share of Big 4 post-IFRS adoption.

Originality/value

Dual audits, whereby companies must prepare two sets of financial statements per the IFRS mandate, are not unique to Russia, and the evidence of IFRS reporting on the structural changes in the audit market and implications for audit quality under a dual regime is scarce. Accordingly, the study's findings are important and timely and are expected to aid regulators of countries that have announced or are contemplating the adoption of IFRS for public reporting purposes.

中文翻译：

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国际财务报告准则采用改革对审计市场集中度、审计师选择和审计质量的影响

目的

该研究探讨了采用国际财务报告准则（IFRS）后俄罗斯审计市场集中度、审计师选择和审计质量的变化。学者们呼吁进一步研究采用《国际财务报告准则》对审计师的影响，并强调分析以执法挑战和缺乏适当基础设施为特征的新兴市场的重要性。它重点关注俄罗斯公司的独特特征——俄罗斯会计准则（RAS）和国际财务报告准则下的双重审计——并调查两个审计市场的审计集中度和审计质量的变化。

设计/方法论/途径

作者依靠俄罗斯上市公司经审计的财务报表，并使用 Logit 回归对采用 IFRS 之前/之后进行估计，以确定上市公司是否将审计师从缺乏 IFRS 专业知识的本地公司更换为具有全球声誉的审计师，即四大审计公司公司。此外，他们还研究了 2012 年后审计市场集中度的变化是否会影响审计质量（以公司接受修改审计意见和酌情应计费用的倾向为代表）。审计师属性是从经审计的财务报表中手工收集的，并与 Datastream 中的财务变量进行匹配。

发现

2012年之前，IFRS审计市场由四大会计师事务所主导，并且有强有力的证据表明，IFRS报告的审计市场份额（集中度）有所增加，但RAS报告的审计市场份额却没有增加。此外，公司更有可能选择四大会计师事务所进行 RAS 审计，条件是四大会计师事务所进行 IFRS 审计。作者没有发现审计公司根据 RAS 或 IFRS 发表修改后审计意见的可能性下降的证据，这表明，在俄罗斯环境中，采用 IFRS 后审计师集中度的增加不会导致审计风险增加或下降质量。此外，他们发现 2012 年后可自由支配的应计费用有所下降。总体而言，调查结果表明，全球监管机构对审计市场集中度的担忧是没有道理的。

研究局限性/影响

俄罗斯的报告环境独特，普遍存在重大机构问题，而且与之前主要在西方司法管辖区进行的研究相比，该研究的估计样本并不大。尽管如此，作者还是阐明了新兴市场中的审计集中现象，而这一现象的经验证据却很少。未来的研究可以探讨其他资本市场事件和外部冲击（不限于国际财务报告准则的采用）对俄罗斯审计市场特征的影响。

实际影响

国际财务报告准则报告制度通常与上市公司提高报告质量和提高信息透明度相关。然而，由于《国际财务报告准则》推动四大会计师事务所的审计市场份额增加，导致审计质量下降，这可能会抵消这些资本市场影响。这项研究表明，全球监管机构的担忧并不成立，审计质量不会随着四大会计师事务所采用 IFRS 后所占比例的增加而改变。

原创性/价值

双重审计，即公司必须根据国际财务报告准则的规定准备两套财务报表，这并不是俄罗斯独有的，而且国际财务报告准则报告审计市场结构变化以及双重制度下对审计质量的影响的证据很少。因此，该研究的结果非常重要且及时，预计将为已宣布或正在考虑采用 IFRS 进行公开报告的国家的监管机构提供帮助。