TITLE:
Research on Disclosure Status and Influencing Factors of Key Audit Matters
AUTHORS:
Xin Shao
KEYWORDS:
Key Audit Matters, Firm Characteristics, Auditor’s Personal Characteristics
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.11 No.3,
March
23,
2020
ABSTRACT: In 2016, China made new regulations on audit report.
The core change is that key audit matters are added to the audit report. Since
then, key audit matters have become a new hotspot in the field of audit
research. This paper mainly studies the disclosure status of key audit matters
in China and the factors affecting the disclosure. This paper will quantify the
characteristics of key audit matters and study its impact on the disclosure of
key audit matters from the two levels of firm and auditor. This article uses data
from listed companies that have disclosed key audit matters from 2016 to 2018,
and uses mean testing and regression research methods to analyze how the
characteristics of firms and auditors will affect the disclosure of key audit
matters. The study found that: 1) the number of key audit matters, the length
of the text, the length and proportion of digital figures, and
industry-specific key audit matters fluctuated significantly from 2016 to 2017
and stabilized from 2017 to 2018; 2) The size of the firm, the audit term, the
firm’s industry expertise, and the auditor’s gender, years of practice, and
industry expertise will significantly affect the disclosure of key audit
matters. This article provides evidence that the characteristics of firms and
auditors affect the disclosure of key audit matters and expands research on key
audit matters.