---
_id: '37136'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: This study examines the relation between voluntary audit and the cost of debt
in private firms. We use a sample of 4,058 small private firms operating in the
period 2006‐2017 that are not subject to mandatory audits. Firms decide for a
voluntary audit of financial statements either because the economic setting in
which they operate effectively forces them to do so (e.g., ownership complexity,
export‐oriented supply chain, subsidiary status) or because firm fundamentals
and/or financial reporting practices limit their access to financial debt, both
reflected in earnings quality. We use these factors to model the decision for
voluntary audit. In the outcome analyses, we find robust evidence that voluntary
audits are associated with higher, rather than lower, interest rate by up to 3.0
percentage points. This effect is present regardless of the perceived audit quality
(Big‐4 vs. non‐Big‐4), but is stronger for non‐Big‐4 audits where auditees have
a stronger position relative to auditors. Audited firms’ earnings are less informative
about future operating performance relative to unaudited counterparts. We conclude
that voluntary audits facilitate access to financial debt for firms with higher
risk that may otherwise have no access to this form of financing. The price paid
is reflected in higher interest rates charged to firms with voluntary audits –
firms with higher information and/or fundamental risk.
author:
- first_name: Riste
full_name: Ichev, Riste
last_name: Ichev
- first_name: Jernej
full_name: Koren, Jernej
last_name: Koren
- first_name: Urska
full_name: Kosi, Urska
id: '54068'
last_name: Kosi
- first_name: Katarina
full_name: Sitar Sustar, Katarina
last_name: Sitar Sustar
- first_name: Aljosa
full_name: Valentincic, Aljosa
last_name: Valentincic
citation:
ama: 'Ichev R, Koren J, Kosi U, Sitar Sustar K, Valentincic A. Cost of Debt for
Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary Audits as a Reflection of Risk.; 2021.'
apa: 'Ichev, R., Koren, J., Kosi, U., Sitar Sustar, K., & Valentincic, A. (2021).
Cost of Debt for Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary Audits as a Reflection
of Risk.'
bibtex: '@book{Ichev_Koren_Kosi_Sitar Sustar_Valentincic_2021, title={Cost of Debt
for Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary Audits as a Reflection of Risk}, author={Ichev,
Riste and Koren, Jernej and Kosi, Urska and Sitar Sustar, Katarina and Valentincic,
Aljosa}, year={2021} }'
chicago: 'Ichev, Riste, Jernej Koren, Urska Kosi, Katarina Sitar Sustar, and Aljosa
Valentincic. Cost of Debt for Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary Audits as
a Reflection of Risk, 2021.'
ieee: 'R. Ichev, J. Koren, U. Kosi, K. Sitar Sustar, and A. Valentincic, Cost
of Debt for Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary Audits as a Reflection of Risk.
2021.'
mla: 'Ichev, Riste, et al. Cost of Debt for Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary
Audits as a Reflection of Risk. 2021.'
short: 'R. Ichev, J. Koren, U. Kosi, K. Sitar Sustar, A. Valentincic, Cost of Debt
for Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary Audits as a Reflection of Risk, 2021.'
date_created: 2023-01-17T15:03:08Z
date_updated: 2023-01-18T13:40:40Z
department:
- _id: '635'
- _id: '186'
- _id: '551'
keyword:
- private firms
- voluntary audit
- cost of debt
- self‐selection bias
- risk
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- url: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3853927
status: public
title: 'Cost of Debt for Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary Audits as a Reflection
of Risk'
type: working_paper
user_id: '88603'
year: '2021'
...
---
_id: '3542'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: "We study the historical development of Slovenian Accounting Standards (SAS)
and their association with accounting quality (AQ). We focus on private firms
where the financial reporting process is characterised by low demand for high-quality
reporting. We investigate three distinct editions of SAS since 1994 and test how
their development towards international standards is related to AQ. Aggregate
earnings management measures indicate that the use of accounting discretion decreases
with less earnings smoothing over time. The main features of AQ have been consistent
throughout historical development. Asymmetric timeliness of earnings, the ability
of earnings to predict future cash flows, and the ability of accruals to mitigate
mismatching are all present throughout. We also document typical departures from
properties of high AQ. For example, accruals do not (always) facilitate timely
recognition of losses. However, these can be attributed to the overwhelming influence
of reporting incentives (e.g. taxation, debt, size) rather than to the (lower)
quality of accounting standards.\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Full Article \r\n Figures & data \r\n References \r\n
Citations \r\n \r\n Metrics \r\n Reprints & Permissions \r\n PDF \r\n \r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAbstract\r\n\r\n\r\nWe study the historical development of
Slovenian Accounting Standards (SAS) and their association with accounting quality
(AQ). We focus on private firms where the financial reporting process is characterised
by low demand for high-quality reporting. We investigate three distinct editions
of SAS since 1994 and test how their development towards international standards
is related to AQ. Aggregate earnings management measures indicate that the use
of accounting discretion decreases with less earnings smoothing over time. The
main features of AQ have been consistent throughout historical development. Asymmetric
timeliness of earnings, the ability of earnings to predict future cash flows,
and the ability of accruals to mitigate mismatching are all present throughout.
We also document typical departures from properties of high AQ. For example, accruals
do not (always) facilitate timely recognition of losses. However, these can be
attributed to the overwhelming influence of reporting incentives (e.g. taxation,
debt, size) rather than to the (lower) quality of accounting standards."
author:
- first_name: Aljosa
full_name: Valentincic, Aljosa
last_name: Valentincic
- first_name: Ales
full_name: Novak, Ales
last_name: Novak
- first_name: Urska
full_name: Kosi, Urska
id: '54068'
last_name: Kosi
citation:
ama: Valentincic A, Novak A, Kosi U. Accounting quality in private firms during
the transition towards international standards. Accounting in Europe. 2017;14(3):358-387.
doi:10.1080/17449480.2017.1378821
apa: Valentincic, A., Novak, A., & Kosi, U. (2017). Accounting quality in private
firms during the transition towards international standards. Accounting in
Europe, 14(3), 358–387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449480.2017.1378821
bibtex: '@article{Valentincic_Novak_Kosi_2017, title={Accounting quality in private
firms during the transition towards international standards}, volume={14}, DOI={10.1080/17449480.2017.1378821},
number={3}, journal={Accounting in Europe}, author={Valentincic, Aljosa and Novak,
Ales and Kosi, Urska}, year={2017}, pages={358–387} }'
chicago: 'Valentincic, Aljosa, Ales Novak, and Urska Kosi. “Accounting Quality in
Private Firms during the Transition towards International Standards.” Accounting
in Europe 14, no. 3 (2017): 358–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449480.2017.1378821.'
ieee: 'A. Valentincic, A. Novak, and U. Kosi, “Accounting quality in private firms
during the transition towards international standards,” Accounting in Europe,
vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 358–387, 2017, doi: 10.1080/17449480.2017.1378821.'
mla: Valentincic, Aljosa, et al. “Accounting Quality in Private Firms during the
Transition towards International Standards.” Accounting in Europe, vol.
14, no. 3, 2017, pp. 358–87, doi:10.1080/17449480.2017.1378821.
short: A. Valentincic, A. Novak, U. Kosi, Accounting in Europe 14 (2017) 358–387.
date_created: 2018-07-11T08:57:03Z
date_updated: 2023-01-24T15:34:31Z
department:
- _id: '551'
- _id: '635'
- _id: '186'
doi: 10.1080/17449480.2017.1378821
intvolume: ' 14'
issue: '3'
jel:
- M41
- C23
- L21
- P20
keyword:
- private firms
- accounting quality
- development of accounting standards
- IFRS-like standards
- Slovenia
language:
- iso: eng
page: 358-387
publication: Accounting in Europe
publication_status: published
status: public
title: Accounting quality in private firms during the transition towards international
standards
type: journal_article
user_id: '54068'
volume: 14
year: '2017'
...
---
_id: '37109'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: This study examines the effect of audit on private firms’ cost of debt. We
use a sample of 1,949 small private firms operating in the period 2006-2010 with
optional financial statement audit. High quality data allows us to construct a
more precise interest rate measure than existing studies employ. After controlling
for obvious sources of demand for voluntary audits (ownership complexity, subsidiary
status, bank relations), we find a robust central result that voluntary audits
increase rather than decrease the cost of debt financing, contrary to several
existing studies. This finding indicates that voluntary audits are generally treated
as “adopting a label” and penalised by creditors, regardless of the perceived
auditor quality as a result of the lemon problem in the audit market. Even Big-4
audits increase the cost of debt, likely as a result due to the lemon problem
in the audit market, although the increase is smaller than for non-Big-4 audits.
The results are sensitive to the estimation method used (OLS, Heckman’s two-step,
PSM) and (sub-)sample selection. We show that disregarding the underlying assumptions
of these estimation methods may lead to incorrect inferences. Additional analyses
show that audited firms’ reported earnings are less informative about future operating
performance than earnings of their unaudited counterparts. Our results also indicate
that results are sensitive to cost of debt definition and this might have affected
the results reported in the existing literature.
author:
- first_name: Urska
full_name: Kosi, Urska
id: '54068'
last_name: Kosi
- first_name: Jerney
full_name: Koren, Jerney
last_name: Koren
- first_name: Aljosa
full_name: Valentincic, Aljosa
last_name: Valentincic
citation:
ama: 'Kosi U, Koren J, Valentincic A. Does Financial Statement Audit Reduce the
Cost of Debt of Private Firms? In: ; 2013.'
apa: Kosi, U., Koren, J., & Valentincic, A. (2013). Does Financial Statement
Audit Reduce the Cost of Debt of Private Firms? 36th Annual Congress of European
Accounting Association, Paris, France.
bibtex: '@inproceedings{Kosi_Koren_Valentincic_2013, title={Does Financial Statement
Audit Reduce the Cost of Debt of Private Firms?}, author={Kosi, Urska and Koren,
Jerney and Valentincic, Aljosa}, year={2013} }'
chicago: Kosi, Urska, Jerney Koren, and Aljosa Valentincic. “Does Financial Statement
Audit Reduce the Cost of Debt of Private Firms?,” 2013.
ieee: U. Kosi, J. Koren, and A. Valentincic, “Does Financial Statement Audit Reduce
the Cost of Debt of Private Firms?,” presented at the 36th Annual Congress of
European Accounting Association, Paris, France, 2013.
mla: Kosi, Urska, et al. Does Financial Statement Audit Reduce the Cost of Debt
of Private Firms? 2013.
short: 'U. Kosi, J. Koren, A. Valentincic, in: 2013.'
conference:
end_date: 2013-05-05
location: Paris, France
name: 36th Annual Congress of European Accounting Association
start_date: 2013-05-02
date_created: 2023-01-17T13:25:30Z
date_updated: 2023-01-17T13:51:24Z
department:
- _id: '635'
- _id: '186'
- _id: '551'
extern: '1'
keyword:
- private firms
- voluntary audit
- cost of debt
- self-selection bias
- lemon problem
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- url: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2373987
status: public
title: Does Financial Statement Audit Reduce the Cost of Debt of Private Firms?
type: conference
user_id: '88603'
year: '2013'
...