We show that increased audit effort is associated with lower annual report readability to compensate for a perceived increase in the risk of financial misstatement for United States (US) firms. In particular, we find that lower annual report readability is associated with longer audit delays and higher audit fees for Form 10-K for US auditors, suggesting that auditors spend more effort auditing clients when annual reports have lower readability. We also find that low readability increases the likelihood of auditors using more explanatory language in unqualified audit reports.

中文翻译：

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审计师如何应对年报可读性低的问题？

我们表明，增加的审计工作与较低的年度报告可读性相关，以弥补美国（US）公司财务错报风险的增加。特别是，我们发现较低的年度报告可读性与较长的审计延迟和10-K表格对美国审计师的审计费用较高有关，这表明当年度报告的可读性较低时，审计员会花更多的精力审计客户。我们还发现，较低的可读性增加了审计师在不合格的审计报告中使用更多解释性语言的可能性。