This study reports an experiment using nonprofessional financial report users to investigate the effect of disclosing key audit matters (KAMs) on the audit expectation gap. This study also explores how differences in precision of accounting standards interacts with the auditor's reporting of KAMs to affect users' perceptions. We find that disclosing KAMs per se in the audit report does not effect the audit expectation gap, which is consistent with prior research on the effect of additional disclosures in audit reports. However, the expectation gap actually increases on measures associated with perceptions on the reliability of the audited financial reports when the audit report includes a KAM that follows a precise accounting standard, suggesting some potential unintended consequences of this reporting change.

中文翻译：

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披露关键审计事项和会计准则准确性对审计预期差距的影响

本研究报告了一项使用非专业财务报告用户的实验，以调查披露关键审计事项 (KAM) 对审计期望差距的影响。本研究还探讨了会计准则精确度的差异如何与审计师的 KAM 报告相互作用以影响用户的看法。我们发现，在审计报告中披露 KAM 本身不会影响审计预期差距，这与先前对审计报告中额外披露的影响的研究一致。然而，当审计报告包括遵循精确会计标准的关键审计事项时，与对审计财务报告可靠性的看法相关的措施的预期差距实际上会增加，这表明这种报告变化可能会带来一些潜在的意外后果。