Purpose

This study aims to evaluate whether the Big-4’s commenting efforts influence the characteristics of Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB’s) Final_Standards using the content of their comment letters. Whether auditors lobby standard-setters to help their clients or to help themselves and whether they are successful are questions highly relevant to issues of auditor independence and audit effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on components of Mergenthaler (2009), this study develops a rules-based continuum change score to measure how much more (less) rules-based a Final_Standard is compared to its exposure draft to evaluate the influence of the Big-4 on the FASB’s standard-setting for 63 accounting standards.

Findings

The findings show that extensive comment letters and increased uncertainty language are associated with increases in the rules-based attributes included in Final_Standards. These results suggest the Big-4 prioritize a reduction in their own litigation risk over the possible preferences of their clients for less rigid standards. Moreover, the results are consistent with their comment letters influencing the FASB’s decision to include more rules-based attributes in Final_Standards.

Originality/value

This study develops a potential proxy for audit risk by assessing the changes in the rules-based characteristics of proposed accounting standards and using the content of the comment letters to evaluate whether the Big-4 accounting firms may influence the FASB’s Final_Standards. Overall, this study provides a unique perspective on the influence of constituents on the FASB’s standard-setting.

中文翻译：

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四大巨头对基于规则的会计准则的影响

目的

这项研究旨在评估Big-4的评论工作是否会通过其评论信的内容影响财务会计准则委员会（FASB）的Final_Standards的特征。审计师是游说标准制定者来帮助他们的客户还是帮助自己，以及他们是否成功，这些问题与审计师的独立性和审计有效性密切相关。

设计/方法/方法

基于Mergenthaler（2009）的组成部分，本研究制定了基于规则的连续变化评分，以衡量将Final_Standard与暴露标准进行比较（基于规则的基础）的多少（以评估Big-4对FASB的影响）。制定63项会计准则的标准。

发现

研究结果表明，广泛的注释字母和不确定性语言的增加与Final_Standards中包含的基于规则的属性的增加有关。这些结果表明，四大巨头优先考虑降低自身诉讼风险，而不是降低客户对较不严格标准的偏好。此外，结果与他们的评论信一致，这些评论信影响FASB决定在Final_Standards中包含更多基于规则的属性。

创意/价值

这项研究通过评估拟议会计准则基于规则的特征的变化，并使用评论信的内容来评估四大会计师事务所是否可能影响FASB的Final_Standards，从而开发出一种潜在的审计风险代理。总体而言，这项研究提供了关于三方成员对FASB标准制定的影响的独特观点。