本文以2004-2009年美國上市櫃公司為研究樣本，排除不符合選樣標準之樣本公司後，總共2,297個觀察值，探討公司內部控制品質與裁決性應計項目評價間之關聯性。本文採用考量績效表現後之橫斷面Modified Jones Model (Kothari et al, 2005)來估計裁決性應計項目。並以會計師所出具之內部控制查核意見報告中，是否提及內部控制出現重大缺失，作為判斷樣本公司內部控制是否有效或無效的依據。實證結果發現，內部控制有效之公司其裁決性應計項目與未來獲利能力間之關聯性大於內部控制無效之公司。由於，外部投資人無法直接觀察管理階層的自由裁量行為究竟是傳遞私有資訊，亦或是從事投機性盈餘管理，所以，內部控制在減輕外部投資人代理成本的問題上扮演著相當重要的角色。高品質的內部控制可限制管理階層從事投機性應計項目報導，提升裁決性應計項目的資訊價值。 This study examined whether there is a linkage between internal control quality and pricing of discretionary accruals. We selected 2,297 public listed and OTC companies from 2004 to 2009 in the United States as the research samples to conduct the empirical analysis. We not only used Modified Jones Model with ROA developed by Kothari et al. (2005) to estimate the discretional accruals, but also utilized external audit reports on internal control to determine the effectiveness of internal control. We found the greater association between discretionary accruals and future profitability for firms with effective internal control than those with ineffective internal control. Since the outside investors cannot distinguish the manager’s discretionary behavior between delivering private information and managing opportunistic earnings management. Internal control plays the important role in mitigating these agency costs. High-quality internal control can enhance the information value of discretionary accruals by constraining aggressive and opportunistic reporting of accruals by managers.
