會計師性別對過度自信與風險偏好之關聯性研究

Abstract

本研究以行為會計學之角度為出發點，探討會計師之判斷與決策是否會受到心理因素之影響而產生行為偏誤。根據過去心理學在非審計領域之相關文獻，發現男性相較於女性過度自信程度與風險偏好程度皆較高。而在審計的判斷與決策過程中，若會計師有過度自信或風險愛好之傾向，可能會影響其獨立性，造成審計無效、法律問題、職能的不當分配、技術的無效率使用與審計資源的不當配置，進而導致高估客戶之財務績效、低估財務報表誤述之風險。然而，在審計領域之樣本中，由於會計師皆受過專業訓練，且通常被期望為獨立、客觀與理性，因此男性之過度自信與風險偏好程度高於女性之結論並無法直接推論而適用於會計師領域。 為探討會計師之性別是否在過度自信與風險偏好程度上有顯著之差異，本研究透過公司之實際盈餘資料，藉由盈餘預測之隨機漫步模型 (random walk model)，以兩期之盈餘增減率 (本期稅前盈餘減上期稅前盈餘，再以期初公司市值帄減之)作為會計師過度自信與風險偏好程度之替代變數。並以1986年至2009年二十四個年度國內上市、上櫃公司(包含曾上市、上櫃公司)之財報稅前盈餘增減率為研究樣本進行分析。 研究結果顯示，男性會計師相較於女性會計師似乎反而較為保孚、悲觀、風險趨避，也尌是女性之過度自信與風險偏好程度反而高於男性，至少在盈餘增減的表現上是如此，與預期結果並不符。

This study starts from the view point of Behavioral Accounting, in order to examine whether the judgement and decision-making of an auditor when performing audit tasks would be effected by psychological effect, leading to behavioral bias. According to psychology literature, from outside the domains of auditing and accounting, researchers have frequently reported that males being more overconfident and more risk-seeking than females. Auditor overconfidence and risk-seeking may impair auditors’ independence, cause audits to be ineffective, and could lead to legal problem, inappropriate staffing, inefficient use of technology, and misallocation of audit resources, tending to overestimate the financial performance of their clients and underestimate the risk of financial misstatement. However, auditors are not a random sample of males and females, they are trained and expected to be professional, independent and rational, so findings from research conducted on males and females from outside the world of accounting cannot safely be assumed to apply for auditors. In this paper, to examine if such a sex difference in overconfidence and risk propensity also exists within the auditor population, we use the data of earnings from financial report and the random walk model of earnings forecast to do the research. Besides, we use the forecast error ratio to measure the extent of overconfidence and risk-seeking. This study includes all TES-listed and OTC-listed companies in Taiwan from 1986 to 2009 in the sample. The results show that in auditors’ population, males are more conservative, less risk-seeking and more pessimistic than females. In other words, females are more overconfident and risk-seeking than males, contrary to our expectations.