The Impact of the Amendment of Taiwan’s Certified Public Accountant Act in 2007 on Large Accounting Firms

Abstract

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission of the Executive Yuan promulgated the fully amended Certified Public Accountant Act in 2007, which directly led to significant changes in accounting law. From the perspective of the economic theory of law, this study investigates the amendment of the Certified Public Accountant Act resulting in an increase or decrease in the overall revenue and different revenue shares of accounting firms, and puts forward measures that should be taken by accounting firms and stakeholders. We focus on large accounting firms and divide the sample period into before and after 2008. This study uses the translog revenue function and revenue share functions of the public accounting industry, and based on the 1989–2017 Survey Report of Audit Firms in Taiwan, and we find that the amendment of the Certified Public Accountant Act has had a positive effect on overall revenue, increasing overall revenue and the overall management advisory services shares, and in reducing the overall accounting and auditing shares and tax services shares of large accounting firms. Additional analyses provide regulators with public policy implications and provide accounting firms with managerial information.