Zur Wirksamkeit der Regulierung interner Kontrollsysteme – empirische Ergebnisse der Wirkung des KonTraG

Since the issuance of KonTraG in 1998 Germany has regulatory requirements to supplement internal control systems with a risk management component. The extensions of IDW’s standards indicate also the need for an altered understanding and a more intense analysis with internal control systems by auditors and companies. This research tries to investigate to what degree the KonTraG and the related expansion and intensification of the audit affect HGB following companies’ audit opinions. Furthermore, we control for other confounding factors affecting the quality of internal control systems and internal audit opinions as indicated in prior literature. The results imply a positive effect of KonTraG and show, based on a difference-in-difference approach including potentially confounding variables, a significant increase in qualified audit opinions post-KonTraG. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2008