Earnings Quality, Profit at Risk, Conservatism, Earnings Management, Objectivity and Why Accounting Allocations Matter: A Statistical Perspective

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger J. Willett
Author(s):  
Pupun Tri Wahyuni ◽  
Resti Yulistia Muslim

This research objective is to axamine empirically the influence of earnings management on earnings quality. The study motivated by the controversy of previous study about earnings management and earnings quality. Earnings management was measured by Discretionary Accrual and earnings quality was measured by Earnings Response Coefficient (ERC). The units were 128 (16x8) Quartal financial report in manufacturing companies listed in the Jakarta Stock Exchange, started from the year 2005 up to 2006. The data was collected using purposive sampling method. Statistical method used to test the hypotheses was multiple regressions. The result of the research showed that: the influence of earnings management on earnings quality was negative, sig 0.049. It means that the lower earnings management will be followed by higher earnings quality. This study supported the result of Fetham and Pae (2000), Nelson et al. (2000), Scott (2000), Lobo and Zhou (2001), also Teixeira (2002), Pudjiastuti (2006). 


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (73) ◽  
pp. 113-131
Author(s):  
Roberto Black ◽  
Sílvio Hiroshi Nakao

ABSTRACT This paper aims to investigate the existence of heterogeneity in earnings quality between different classes of companies after the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). IFRS adoption is generally associated with an increase in the quality of financial statements. However, companies within the same country are likely to have different economic incentives regarding the disclosure of information. Thus, treating companies equally, without considering the related economic incentives, could contaminate earnings quality investigations. The case of Brazil is analyzed, which is a country classified as code-law, in which tax laws determined accounting practice and in which IFRS adoption is mandatory. First, Brazilian companies listed on the São Paulo Stock, Commodities, and Futures Exchange (BM&FBOVESPA) were separated into two classes: companies issuing American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) before IFRS adoption and companies that did not issue ADRs until the adoption of IFRS. Then, this second class of companies was grouped, using cluster analysis, into two different subclasses according to economic incentives. Based on the groups identified, the quality of accounting earnings is tested for each class of the companies before and after IFRS adoption. This paper uses timely recognition of economic events, value relevance of net income, and earnings management as proxies for the quality of accounting earnings. The results indicate that a particular class of companies began showing conditional conservatism, value relevance of net income, and lower earnings management after IFRS adoption. On the other hand, these results were not found for the two other classes of companies.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mutua Mathuva ◽  
Moses Nyangu Nzuki

PurposeIn this paper, the authors investigate whether the systemic local banking crises (LBCs) and global financial crisis (GFC) impact the association between bank profit efficiency and earnings quality in developing economies.Design/methodology/approachUsing panel data spanning 29 years over the period 1991–2019 for 169 banks drawn from five East African countries, the authors perform difference-in-difference multivariate analyses using the generalised method of moments (GMM) system estimator on a sample consisting of 2,261 bank-year observations.FindingsThe results, which are robust for endogeneity and other checks, show that banks with higher profit efficiency consistently report higher quality earnings. The authors further establish that whereas systemic LBCs contribute negatively to bank earnings quality, the GFC tends to have a positive impact. These results are upheld when the joint impacts of both systemic LBCs, GFC and profit efficiency on earnings quality are considered. The positive influence of profit efficiency and GFC on earnings quality is pronounced under income-decreasing earnings management. The impacts of profit efficiency, LBCs and GFC on earnings quality appear to be non-monotonic and vary across the sampled countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's findings are based on banks in five developing countries within a regional economic bloc. Additional studies could focus on other economic blocs for enhanced generalisability of the findings. In addition, some of the variables examined are studied at bank-level, while other variables are at country-level. Finally, the study establishes an association between the variables of interest, and this does not necessarily imply causation.Practical implicationsThe results provide useful insights to bank regulatory and supervisory agencies on the need to exercise increased risk-based scrutiny over bank loan loss provisioning and minimum loan loss reserve requirements. From an audit perspective, auditors need to be cautious and apply an enhanced risk-based audit especially when auditing banks during and after a financial, banking or systemic crisis. Credit rating agencies need to pay closer attention to the LLPs of distressed banks. Finally, bank investors and customers should be cautious when using bank financial statements, since bank managers of poorly performing banks might engage in aggressive earnings management.Originality/valueThe study is perhaps the first to examine the joint effects of systemic LBCs on the association between bank profit efficiency and the quality of earnings in a larger dataset of banks in a developing regional economic bloc. The authors also employ the GMM system estimator in the modelling, which helps address some weaknesses in prior studies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 198-216
Author(s):  
Isam Saleh ◽  
Malik Abu Afifa ◽  
Fadi Haniah

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of financial factors on earnings management and earnings quality. Moreover, the study examines the role of earnings management as a mediator in the effect of the financial factors on earnings quality. It provides some empirical evidences from an emerging market, especially from the Jordanian market. The study uses a panel data analysis method over a ten-year period (2009-2018). The study population includes all Jordanian insurance companies listed in Jordanian market at the end of the year 2019, and the study sample consists of 20 Jordanian insurance companies (a complete population), giving a total of 200 observations for each variable. The results indicate that all financial factors in the model combined affect the earnings management and earnings quality. In addition, earnings management negatively affects earnings quality, and earnings management fully mediates the effect of financial factors on earnings quality. The study advises that policy makers ought to follow good legislation to curb the company's earnings management activities. Hence, the policy makers need to apply regulations which enrich the company’s effectiveness and efficiency whilst protecting the investors and other interested parties from risk.


Author(s):  
Chih-Yi Hsiao ◽  
Hui-Hui Kuang ◽  
Hui-Ling Li ◽  
Jia-Li Liu

The phenomenon of false financial statements still exists. However, in addition to the risk of being punished, what kind of price do companies have to pay? In recent decades, with China's rapid progress in economic, the relevant accounting system and corporate governance standards are actively improving, and the earnings quality is improving. This paper takes China's listed companies from 2015 to 2019 as samples, and adopts quantile regression supplemented by ordinary least square method to explore the relationship between earnings quality and capital cost. The research findings show that the higher the earnings management, the higher the capital cost, especially for the company with low capital cost. Nevertheless, for the extremely company with high capital cost, earnings management can reduce the capital cost. The research results can provide the focus of regulators of listed companies and reference for the revision of relevant accounting system.


Author(s):  
Don E. Giacomino ◽  
Michael D. Akers

This paper examines goodwill on corporate balance sheets.  Specifically, the paper measures the extent to which goodwill exists on corporate balance sheets and the degree of goodwill write-downs that have occurred recently.   We report on our study and a study by Intangible Business, which show that many firms carry substantial amounts of goodwill on their 2008 balance sheets.  Thus, because of the recent downturn in the economy and the markets, the potential for big bath earnings management for 2008 and 2009 exists.   In addition, because of reductions in expected returns on pension plan assets, many firms are likely to record much higher pension expenses.   We expect that the combination of goodwill impairments and increased pension expense will have significant effects on both the amount and the quality of earnings for 2008 and, possibly, 2009.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 312-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Gaio ◽  
Inês Pinto

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of state ownership on financial reporting quality regarding the characteristics of conservatism and earnings management. Design/methodology/approach Using a large sample of public and private European firms during the period 2003-2010, the authors test the hypotheses following Ball and Shivakumar’s (2005) model for conservatism and the modified Jones (1991) model proposed by Dechow and Sloan (1995) for earnings management. To ensure that the results are robust, the authors conduct sensitivity analysis with regard to potential endogeneity and selection bias. Findings The authors find that state-owned firms are less conservative than non-state-owned firms, which is consistent with the idea that there is less need for accounting conservatism due to government protection. The authors also show that capital markets play an important role in shaping the relation between state ownership and earnings management. Among public firms, the authors find that state-owned firms have higher abnormal accruals and worse accruals quality than non-state-owned firms, which suggests that state-owned firms are not immune to capital market pressures. Research limitations/implications The study has two limitations. First, as state-owned and non-state-owned firms face quite different incentive structures, management behavior might be determined by factors that have yet to be identified. Second, prior research results suggest an inverted U-shape relation between ownership concentration and earnings management (Ding et al., 2007). It would be interesting to investigate the impact of different levels of state ownership on earnings quality. Practical implications As the paper investigates the role of state ownership on earnings quality using a sample of European firms, it brings new insights regarding the role of state ownership in accounting quality and firm performance. In addition, it considers the role of capital markets in the relation between the quality of financial reporting and ownership by considering a sample with both public and private firms. Originality/value The study contributes to the debate about state intervention in the corporate sector, by extending the knowledge of the effects of government ownership on earnings quality by using a large sample of European firms. Furthermore, the authors also introduce the effect of capital market forces on managers’ behavior in state-owned and non-state-owned companies by analyzing private and publicly listed firms.


2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-445
Author(s):  
Jerry G. Kreuze ◽  
Jack M. Ruhl

This case uses the concepts of earnings quality and earnings management to illustrate the inherent ambiguity in the earnings measurement process. Accounting students are often uncomfortable with ambiguity. Students want faculty to provide them with a single correct answer, such as the precise earnings for a given time period. Accounting textbooks rarely address this perception; we have yet to find a textbook that illustrates a range of acceptable amounts. This case demonstrates that earnings can be, and often are, ambiguous in the real world.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andi Manggala Putra ◽  
Gagaring Pagalung ◽  
Abdul Hamid Habbe

Purpose: This study scrutinises the correlation between earnings quality and agency cost based on corruption level and cultural values in six South-East Asian (SEA) countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.Design/methodology: We restrict categorisation of each SEA country whether they have low or high agency cost. This study employs 581 firm-years observations from the 30 biggest market capitalisation firms of six SEA countries. We run multiple regressions of three main accrual models for main analysis (Jones, 1991; Dechow et al., 1995; Kasznik, 1999) to get discretionary accruals.Findings: Results show that firms in low agency cost countries have lower earnings quality, and indicate that earnings management behaviour in this study is efficient rather than detrimental. Furthermore, results present that firms with bigger size engage less in earnings management conduct compared to their counterparts.Originality/value: This study provides broader acknowledgement of how cultural values and corruption and their assumed correlation to agency cost could affect earnings management behaviour in South East Asia. We use a single proxy of high/low agency cost based on national cultural and corruption index.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-421
Author(s):  
Jose Miranda-Lopez ◽  
Ivan Valdovinos-Hernandez

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the earnings quality of companies listed on Mexico’s primary stock market, the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (Bolsa) before and during the global economic crisis of 2008. Previous research has shown that these economic events can have potentially conflicting effects on the quality of earnings of listed companies in capital markets around the world. Design/methodology/approach This paper operationalizes earnings quality based on earnings management. Therefore, four constructs to proxy for earnings quality are developed from previous literature, and multiple regression analysis along with tests of differences across two time periods, 2005–2007 and 2008–2010, are used to determine if there is a significant change in the accounting quality of companies listed on the Bolsa before and after the start of the global economic crisis. Findings Results indicate a statistically significant decrease of earnings quality on three out of the four constructs used to proxy for earnings management. There is only one construct in this category that shows a significant increase of earnings quality. Research limitations/implications There are different number of constructs and methodologies used to test for earnings quality. This study draws on four different constructs on two dimensions of earnings quality from previous literature, but other methodologies and constructs can potentially be used as well, such as discretionary accruals. Furthermore, there is a chance that there can be confounding factors affecting the results of this study besides the effects of the global economic crisis. Finally, the sample used in this study comprises non-financial public companies listed on the Bolsa, which can affect the generalization of the results to countries other than Mexico. Practical implications The results of this study can be of interest to Mexican and foreign investors, standard setters and regulators of the Bolsa, as the results show a strong incentive to manage companies’ earnings using income smoothing in an emerging economy during an economic crisis even after converging to a higher-quality set of accounting standards. Results can also be of interests to investors and regulators in other Latin-American countries with economies similar to that of Mexico. Originality/value This is the first study to test the quality of earnings of Mexican companies before and during the global economic crisis of 2008. Thus, this study contributes to the accounting quality literature by offering evidence showing a significant increase of income smoothing during the global economic crisis for companies listed in a developing economy with a relevant history of economic crises, even when these companies were using recently converged, higher-quality accounting standards.


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