scholarly journals Do the Financial Statements of Listed Companies on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange Pass the Benford’s Law Test?

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Natasa Omerzu ◽  
Iztok Kolar
Keyword(s):  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Financial Data ◽  
Theoretical Distribution ◽  
Benford’S Law ◽  
Digital Analysis ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Benford's Law ◽  
Long Time

Currently, we need to think about the risks in using the financial statements. Abroad, for a long time, in the detection of irregularities in the financial statements, Benford's law test has been used, which is a very simple, objective and efficient digital analysis that can help identify controversial areas. Since, in Slovenia, its use is still unknown and in practice, and it is rarely used, we checked whether the financial statements of Slovenian companies listed on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange pass the Benford’s law test. Our study is original, as no one has ever tested the company's financial statements on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange with this test. We found that the tested data very well matched the theoretical distribution according to Benford's law. If the deviation of the analysed data from the theoretical distribution is very large, this does not mean that this is a possible fraud in the used financial data. Benford's law helps us identify the controversial areas that require our attention and the decision on how to proceed with the audit or possible investigation of accounting data.

Benford's Law: Analyzing a Decade of Financial Data

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima A. Alali ◽  
Silvia Romero
Keyword(s):  
Discretionary Accruals ◽  
Financial Data ◽  
Financial Accounting ◽  
Benford’S Law ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Benford's Law

ABSTRACT This study uses a decade of financial accounting data to examine if and how they depart from Benford's Law. Using a large sample of U.S. public companies, we conduct an analysis of the first-two digits of data items generally used in research to measure total accruals and discretionary accruals and where fraud, restatements, and enforcement actions are revealed. We break down a decade of data into six subperiods; pre-SOX Period (2001), SOX 1 Period (2002–2003), SOX 2 Period (2004–2006), SOX 3 Period (2007), Crisis 1 Period (2008), and Crisis 2 Period (2009–2010). We find different indicators of manipulation during the periods studied, as well as differences between small and big companies and companies audited by Big 4 and non-Big 4 firms.

scholarly journals Using Benford’s Law to detect data error and fraud: An examination of companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Saville
Keyword(s):  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Financial Analysts ◽  
Benford’S Law ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Johannesburg Stock Exchange ◽  
Accounting Numbers ◽  
Benford's Law ◽  
Data Error ◽  
The Law ◽  
Private Investors

Accounting numbers generally obey a mathematical law called Benford’s Law, and this outcome is so unexpected that manipulators of information generally fail to observe the law. Armed with this knowledge, it becomes possible to detect the occurrence of accounting data that are presented fraudulently. However, the law also allows for the possibility of detecting instances where data are presented containing errors. Given this backdrop, this paper uses data drawn from companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to test the hypothesis that Benford’s Law can be used to identify false or fraudulent reporting of accounting data. The results support the argument that Benford’s Law can be used effectively to detect accounting error and fraud. Accordingly, the findings are of particular relevance to auditors, shareholders, financial analysts, investment managers, private investors and other users of publicly reported accounting data, such as the revenue services

scholarly journals The empirical analysis of financial reports of companies in Croatia: Benford distribution curve as a benchmark for first digits

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-100
Author(s):  
Ivana Cunjak Mataković
Keyword(s):  
Distribution Curve ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Benford’S Law ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Benford's Law ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
Kolmogorov Smirnov ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

AbstractThe financial numbers game is unfortunately alive and doing well. One of the forensic accounting techniques is based on Benford’s Law and is used for the detection of unusual transactions, anomalies or trends. The aim of this paper is to test whether the financial statements of Croatian companies deviate from Benford’s Law distribution. The financial statements of 24 companies that are in the pre-bankruptcy settlement process and 24 companies that are not in the pre-bankruptcy settlement process were analysed using the Benford’s Law test of the first digit distribution for the period from 2015 to 2018. The data used to calculate the first digits of distribution were taken from the Zagreb Stock Exchange. The chi-square test has shown that the observed companies that are not in the process of pre-bankruptcy settlement do not have the first digit distribution which follows the Benford’s Law distribution. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z test has shown that the distribution of the first digits from the financial statements of companies listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange fits to Benford’s Law distribution.

scholarly journals Is conditional conservatism a source of deviations of financial statements from Benford's Law?

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tri Tri Nguyen ◽  
Chau Minh Duong ◽  
Nguyet Thi Minh Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Financial Distress ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Benford’S Law ◽  
Assessment Procedure ◽  
Specific Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Conditional Conservatism ◽  
Benford's Law

PurposeIn this paper, the authors examine the association between conditional conservatism and deviations of the first digits of financial statement items from what are expected by Benford's Law.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses data of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. The authors measure deviations of first digits from Benford's Law following Amiram et al. (2015) and firm-year conditional conservatism following previous studies (Basu, 1997; Khan and Watts, 2009; García Lara et al., 2016). The authors use multiple regressions to provide evidence for their hypothesis.FindingsThe results show that conditional conservatism is positively associated with deviations from Benford's Law. The findings are robust across different measures of deviations and conditional conservatism. Also, the authors find that the relationship between deviations from Benford's Law and conditional conservatism is more pronounced for firms with debt issuance, and for leveraged firms facing financial distress. Next, the authors’ analyses confirm previous evidence by showing that the first digits of financial statement items of UK listed companies conform to Benford's Law at the firm-specific level and the market level, and deviations of income statements are larger than those of balance sheets and cash flow statements.Research limitations/implicationsThe research makes significant contributions to the literature. First, this is the first study that provides empirical evidence suggesting that conditional conservatism may be a source of deviations from Benford’s Law. Second, the authors provide evidence confirming previous US findings (e.g. Amiram et al., 2015) showing that the distributions of first digits of financial statement items of UK listed companies also conform to Benford's Law.Practical implicationsThe authors’ findings have implications for auditors. Auditors should be aware of “false positive” for material misstatements when using Benford's Law as a risk assessment procedure. While both conditional conservatism and earnings management are related to deviations from Benford's Law, conservatism-related biases could indicate less audit risks.Originality/valueThe authors provide new and original evidence suggesting that conditional conservatism is related to deviations from Benford's Law.

scholarly journals Reliability of Financial Information from the Perspective of Benford’s Law

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 557
Author(s):  
Ionel Jianu ◽  
Iulia Jianu
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Capital Market ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Financial Information ◽  
Benford’S Law ◽  
Professional Judgment ◽  
Reporting Standards ◽  
Financial Reporting Standards ◽  
Benford's Law ◽  
Before And After

This study investigates the conformity to Benford’s Law of the information disclosed in financial statements. Using the first digit test of Benford’s Law, the study analyses the reliability of financial information provided by listed companies on an emerging capital market before and after the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The results of the study confirm the increase of reliability on the information disclosed in the financial statements after IFRS implementation. The study contributes to the existing literature by bringing new insights into the types of financial information that do not comply with Benford’s Law such as the amounts determined by estimates or by applying professional judgment.

scholarly journals A Note on Distributions of True versus Fabricated Data

1996 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 776-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore P. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Recent Case ◽  
Benford’S Law ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Goodness Of Fit Tests ◽  
Benford's Law

New empirical evidence and statistical derivations of Benford's Law have led to successful goodness-of-fit tests to detect fraud in accounting data. Several recent case studies support the hypothesis that fabricated data do not conform to expected true digital frequencies.

scholarly journals INTANGIBLE ASSETS IN THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF SERBIAN AND SLOVENIAN LISTED COMPANIES: A PRELIMINARY OVERVIEW OF THE REPORTING PRACTICES

TEME ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Dejan Spasić ◽  
Anton Vorina
Keyword(s):  
Intangible Assets ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Consolidated Financial Statements ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Reporting Practice ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Business Combination ◽  
The Republic

The aim of the research is to achieve a conclusion what is the level of the reporting practice on intangible assets in two countries - in the Republic of Serbia and in the Republic of Slovenia trough a comparative descriptive statistics. Consolidated financial statements of listed companies in these two countries were used from the Belgrade Stock Exchange (Serbia) and the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (Slovenia). The reason for the use of consolidated financial statements lies in the fact that they can contain unconsolidated intangible assets already recognized in the separate financial statements of the companies included in the group, as well as internally generated intangible assets that meet the conditions for recognition in a business combination (including Goodwill). The general assessment is that the survey results indicate a very low level of reporting practice of intangible assets in Serbia and relatively satisfactory level of reporting practice in Slovenia. Individual results are given in the fourth part of the paper. 

scholarly journals THE LINK BETWEEN EARNINGS MANAGEMENT AND DIGITAL PATTERN / O elo entre gerenciamento de resultado e padrão digital

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 351
Author(s):  
Jennifer Martínez Ferrero ◽  
Beatriz Cuadrado Ballesteros ◽  
Marco Antonio Figueiredo Milani Filho
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Reporting Quality ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Financial Data ◽  
Benford’S Law ◽  
Similar Distribution ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Benford's Law ◽  
High Degree

<p>According to Dechow and Dichev (2002) and Lin and Wu (2014), a high degree of earnings management (EM) is associated with a poor quality of information. In this sense, it is possible to assume that the financial data of companies that manage earnings can present different patterns from those with low degree of EM. The aim of this exploratory study is to test whether a financial data set (operating expenses) of companies with high degree of EM presents bias. For this analysis, we used the model of Kothari and the modified model of Jones (“Dechow model” hereafter) to estimate the degree of EM, and we used the logarithmic distribution of data predicted by the Benford’s Law to detect abnormal patterns of digits in number sets. The sample was composed of 845 international listed non-financial companies for the year 2010. To analyze the discrepancies between the actual and expected frequencies of the significant-digit, two statistics were calculated: Z-test and Pearson’s chi-square test. The results show that, with a confidence level of 90%, the companies with a high degree of EM according to the Kothari model presented similar distribution to that one predicted by the Benford’s Law, suggesting that, in a preliminary analysis, their financial data are free from bias. On the other hand, the data set of the organizations that manage earnings according to the Dechow model presented abnormal patterns. The Benford´s Law has been implemented to successfully detect manipulated data. These results offer insights into the interactions between EM and patterns of financial data, and stimulate new comparative studies about the accuracy of models to estimate EM.</p><p>Keywords:<strong> </strong>Earnings management (EM). Financial Reporting Quality (FRQ). Benford’s Law.</p>

scholarly journals Detection of Anomalies in Accounting Data Using Benford’s Law: Evidence from India

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Chandra Das ◽  
Chandra Sekhar Mishra ◽  
Prabina Rajib
Keyword(s):  
Business Group ◽  
Financial Accounting ◽  
Benford’S Law ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Indian Context ◽  
Fixed Assets ◽  
Benford's Law ◽  
Initial Results ◽  
Direct Tax

This study uses the financial accounting data to examine if they depart from Benford’s Law. Using large sample of Indian public listed companies, the study conducts an analysis of the “first digit analysis”, “second digit analysis”, and “first two digit analysis “of test variables such as total assets, receivables, fixed assets, property, plant and equipment, inventory, current assets, current liabilities, sales, selling and distribution expenses, cost of goods sold, cash, EBIT, direct tax, indirect tax. The initial results find that most of the variables have significant deviation from Benford’s Law distribution. Further analyses indicate that business group firms indulge more data anomalies than standalone firms and small size firms have more data anomalies than large size firms in Indian context.

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