The Influences of Accounting Standards Change on Value-Relevance of Accounting Earnings

Author(s):  
Dai Bingbin
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 765-776
Author(s):  
Wanli Li ◽  
Hong Guo

This article studies changes of value relevance of earnings after mandatory adoption of new CAS (the Chinese Accounting Standards) which is substantially convergent with IFRS (the International Financial Report Standards) in China’s listed enterprises. We extend the previous research by examining the different impact on value relevance of earnings between SOEs (the State-Owned Enterprises) and NSOEs (the Non-State-Owned Enterprises) after adoption of new CAS, which is based on the samples consisting of 836 companies listed on A-shares market of China. The empirical results show that the value-relevance of accounting earnings significantly increased after 2007, and represent that value relevance of earnings increased significantly in SOEs while there are no significant changes in NSOEs after adoption of the new CAS. Our research has implications for China’s Accounting Standard setters who desire to reach expected consequences of convergence with IFRS, and provide empirical evidence for adoption of IFRS in different countries which have both SOEs and NSOEs.


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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-612
Author(s):  
Joonho Lee ◽  
Sung Gon Chung

Purpose Firms’ real activities management (RAM) can have a more detrimental effect on firms’ future performance than accrual earnings management. This paper aims to examine whether analysts, who play an important role as information intermediaries, understand the negative effect of RAM on firms’ future performance and respond to it accordingly. Design/methodology/approach The authors investigate whether analysts lower their earnings forecasts and stock recommendations of the firms with RAM. The authors measure RAM by examining firms’ abnormal decreases in discretionary expenses, abnormal increases in production and abnormal decreases in cash flow from operations following prior literature. Findings The authors find that after controlling for earnings surprises and other important firm characteristics, analysts lower their forecasts of future annual earnings and stock recommendations of the firms that show signs of RAM. Research limitations/implications First, as in other RAM studies, the results in this study are subject to measurement errors inherent in the estimation of RAM (i.e. abnormal production costs, abnormal CFO and abnormal discretionary expenditures). Second, we include only firm-year observations that barely make positive income in our samples following the previous study. This sample selection criterion helps increase the power of the test by examining the “suspect firms group,” which are more likely to engage in earnings management. However, one can challenge that our findings on the association between RAM and analysts’ reactions could be only case-specific and cannot be generalized. Practical implications This study contributes to the literature on earnings management and especially on RAM. Specifically, none of the previous studies clearly examines whether analysts understand the negative impact of RAM on firms’ future performance and respond accordingly, although there are studies showing the negative association between RAM and firms’ future operating performance and studies showing the negative association between analysts following and RAM. Thus, filling the gap, this study provides a specific reason for the negative association between the analyst following and real earnings management presented in previous studies. Social implications The findings will be of interest to regulators, who are concerned about the potential negative consequences in which tighter accounting standards can result. For example, Ewert and Wagenhofer (2005) theoretically demonstrate that tighter accounting standards can prompt more RAM instead of accounting earnings management. The study provides important evidence supporting that such suboptimal operating activities are closely watched by analysts and are potentially penalized by the market. If the market is able to detect RAM and allocate fewer resources to the firms that engage in it, then the concerns associated with the substitution effect between accrual-based earnings management and RAM can be diminished. Originality/value Prior research suggests that tighter accounting regulations (e.g. the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) prompt more RAM than accounting earnings management. The study provides evidence supporting that such suboptimal operating activities are closely watched by analysts and are potentially penalized by the market.


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