The frequency and magnitude of earnings management: Time-series and multi-threshold comparisons

We measure the frequency and magnitude of earnings management assuming earnings follow a mixed-normal distribution. We show that the frequency of earnings management is the highest when firms try to meet analysts' forecasted earnings and furthermore the trend is magnified in recent years. Additionally, more firms manage earnings to avoid earnings decreases rather than to avoid negative earnings. Furthermore, the magnitude of earnings management is the greatest when firms try to avoid earnings decreases. Earnings managements to avoid negative and decreased earnings are lower in recent years, and the magnitude of earnings management to meet forecasted earnings became dominant after 2001.     

资本市场开放与企业真实盈余管理——基于“陆港通”的经验证据

资本市场开放不仅是扩大国际融资、更好地利用国际金融市场的需要,而且对我国资本市场发育和上市公司行为具有多重外部治理效应。本文借助我国内地与香港资本市场互联互通机制这一准自然实验,研究资本市场开放对企业真实盈余管理的影响。研究发现:(1)总体上,“陆港通”机制的实施显著降低了标的公司真实盈余管理程度。(2)委托代理问题是企业进行盈余管理的重要原因,而“陆港通”机制开通后,能够缓解标的公司代理矛盾,进而约束管理层的真实盈余管理行为。(3)当资本市场信息环境改善、管理层面临较大股票抛售压力以及大股东监督力度较强时,“陆港通”抑制企业真实盈余管理行为的治理效果更强。本文结果表明,资本市场开放有助于提高我国上市公司财务信息披露质量及公司治理水平。     

资本市场开放与企业真实盈余管理——基于“陆港通”的经验证据

资本市场开放不仅是扩大国际融资、更好地利用国际金融市场的需要,而且对我国资本市场发育和上市公司行为具有多重外部治理效应。本文借助我国内地与香港资本市场互联互通机制这一准自然实验,研究资本市场开放对企业真实盈余管理的影响。研究发现:(1)总体上,“陆港通”机制的实施显著降低了标的公司真实盈余管理程度。(2)委托代理问题是企业进行盈余管理的重要原因,而“陆港通”机制开通后,能够缓解标的公司代理矛盾,进而约束管理层的真实盈余管理行为。(3)当资本市场信息环境改善、管理层面临较大股票抛售压力以及大股东监督力度较强时,“陆港通”抑制企业真实盈余管理行为的治理效果更强。本文结果表明,资本市场开放有助于提高我国上市公司财务信息披露质量及公司治理水平。     

Main banks’ influence on financial reporting quality in Japan

This study investigated main banks’ influence on the quality of accounting firms’ audits and corporate firms’ earnings, focusing on companies on Japan’s Nikkei 500 index. We posed three questions in this research study about main banks’ influence on corporate clients’ earnings management. First, does a weakened main bank relationship influence corporate clients’ financial reporting quality? Second, does Japan’s firewall deregulation influence firms’ earnings quality? Finally, does the relationship between accounting firms and main banks affect client firms’ earnings quality? Our main findings were that main banks are not related to client firms’ earnings management; however, main banks mitigate client firms’ earnings management after firewall deregulation. On the other hand, firewall deregulation does motivate firms to manipulate their earnings management. Finally, using Pong and Kita’s (2006) study as a framework, we found that main banks and client firms using the same accounting firms had no influence on earnings management. Based on these evidences presented, our findings suggest that the quality of corporate clients’ financial reporting changes before and after firewall deregulation.     

Directors network centrality and earnings quality

This study examines whether firms with network central boards of directors behave differently from other firms in terms of financial reporting quality. We find that earnings quality among firms is low when board networks are channels of incorrect information transmission (including earnings management information) and for firms whose directors are awarded equity-based compensation have connections through boardroom networks, but earnings quality is better for firms with good performance in spite of their networks. These results are robust to controlling for firm information environment, growth, size, age, leverage, performance, volatility in firm operations, and corporate governance.     

盈余管理、股权再融资与公司业绩表现*

在公司股权结构集中的情况下，控股股东实施盈余管理并进行股权再融资后会引起公司利润回调，并可能对公司长期经营能力造成影响。本文以沪深两市实施股权再融资的A股上市公司为样本，研究发现盈余管理导致公司股权再融资后业绩下降。进一步地，在热发市场中公司实施盈余管理的幅度更大，引起股票错误定价的程度更高，导致股权再融资后会计业绩和市场业绩下滑的作用更为明显。此外，在发生控股股东股权稀释的公司中，盈余管理引起公司股权再融资后业绩下降的程度更为严重，这表明控股股东利用股价高估的“机会窗口”侵占外部投资者利益的动机非常强烈。     

盈余管理程度的估计模型与经验证据:一个综述

盈余管理是一个与投资者保护和会计准则制定紧密相关的重要问题,它已经成为会计乃至金融、经济领域的重要研究课题。要研究在经济上具有意义的盈余管理,其前提是估计盈余管理的程度。本文对盈余管理程度的估计方法及其相应的经验证据进行评述,文献评述结果表明,非预期应计利润模型能够估计出单个公司的盈余管理程度,但它无法估计经济上具有意义的盈余管理程度;盈余分布法是目前估计盈余管理程度的核心方法,它能够估计出整体上的盈余管理程度,但它假设真实盈余分布是光滑的。盈余管理程度估计的未来研究,需要剔除盈余指标选择以及标准化方法选择等因素的影响,解决在同时存在多个阈值情况下不同阈值之间相互关联的影响问题,并放宽模型的假设或者给假设提供直接的证据。     

机构投资者持股和会计盈余质量

本文从会计盈余质量的角度来研究机构投资者(’在公司治理中的作用。我们从盈余管理程度、盈余信息含量和盈余稳健性等三个方面来衡量会计盈余的质量。三方面的研究结果显示,机构投资者持股有助于改善会计盈余的质量:机构投资者持股公司的会计盈余质量显著高于其他公司,并且会计盈余的质量随着机构投资者持股比例的增加而增加。进一步研究发现,机构投资者还能够缓解大股东对会计盈余信息含量的恶化,起到一定的制衡作用。本文的研究表明,机构投资者能够在一定程度上改善上市公司的盈余质量,其快速成长有助于公司治理结构的改善,也有助于资本市场信息披露环境的良性发展。     

Analysis of Earnings Management in Chinese Listed Companies

This paper collect earnings management activities for 698 listed companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and the purpose is to test whether Chinese companies use real activities such as asset sales, purchase, exchange and equity sales or purchase to manage earnings to meet or exceed CSRC regulatory thresholds. But we do not observe significant difference in the frequency of earnings management activities. However, with weak evidence, these firms report larger income-increasing contributions to current year earnings from earnings management activities to meet or exceed important thresholds.     

Accruals quality,managers’ incentives and stock market reaction: evidence from Europe

We investigate if accruals quality is a valuable indicator of earnings quality for stock market investors. Our particular focus is on the incremental informative value of taking into account managers’ incentives for using accruals. We propose a market-based approach for assessing the usefulness of this indicator to improve investors’ decisions. Specifically, we examine the association between accruals quality and information asymmetry among stock market participants. Our empirical study uses data on European firms and our results are consistent with a positive association between poor earnings quality and high information asymmetry. However, given some previous studies suggesting that accruals-based measures may be noisy indicators of earnings quality, we develop a method to increase the informational content of the accruals quality measure. Based on our results, we find that combining accruals quality with the dispersion in analysts’ forecasts provides a better indicator of earnings quality rather than only accruals quality.     

Outsourcing of accounting tasks and tax management: evidence from a corporate tax rate change

The aim of this article is to investigate if small firms react to a national corporate tax rate reduction by managing their taxable income. In contrast to previous studies, we also analyse whether outsourcing of accounting tasks affects the magnitude of the reaction. Based on a sample of Finnish firms and measures of earnings management, evidence is provided that firms with an internalized accounting function are more active tax planners in this context. This study suggests that outsourcing of accounting tasks increases the corporate tax reporting quality.     

国内市场分割与中国的出口贸易扩张

本文将国内市场分割和边际成本与固定成本之间的反向关系引入Melitz(2003)的模型,构建了一个开放经济模型。文章证明了国内市场分割导致不同生产技术的企业都首选进入国外市场。这似乎解释了中国出口贸易的强劲增长其实是严重的国内市场分割导致企业无法依托巨大的国内需求、发挥规模经济而被迫出口的扭曲现象。     

信息披露质量与股权融资成本

本文以深圳证券市场A股上市公司为样本,研究中国上市公司的信息披露质量是否会对其股权融资成本产生影响。我们采用剩余收益模型计算上市公司的股权融资成本,分别以披露总体质量与盈余披露质量指标反映上市公司的信息披露质量。研究发现,在控制β系数、公司规模、账面市值比、杠杆率、资产周转率等因素的条件下,信息披露质量较高的样本公司边际股权融资成本较低,这说明我国上市公司的信息披露质量会对其股权融资成本产生积极影响。研究还发现,盈余平滑度和披露总体质量是影响样本公司股权融资成本的主要信息披露质量特征。最后基于上述发现提出了若干政策建议。     

IPO盈余"过度包装"的治理机制设计

中国A股上市公司IPO"过度包装"现象普遍存在,一个根本原因是当IPO公司的价值被高估时,对IPO公司的高定价行为缺乏有效的治理机制.本文在中国特定的环境下,分析了初始公司面临发股收益、持股收益与控制权收益组合时,IPO公司价值被高估没有约束机制以及引入约束时对于公司股票发行定价决策的影响.本文通过设计一个发股收益与控制权收益不可兼得的治理机制,可以把IPO盈余"过度包装"的融资行为内生化.     

中国上市公司盈余管理的频率与幅度

盈余管理频率和幅度是投资者保护程度在现实经济中的具体体现。然而,已有文献在盈余管理频率或者幅度方面所提供的证据还远远不足以揭示客观事实。本文运用所有研究样本的报告盈余信息,通过假设报告盈余服从混合正态分布,运用参数估计的方法对阈值处的盈余管理频率和幅度进行推断。研究结论表明,中国上市公司从1995年至2003年间都存在为避免报告亏损而进行的盈余管理。1996年、1997年以及2001年至2003年的盈余管理频率和幅度较高,并且2001年至2003年逐年呈上升趋势。2001年至2003年平均有64·4%的亏损公司在阈值0点上进行盈余管理并达到避免报告亏损的目的,平均盈余管理幅度为提高ROA数据0·065。研究还发现2001年至2003年期间的盈余管理更加具有隐蔽性。     

真实盈余管理动机下R&D削减行为与创新产出——数量、质量与效率

以2007—2017年沪深A股上市公司为样本，基于零盈余、上期盈余和分析师预测盈余对真实盈余管理动机进行刻画识别，检验公司在真实盈余管理动机下削减R&D支出对创新产出的影响。研究发现，与其它动机相比，真实盈余管理动机下的R&D削减会导致未来三期更低的创新产出、创新质量及创新效率。进一步，扩大盈余管理识别范围、使用全样本进行双重差分、替换被解释变量分别检验后，结果依然稳健。     

DO STOCK MARKETS VALUE EFFICIENCY?

An empirical model determining the relationship between changes in firm-level productivity and changes in firm value is estimated using an unbalanced panel of 706 public limited companies observed over the period 1996–2002. We find a positive relationship between efficiency and the market value of manufacturing sector firms controlling for traditional accounting measures of performance such as earnings per share and the return on capital employed. This evidence is consistent with the stock market valuing the adoption of better management practices that lead to better resource utilisation. By contrast, we find no such evidence for service sector firms.     

Value Relevance of Earnings in an Emerging Capital Market: the Case of A-shares in China

This study investigates the value relevance of earnings in the emerging capital market of China by examining the information content of accounting earnings measured under the People's Republic of China Accounting Standards (PRC-GAAP). Based on the A-shares of listed Chinese firms during 1994–97, a significant association is observed between annual market-adjusted stock return and the change of earnings. Also documented is a significant price reaction to the annual earnings announcement in a three-day window centered around the announcement date. Overall, the empirical results suggest that earnings reported in China are value-relevant to A-share investors.     

Cash Flow Is King? Cognitive Errors by Investors

When investors fixate on current earnings, they commit a cognitive error and fail to fully value the information contained in accruals and cash flows. Extending the accrual anomaly documented by Sloan [1996], we identify significant excess returns from a cash flow-based trading strategy. The market consistently underestimates the transitory nature of accruals and the long-term persistence of cash flows. We find that the accrual anomaly derives from the poor performance of high accrual firms, which are more likely to manage earnings. Combining the accrual and cash flow information also reveals that investors misvalue the quality of earnings. Contrary to Fama [1998], these anomalies are robust to the three-factor model with equally or value-weighted portfolio returns.