This paper investigates the compensation usefulness of accounting variables along several important dimensions (accruals-based vs. cash-flows based, non-return vs. return, and gross vs. net measures), as well as the time series variation of performance measures in CEO bonus plans, using a unique panel of manually collected CEO bonus determinants spanning fiscal years 2006 to 2011. We document t...

Most prior studies assume a positive relation between debt and earnings management, consistent with the financial distress theory. However, the empirical evidence for financial distress theory is mixed. Another stream of studies argues that lenders of short-term debt play a monitoring role over management, especially when the firm’s creditworthiness is not in doubt. To explore the implications ...

This paper examines the usefulness of accounting information in predicting earnings management. We investigate a comprehensive sample of firms from 1971-2000 that restated annual earnings. We find that firms restating earnings have high market expectations for future earnings growth and have higher levels of outstanding debt. We also find that a primary motivation for the earnings manipulation ...

a r t i c l e i n f o This paper examines the influence of ownership structure on earnings quality of firms listed on the Chinese Stock Exchanges. We empirically test four contemporary earnings quality measures, including volatility of earnings, variability of earnings over cash flows, correlations between accruals and cash flows, and level of discretionary accruals, for 1438 firms listed on Sh...

Interpreting accruals as working capital investment, we hypothesize that firms optimally adjust their capital investment in response to discount rate changes. Consistent with the discount-rate hypothesis, we document that (i) the predictive power of accruals for future returns increases with the correlations of accruals with past and current stock returns; (ii) controlling for investment substa...

This paper develops a measure of income tax expense accrual quality. Following the framework of Dechow and Dichev (2002), we examine the extent to which the financial statement accrual for book tax expense maps into tax-related cash flows. We argue that the quality of a firm’s tax accrual is decreasing in the magnitude of estimation error associated with the accrual, and that tax accrual qualit...

Outsourcing the internal aud it function (IAF) is a worldwide practice attractive to companies, practitioners and regulators because believed that providers of this are objective competent can provide high-quality audit. This study explores potential influence company auditor characteristics on selecting outsourced IAF with industry expertise. Using 334 observations for non-financial companies ...