This paper evaluates a comprehensive list of metrics proposed for detecting earnings management in a setting where managers manipulate earnings to round up reported EPS. I find that deferred tax expense is able to detect earnings management in the rounding-up setting while discretionary accruals models are not. Further analysis provides evidence that firms manipulate bad debt expense for the pu...

This study investigates the influence of ownership structure and board characteristics on discretionary accruals and real earnings management using the data of A-shares in Chinese Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange Securities Market from 2002 to 2012. The empirical results show that institutions with high shareholding proportion or great shareholding concentration give managers incentives to ...

This study examines the role of pre-IPO discretionary accruals in the valuation and first day initial returns of IPOs. We find that IPO offer price is unaffected whereas market closing price is positively associated with the levels of pre-IPO discretionary accruals for issuers with aggressively reported earnings. We also find that this relative over-valuation of managed earnings by the markets ...

Prior research has documented a ‘‘kink’’ in the earnings distribution: too few firms report small losses, too many firms report small profits. We investigate whether boosting of discretionary accruals to report a small profit is a reasonable explanation for this ‘‘kink.’’ Overall, we are unable to confirm that boosting of discretionary accruals is the key driver of the kink. We caution the use ...

This thesis comprises of three essays. The first essay is titled ‘Do Acquiring Firms Manage Earnings?’ and is co-authored with Professor Anand M. Vijh. The second essay is titled ‘Do Firms Have a Target Leverage? Evidence from Credit Markets’ and is joint work with Professors Anand M. Vijh and Redouane Elkamhi. The third is essay is single authored and titled ‘Bondholder Wealth Effects of Fraud...

this paper analyzes the relationship between capital structure and earning management. for analysing we used 119 non-financial companies that listed in tehran stock exchange from 2000 to 2008. the researchers will focus on comparing the jones model and the modified jones model, which are the two most frequently used model in empirical analysis nowadays. earnings management is a kind of manageme...

Economics challenge the specification of discretionary accrual models. Since rent seeking firms pursue differentiated business strategies, firms in the same industry have heterogeneous accrual generating processes. Moreover, Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” forces existing firms to revise their extant business models. We present evidence that such business model shocks are widespread, propag...