Accrual-Based and Real Earnings Management: An International Comparison for Investor Protection

Masahiro Enomoto, Fumihiko Kimura and Tomoyasu Yamaguchi
Additional contact information
Fumihiko Kimura: Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Tomoyasu Yamaguchi: Tohoku Gakuin University, Sendai, Japan

No DP2012-13, Discussion Paper Series from Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University

Abstract: This paper examines the differences in accrual-based and real earnings management across countries from the perspective of investor protection. Following prior research (Leuz et al., 2003), we hypothesize that accrual-based earnings management is more constrained by strict discipline in countries with stronger investor protection. For real earnings management in countries with stronger investor protection, we have two hypotheses. One is that real earnings management is more often implemented to substitute for accrual-based earnings management. The other is that real earnings management is less often implemented, as with accrual-based earnings management. Our examination uses data from 222,513 firm-year observations drawn from 38 countries covering 1991 to 2010. The results show that managers in countries with stronger investor protection tend to engage in real earnings management instead of accrual-based earnings management. We also find that real earnings management is constrained by analyst following. Our results are not affected by the control of audit quality or the calculation method used for earnings management measures according to country and year.

Keywords: Earnings management; Investor protection; Corporation law; Securities law; Regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G34 G38 K22 M41 P4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2012-05, Revised 2015-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (67)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp/academic/ra/dp/English/DP2012-13.pdf Revised version, 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Accrual-based and real earnings management: An international comparison for investor protection (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2012-13

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Paper Series from Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University 2-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501 JAPAN. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Office of Promoting Research Collaboration, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University ().