Denna studie fokuserar på effekten av IFRS/IAS på earnings management. Huvudsyftet är att identifiera earnings management före och efter införandet av IFRS/IAS för att klargöra om de internationella redovisningsstandarderna har påverkat förekomsten av resultatmanipulering inom svenska börsbolag. Perioden som studeras är åren 2002-2008. För att identifiera earnings management används den modifierade Jones-modellen som går ut på att detektera förekomsten av godtyckliga periodiseringar som ett mått på resultatmanipulering. Vi kontrollerar även för om variablerna storlek och bransch kan förklara förekomsten av företeelsen före och efter införandet av IFRS/IAS. Urvalet är de 144 företag som var listade på Small-Cap, Mid-Cap och Large-Cap på stockholmsbörsen november 2011. Resultaten visar att IFRS/IAS inte har påverkat earnings management då förekomsten av godtyckliga periodiseringar förhåller sig relativt konstant under tidsperioden. Slutligen kunde vi finna resultat som visar att förekomsten av earnings management förekommer i större utsträckning bland företagen på Small-Cap och i IT- & Telekombranschen. / This study focuses on the effect of IFRS/IAS on earnings management. The main purpose is to identify earnings management before and after the adoption of IFRS/IAS to clarify if the international accounting standards have had any effect on the presence of earnings management in Swedish listed companies. The studied period is the years between 2002 and 2008. In order to identify earnings management we use the modified Jones-model which detects the presence of discretionary accruals as a measure of earnings management. Other variables such as firm-size and industry are also examined to see whether these firm specific features may explain the amount of discretionary accruals before and after implementation of IFRS/IAS. We consider a sample of 144 firms listed on Small-Cap, Mid-Cap and Large-Cap on the Swedish stock market in November 2011. The results show that IFRS/IAS has had no effect on earnings management, as discretionary accruals have remained relatively constant during the period before and after the adoption. Finally, the results indicate that firms listed on Small-Cap tend to manage earnings in a larger proportion than firms listed on Mid-Cap and Large-Cap. Also, there seems to occur significant more earnings management in firms of the Information Technology & Telecom Industry.

To consider the international trend and enhance the global competitiveness of Taiwan enterprises, the Government committed to convert the domestic accounting standards to International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS). Taiwan Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No.10, ¡§Inventories¡¨, was revised to adopt IFRS and effective on January 1, 2009 under this background. New SFAS No.10 has different rules on inventory evaluation and has significant impacts on inventory decision-making and operating profits, which may cause much high pressure on companies¡¦ operating performance. Based on this assumption, this research would like to know whether adopting the new SFAS No.10 can affect earnings management behavior by studying the relations between inventories related financial factors and accrual-based earnings management. This research takes the absolute value of discretionary accruals (ADA) from the Modified Jones Model as a measuring indicator of earnings management; and selects six sequential quarterly financial statements of listed companies in Taiwan Stock Exchange Market before and after adopting new SFAS No.10. The total sampling periods are twelve quarters from the third quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2010. The empirical results of this study are summarized as follows: 1.After adopting New SFAS No.10, the levels of using discretionary accruals for earnings management are significantly reduced. 2.Gross Profit Margin and Inventory Turnover Rate both have significant correlations with using discretionary accruals for earnings management. 3.Companies have shorter product life cycles are more evident in using discretionary accruals for earnings management. 4.Fixed Assets to Total Assets Rate and Provision of Inventory Loss both have no significant correlations with using the discretionary accruals for earnings management.

This paper investigates the impact of accruals and cash flow components of earnings on the stock prices and whether the stock prices fully reflect information about future earnings contained in the accrual and cash flow components of current earnings. This is an interesting issue of narrow framing, an application of behavioral finance. We mainly follow Sloan (1996)’s methodology but adjust hypothesis settings to fit the real situation of stock market in Taiwan. We find that high earnings performance that is attributable to cash flow components is more likely to be sustained than high earnings performance that is attributable to accrual components. / This paper investigates the impact of accruals and cash flow components of earnings on the stock prices and whether the stock prices fully reflect information about future earnings contained in the accrual and cash flow components of current earnings. This is an interesting issue of narrow framing, an application of behavioral finance. We mainly follow Sloan (1996)’s methodology but adjust hypothesis settings to fit the real situation of stock market in Taiwan. We find that high earnings performance that is attributable to cash flow components is more likely to be sustained than high earnings performance that is attributable to accrual components.

本研究之目的在於探討金融商品價值變動、公司特性與盈餘管理之關聯性，研究對象2006年1月1日至2009年6月30日金融業以外之上市公司作，並分為兩部分進行分析。第一部份檢視公司特性與其持有金融商品的關係，並觀察全球金融危機是否會影響公司對於金融商品之持有程度。第二部份探討金融商品價值變動以及公司特性是否會影響公司之盈餘管理行為。 本研究結果顯示，管理當局持股愈高、債務比率愈低、公司規模愈大、現金股利率愈高、流動性愈高以及研發費用率愈高之公司，其持有金融商品之程度愈高。產業為電子業之公司較其他產業之公司持有較少之金融商品。全球金融危機發生之後，公司對金融商品之持有程度有明顯下降之情況。 此外，金融資產評價利益、金融資產評價損失與金融負債評價損失與盈餘管理之關係符合損益平穩化之理論；金融商品減損損失與盈餘管理之關係則符合洗大澡之理論。管理當局持股比率愈高時，愈會將裁量性應計向上操縱或向下操縱，而債務比率愈高之公司，愈會將裁量性應計向下操縱。公司資金愈多，管理階層愈不會操縱裁量性應計，但其差異較不明顯。而電子業公司之盈餘管理幅度則小於非電子產業公司。 / This purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between value changes in financial instruments, firm characteristics and earnings management. The study includes two parts and uses a sample of the companies (excluding financial firms) listed at the Taiwan Stock Exchange from January 2006 to June 2009. First, I examine the relationship between company characteristics and their holdings of financial instruments. It also examines whether the global financial crisis affected these companies’ holdings of financial instruments. Secondly, I examine whether the value changes of financial instruments and company characteristics affect the sample companies’ earnings management behavior. The empirical results show that the companies with higher management ownership, lower debt ratio, larger size, higher cash dividend yield, higher liquidity, and higher rates of R&D have tend to hold more financial instruments. Companies in the electronics industry hold less financial instruments. Companies kept less financial instruments decreased after the global financial crisis. In addition, the relationship between valuation gain and loss on financial assets, valuation loss on financial liabilities and earnings management conforms to the theory of income smoothing. And the relationship between financial instruments impairment losses and earnings management is consistent with the big bath theory. Management with higher ownership tends to manipulate more discretionary accruals. Companies with higher debt ratio tend to manipulate discretionary accruals downward. For the companies with more funds, their management manipulates less discretionary accruals, although the difference is less obvious. Earnings management by the companies in the electronics industry is less than those in other industries.

本研究延伸Becker et al. ( 1998 )六大會計師事務所審計效率高於非六大的研究，探討會計師事務所在面對管理階層不同之盈餘管理動機時，也就是當會計師與管理階層兩者間的盈餘報導動機衝突或一致時，會計師事務所的監督功能是否對稱。本研究認為高審計品質的會計師事務所在決定盈餘報導時，會比低審計品質的會計師事務所更加保守，因為高品質之會計師事務所面對審計失敗伴隨而來的訴訟成本遠較其他會計師事務所來的高，使得會計師事務所對於客戶採用增加所得的會計政策會保持較高的專業懷疑態度，抑制客戶虛增盈餘，因此，當管理者產生增加所得的盈餘報導動機時，衝突就會發生；反之，當客戶採用減少所得的會計政策，基於會計上的穩健原則，會計師事務所干涉程度則較低，使客戶較易進行減少所得的盈餘管理，故會計師事務所的監督功能不具對稱性。 而本研究結果顯示，當客戶有增加所得的盈餘管理動機時，代表高審計品質的五大與產業專家會計師事務所的客戶所報導的裁量性應計顯著低於非五大與非產業專家之會計師事務所，表示在會計師事務所與管理階層的盈餘報導動機有衝突時，五大與產業專家會計師事務所的審計品質較佳，較能抑制客戶利用裁量性應計進行增加所得的盈餘管理；反之，當客戶有減少所得的盈餘管理動機時，五大與產業專家會計師事務所的客戶所報導的裁量性應計也顯著低於非五大與非產業專家之會計師事務所，表示在會計師事務所與管理階層的盈餘報導動機相一致時，五大與產業專家會計師事務所的審計品質反而較低，容許客戶利用裁量性應計進行減少所得的盈餘管理。此實證結果支持本研究之假說，當會計師事務所與管理階層的盈餘報導動機發生衝突(一致)時，五大與產業專家會計師事務所的審計品質高(低)於非五大與非產業專家會計師事務所，監督功能不具對稱性。 / The research of Becker et al ( 1998 ) found that the big 6 CPA firms’ audit efficiency was higher than the non-big 6 CPA firms’ audit efficiency. This research extends Becker’s research and discusses whether the surveillance function of CPA firms is symmetrical or not when CPA firms face different earnings management motives of the management. In other words, when the earnings management motives between CPAs and management are conflict or consistent, whether will result in different audit quality level or not. We thought that the CPA firms with high audit quality are more conservative than those with low audit quality when deciding the reported earnings. Because the lawsuit cost of the CPA firms with high audit quality is much greater than the lawsuit cost of other CPA firms when facing the audit defeat. Thus the high audit quality CPA firms maintain the higher specialized suspicion on their customers who use the accounting policy to increase their earnings and restrain their earnings management. Therefore, when the management has the motive to increase reported earnings, the conflict will occur; on the contrary, when the management has the motive to decrease reported earnings, the CPA firms will tolerate their customers making earnings management to decrease the reported earnings base on the conservatism of accounting, so the surveillance function of CPA firms will decline and become not symmetry. According to our research, we find that when the management has the motive to increase reported earnings, the reported discretionary accruals of the management audited by the big 5 and industrial expert CPA firms are much lower than those audited by the non-big 5 and non- industrial expert CPA firms. It means when the motive of earnings reporting between the CPA firms and management is conflict, the audit quality of the big 5 and industrial expert CPA firms is much better, and they can restrain their customer using the discretionary accruals to increase their earnings. On the other hand, when the management has the motive to decrease reported earnings, the reported discretionary accruals of the management audited by the big 5 and industrial expert CPA firms are also much lower than those audited by the non-big 5 and non- industrial expert CPA firms. It means when the motive of earnings reporting between the CPA firms and management is consistent, the audit quality of the big 5 and industrial expert CPA firms is much lower instead, and they tolerate their customer using the discretionary accruals to decrease their earnings. This result of statistics test supports our hypotheses. When the earnings reporting motive between the CPA firms and the management is conflict ( consistent ), the audit quality of big 5 and industrial expert CPA firms is higher ( lower ) than other CPA firms’ audit quality. The surveillance function does not have the symmetry.

[pt] Em uma oferta inicial de ações, uma das dificuldades dos investidores é avaliar que preço pagar pela ação lançada. Para diminuir tal dificuldade, a Comissão de Valores Imobiliários exige que as empresas emissoras apresentem demonstrativos financeiros dos últimos três anos de operações. Esta dissertação avalia a precisão desses demonstrativos financeiros, através de uma amostra de 67 emissões de ações na Bovespa entre 2002 e 2007. A análise dos dados mostra que as emissões com um único banco coordenador apresentam uma maior incidência de rubricas discriminatórias, que aumentam os lucros acumulados. Tais rubricas aparecem mais frequentemente em demonstrativos no formato pró-forma, que não impõem uma responsabilidade legal sobre os auditores, consistente com a hipótese de que as rubricas discricionárias têm por finalidade inflar os lucros contábeis. / [en] Investors face the challenge to value the price of a share during na ipo. With the purpose of improving their ability, the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) demands companies to present financial statements for the last three years of continuing operations. This dissertation assesses the quality of these financial statements using a sample of 67 IPOs that took place at São Paulo Stock Exchange between 2002 and 2007. The analysis of the prospectuses gives us evidence that IPOs with only one investment bank on their syndicate present higher discretionary accruals and by consequence, reported earnings. The use of discretionary accruals is more common in pro forma financial statements which exempt auditing companies from legal responsibility and therefore enhance the hypothesis that discretionary accruals are used in order to inflate earnings.

Esta pesquisa buscou investigar a anomalia dos accruals nos retornos de cinco países da América Latina (Argentina, Brasil, Chile, México e Peru), bem como observar se os aspectos institucionais impactaram nos retornos anormais de accruals dos países. Para tanto, foram analisadas séries temporais para cada país, agrupadas em carteiras de accruals e carteiras de setor, para os modelos CAPM, 3-fatores e 4-fatores, incluindo o fator accruals e observados os retornos anormais das séries, avaliando-os por meio da estatística GRS e pelas estatísticas de teste do procedimento de Fama e MacBeth. Em seguida, foram construídos modelos de dados em painel para o período de 2004 a 2017, em que as variáveis dependentes foram os retornos anormais de accruals, resultantes das séries temporais mensais de cada uma das empresas, e as variáveis independentes foram os fatores institucionais característicos dos países e as variáveis a nível de empresa. O estudo esperava que, se confirmados os retornos anormais de accruals nas séries temporais da América Latina, os fatores específicos de cada país contribuiriam para explicar as diferenças de retornos anormais existentes entre eles. Os resultados confirmaram a presença de retornos anormais em todos os países da amostra, em todos os modelos e o comportamento dos accruals explicou parte dos retornos. Além disso, as variáveis institucionais dos países estudados impactaram os retornos anormais de accruals. Por fim, esta pesquisa fornece evidências quanto a generalização da anomalia dos accruals, enriquecendo a literatura sobre países ainda pouco explorados e de importância econômica crescente, além de prover indícios sobre os efeitos dos aspectos institucionais na anomalia dos accruals na América Latina. / This research aimed to investigate accrual anomaly of returns from five countries in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru), and to observe whether institucional factors impacted the accruals abnormal returns in these countries. For that purpose, time series for each country were built, and grouped in accruals and industry portfolios for Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), 3-factor and 4-factor models, including the accrual factor (ACC). Abnormal returns were detected through the GRS statistics and the Fama and MacBeth procedure. Then, panel data models were used considering the period from 2004 to 2017, in which the dependent variables was the accrual abnormal returns resulted from the individual monthly series for each analyzed company; and the independent variables were the country-specific institutional factors and the company-level variables. Considering previous literature, in this study, it was expected that, if the accrual abnormal returns were confirmed in the time series from Latin America, the specific factors from each country would contribute to explain the differences between the returns. The results confirmed the presence of abnormal returns in every country from the sample and in all models, plus, the behavior from accruals partially explains returns. Furthermore, the institutional variables of countries influence the accruals abnormal returns. Finally, this research provides evidence over the generalization of accruals anomaly, contributing to literature on poorly studied, but economically relevant countries, besides providing signs regarding effects of institutional factors effects on the anomaly in Latin America

Submitted by BRUNO LIMA (brunojlima@hotmail.com) on 2017-04-19T07:40:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 BRUNO FINAL Dissertação_20_imprimir_pdf.pdf: 1302345 bytes, checksum: edaabff3faf70e3c7a33b936cfe16368 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marivalda Araujo (masilva@ufba.br) on 2017-04-20T15:41:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 BRUNO FINAL Dissertação_20_imprimir_pdf.pdf: 1302345 bytes, checksum: edaabff3faf70e3c7a33b936cfe16368 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-20T15:41:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BRUNO FINAL Dissertação_20_imprimir_pdf.pdf: 1302345 bytes, checksum: edaabff3faf70e3c7a33b936cfe16368 (MD5) / As demonstrações contábeis são elaboradas e apresentadas tendo em vista suas finalidades distintas e necessidades diversas. Devem fornecer informações de qualidade que sejam úteis na tomada de decisões econômicas e avaliações por parte dos usuários em geral. Apesar do processo contábil não estar plenamente prescrito em normas e regulamentos, é ofertada ao agente a discricionariedade para que processe e julgue a melhor maneira de operá-lo. Evidências empíricas têm demonstrado que nem sempre o agente atua de forma racional em função dos vieses cognitivos – oriundos, dentre outras fontes, da característica pessoal e ambiental. Dentre os processos psicológicos tem-se o excesso de confiança. É necessário destacar também que esse viés cognitivo proporciona a ruptura da representação fidedigna das demonstrações visto pelo gerenciamento de resultados. O objetivo foi verificar a relação entre o excesso de confiança e o gerenciamento de resultados das empresas não financeiras brasileiras. A amostra foi composta por 109 empresas não financeiras listadas na BM&FBOVESPA no período de 2010 a 2014. Foram usadas métricas de excesso de confiança em nível de mercado. Para a obtenção do gerenciamento de resultado, foram utilizados os acrruals discricionários e em nível real divididos em nível de despesas de vendas gerais e administrativas (SGA) e em nível de Produção (PROD). Os resultados indicam que, ao contrário do que aponta a plataforma teórica, os gestores brasileiros tendem a ser mais conservadores já que não se observou relação entre o excesso de confiança e o gerenciamento de resultados quando se utiliza proxies de mercado. / The financial statements are prepared and presented in view of their different purposes and different needs. They must provide quality information that is useful in making economic decisions and evaluations by users in general. Despite the accounting process not fully prescribed in rules and regulations, it is offered to the agent the discretion to prosecute and judge the best way to operate it. Empirical evidence has shown that not always the agent acts rationally on the basis of cognitive biases - deriving, among other sources, personal and environmental characteristics. Among the psychological processes has overconfidence. It must also point out that this cognitive bias provides the breakdown of the faithful representation of the statement seen by earnings management. The goal was to determine to what extent overconfidence impacts the earnings management of non-Brazilian financial companies. The sample consisted of 109 non-financial companies listed on the BM &FBOVESPA in the period 2010 to 2014 were used metrics over-reliance on market level. To obtain the result management, discretionary and real level accruals divided at the level of general and administrative expenses Selling expenses were used (EMS) and production levels (PROD). In addition, the effects of external monitoring measures have been checked (Corporate Governance and Audit Quality) on earnings management and how they, combined with overconfidence metrics, impact it. The results indicate that, unlike the theoretical pointing platform, brazilian managers tend to be more conservative since there was no relationship between the excess reliable and earnings management when using market proxies.

In 1996, Sloan identified the accruals anomaly, in which the negative relationship between the accruals component of current earnings and subsequent stock returns can be exploited to generate excess returns. One would expect the accruals anomaly to dissipate and ultimately disappear as investors take advantage of the now-public information. However, nearly two decades later, it persists as one of the most prominent and contentious anomalies; its magnitude of current and future excess returns still remain controversial. The main reason for its persistence is that extreme accrual firms possess characteristics that are unappealing to most investors. These characteristics, which include insufficient analyst coverage, high idiosyncratic volatility and the presence of institutional constraints, are generally more pronounced in firms with weak internal controls. This paper finds that the accruals anomaly persists at a higher magnitude in firms with weak internal controls. This higher magnitude of excess returns survives the Fama-French five-factor (2015), the Stambaugh-Yuan four-factor (2017) and the Hou, Xue, and Zhang (2015) q-factor models.

In this thesis, I examine earnings management issues in the UK context. The thesis consists of three essays. The first chapter investigates whether managers base their trade-off decisions among real earnings management, accruals-based earnings management, and classification shifting, on the costs, constraints and timing of each strategy in the UK. The empirical evidence suggests that some, but not all, costs and constraints play a role in managers’ trade-off decisions. Further, contrasting between firms that are most likely to have manipulated earnings and firms that are not likely to have manipulated earnings, I find no difference in the relation of constraints towards all earnings management forms. This indicates that cost and constraints do not capture entirely what they are designed to, in the first place. Finally, I document evidence that is consistent with managers using real and accruals-based earnings management as substitutes but fail to find evidence that classification shifting acts as a substitute. The second essay studies the effect of income smoothing via accruals-based and real earnings management on the relationship between current stock returns, current earnings and future earnings. I measure income smoothing as the contemporaneous correlation between changes in earnings management proxies and pre-managed income. Using a sample of non-financial publicly listed firms in the UK, I show that both accruals-based and real income smoothing measures are associated with significantly positive share price anticipation of earnings. These results are robust to different stock returns specifications, income smoothing measure calculations, abnormal accruals models and accumulation periods of stock returns. In the third and final essay, I investigate the impact of the level of accruals-based and real earnings management on measures of the amount of performance commentary in annual reports for a large sample of UK public firms. I use automated textual analysis to construct disclosure scores based on the amount of performance and causal commentary. The results suggest that firms with higher levels of earnings management have lower levels of disclosure of performance and causal commentary. The presence of bad news for the firm (missed analyst forecast, underperformance or earnings decline) affects the relationship between disclosure and accruals-based earnings management but not the relationship between disclosure and real earnings management.