IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kob/dpaper/dp2013-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Cross-Country Study on the Relationship between Financial Development and Earnings Management

Author

Listed:
  • Masahiro Enomoto

    (Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan)

  • Fumihiko Kimura

    (Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University, Japan)

  • Tomoyasu Yamaguchi

    (Faculty of Business Administration, Tohoku Gakuin University, Japan and School of Business and Tourism, Southern Cross University, Australia)

Abstract

This paper investigates whether a country’s level of financial development is associated with earnings management in an international setting. Financial development is likely to heighten the monitoring and scrutiny of accounting numbers because of strengthened investor protection laws and regulations as well as sophisticated market participants. Therefore, we first hypothesize that both accrual-based and real earnings management decrease with greater financial development. However, research shows that managers tend to apply real earnings management, instead of accrual-based earnings management, under strict accounting standards, regulations, and close auditor scrutiny. Thus, we explore the alternative hypothesis that accrual-based earnings management decreases but real earnings management increases along with higher financial development. We examine the relationship between financial development and both types of earnings management using 56,830 observations in 37 countries covering the period 2009 to 2012. The results indicate that both types of earnings management are more restrained under higher levels of financial development.

Suggested Citation

  • Masahiro Enomoto & Fumihiko Kimura & Tomoyasu Yamaguchi, 2013. "A Cross-Country Study on the Relationship between Financial Development and Earnings Management," Discussion Paper Series DP2013-34, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Oct 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2013-34
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp/academic/ra/dp/English/DP2013-34.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2017
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mary E. Barth & Wayne R. Landsman & Mark H. Lang, 2008. "International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 467-498, June.
    2. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    3. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    4. Jere R. Francis & Dechun Wang, 2008. "The Joint Effect of Investor Protection and Big 4 Audits on Earnings Quality around the World," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(1), pages 157-191, March.
    5. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2005. "The economic implications of corporate financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 3-73, December.
    6. Boonlert-U-Thai, Kriengkrai & Meek, Gary K. & Nabar, Sandeep, 2006. "Earnings attributes and investor-protection: International evidence," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 327-357, 012.
    7. Beck, Thorsten & Levine, Ross, 2004. "Stock markets, banks, and growth: Panel evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 423-442, March.
    8. Cohen, Daniel A. & Zarowin, Paul, 2010. "Accrual-based and real earnings management activities around seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 2-19, May.
    9. Siew Hong Teoh & Ivo Welch & T.J. Wong, 1998. "Earnings Management and the Long-Run Market Performance of Initial Public Offerings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(6), pages 1935-1974, December.
    10. DeFond, Mark L. & Jiambalvo, James, 1994. "Debt covenant violation and manipulation of accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 145-176, January.
    11. In‐Mu Haw & Bingbing Hu & Lee‐Seok Hwang & Woody Wu, 2004. "Ultimate Ownership, Income Management, and Legal and Extra‐Legal Institutions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 423-462, May.
    12. Warfield, Terry D. & Wild, John J. & Wild, Kenneth L., 1995. "Managerial ownership, accounting choices, and informativeness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 61-91, July.
    13. Beck, Thorsten & Levine, Ross, 2002. "Industry growth and capital allocation:*1: does having a market- or bank-based system matter?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 147-180, May.
    14. Bushman, Robert M. & Piotroski, Joseph D., 2006. "Financial reporting incentives for conservative accounting: The influence of legal and political institutions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 107-148, October.
    15. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    16. Peter Wysocki, 2011. "New institutional accounting and IFRS," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 309-328, August.
    17. Bartov, Eli & Givoly, Dan & Hayn, Carla, 2002. "The rewards to meeting or beating earnings expectations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 173-204, June.
    18. Enomoto, Masahiro & Kimura, Fumihiko & Yamaguchi, Tomoyasu, 2015. "Accrual-based and real earnings management: An international comparison for investor protection," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 183-198.
    19. Leuz, Christian & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter D., 2003. "Earnings management and investor protection: an international comparison," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 505-527, September.
    20. Wan Wongsunwai, 2013. "The Effect of External Monitoring on Accrual†Based and Real Earnings Management: Evidence from Venture†Backed Initial Public Offerings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 296-324, March.
    21. Katherine A. Gunny, 2010. "The Relation Between Earnings Management Using Real Activities Manipulation and Future Performance: Evidence from Meeting Earnings Benchmarks," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 855-888, September.
    22. Patricia M. Dechow & Amy P. Hutton & Jung Hoon Kim & Richard G. Sloan, 2012. "Detecting Earnings Management: A New Approach," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 275-334, May.
    23. Teoh, Siew Hong & Welch, Ivo & Wong, T. J., 1998. "Earnings management and the underperformance of seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 63-99, October.
    24. Ball, Ray & Robin, Ashok & Wu, Joanna Shuang, 2003. "Incentives versus standards: properties of accounting income in four East Asian countries," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 235-270, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Filipović Ivica & Šušak Toni & Lijić Andrea, 2021. "The Effect of Auditor Rotation on the Relationship between Financial Manipulation and Auditor’s Opinion," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 96-108, May.
    2. Wil Martens & Prem Yapa & Maryam Safari, 2021. "Earnings Management in Frontier Market: Do Institutional Settings Matter?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Masahiro Enomoto, 2018. "Cross-Country Research on Earnings Quality: A Literature Review and Future Opportunities," Discussion Paper Series DP2018-06, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Oct 2020.
    4. Rokiah Ishak* & Noor Afza Amran & Kamarul Bahrain Abdul Manaf, 2018. "Firm Characteristics and Financial Reporting Quality: The Moderating Role of Malaysian Corporate Governance Index," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 924-932:6.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Masahiro Enomoto, 2018. "Cross-Country Research on Earnings Quality: A Literature Review and Future Opportunities," Discussion Paper Series DP2018-06, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Oct 2020.
    2. Elisabetta Ipino & Antonio Parbonetti, 2017. "Mandatory IFRS adoption: the trade-off between accrual-based and real earnings management," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 91-121, January.
    3. Chang, Chu-Hsuan & Lin, Hsiou-Wei William, 2018. "Does there prevail momentum in earnings management for seasoned equity offering firms?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 111-129.
    4. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    5. Muhammad Kaleem Khan & Yixuan Qin & Chengsi Zhang, 2022. "Financial structure and earnings manipulation activities in China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(8), pages 2593-2621, August.
    6. Yang, Jingwen & Hemmings, Danial & Jaafar, Aziz & Jackson, Richard H.G., 2022. "The real earnings management gap between private and public firms: Evidence from Europe," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    7. Li, Ting & Zaiats, Nataliya, 2017. "Information environment and earnings management of dual class firms around the world," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-23.
    8. Zhang, Yuyang & Uchida, Konari & Dong, Liping, 2020. "External financing and earnings management: Evidence from international data," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    9. Oz, Ibrahim Onur & Yelkenci, Tezer, 2018. "Examination of real and accrual earnings management: A cross-country analysis of legal origin under IFRS," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 24-37.
    10. Fang, Yiwei & Hasan, Iftekhar & Li, Lingxiang, 2014. "Banking reform, risk-taking, and earnings quality – Evidence from transition countries," BOFIT Discussion Papers 19/2014, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    11. Sha, Yezhou & Qiao, Lu & Li, Suyang & Bu, Ziwen, 2021. "Political freedom and earnings management," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Wil Martens & Prem W. S. Yapa & Maryam Safari, 2020. "The Impact of Financial Statement Comparability on Earnings Management: Evidence from Frontier Markets," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-25, November.
    13. Dung Viet Tran & M. Kabir Hassan & Reza Houston, 2020. "Discretionary loan loss provision behavior in the US banking industry," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 605-645, August.
    14. Zhu, Tingting & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen & Zhang, Yuanlong, 2015. "Accrual-based and real activity earnings management at the back door: Evidence from Chinese reverse mergers," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(PA), pages 317-339.
    15. He, Guanming, 2016. "Fiscal Support and Earnings Management," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 57-84.
    16. Campa, Domenico & Camacho-Miñano, María-del-Mar, 2015. "The impact of SME’s pre-bankruptcy financial distress on earnings management tools," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 222-234.
    17. Kuo, Jing-Ming & Ning, Lutao & Song, Xiaoqi, 2014. "The Real and Accrual-based Earnings Management Behaviors: Evidence from the Split Share Structure Reform in China," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 101-136.
    18. Jiang, Fuxiu & Ma, Yunbiao & Wang, Xue, 2020. "Multiple blockholders and earnings management," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    19. Persakis, Anthony & Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2015. "Earnings quality under financial crisis: A global empirical investigation," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 1-35.
    20. Griffin, Paul A. & Hong, Hyun A. & Liu, Yun & Ryou, Ji Woo, 2021. "The dark side of CEO social capital: Evidence from real earnings management and future operating performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial development; Accounting institution; Accrual-based earnings management; Real earnings management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2013-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Office of Promoting Research Collaboration, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rikobjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.