IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/chinae/v31y2023i6p179-206.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Earnings Management of Chinese Listed Multinational Corporations

Author

Listed:
  • Xingyu Lu
  • Tong Qi
  • Wenjing Xie

Abstract

This study evaluates the quality of accounting information provided by Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) in relation to the issue of earnings management. Using a combined dataset of outward foreign direct investment and financial statements by Chinese firms publicly listed on A‐share markets between 2012 and 2017, we investigate whether Chinese MNCs are more inclined to manage earnings. We discover that these firms exhibited significant earnings management behavior and typically adjusted their earnings downward. We demonstrate that these effects were more pronounced among private MNCs than state‐owned firms, and in host countries with weaker institutional quality. Further research reveals that after delaying the confirmation of current earnings, Chinese MNCs received higher government subsidies, and this pattern was particularly prevalent among private MNCs. We find no evidence that Chinese MNCs manipulated earnings to avoid paying taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Xingyu Lu & Tong Qi & Wenjing Xie, 2023. "Earnings Management of Chinese Listed Multinational Corporations," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(6), pages 179-206, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:chinae:v:31:y:2023:i:6:p:179-206
    DOI: 10.1111/cwe.12513
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/cwe.12513
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/cwe.12513?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Desai, Mihir A. & Dharmapala, Dhammika, 2006. "Corporate tax avoidance and high-powered incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 145-179, January.
    2. Chen, Shuping & Chen, Xia & Cheng, Qiang & Shevlin, Terry, 2010. "Are family firms more tax aggressive than non-family firms?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 41-61, January.
    3. Randall Morck & Bernard Yeung & Minyuan Zhao, 2008. "Perspectives on China's outward foreign direct investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(3), pages 337-350, April.
    4. Bruno Van Pottelsberghe De La Potterie & Frank Lichtenberg, 2001. "Does Foreign Direct Investment Transfer Technology Across Borders?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(3), pages 490-497, August.
    5. Louis, Henock, 2004. "Earnings management and the market performance of acquiring firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 121-148, October.
    6. Huang, Ying, 2022. "Government subsidies and corporate disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    7. Criscuolo, Chiara & Martin, Ralf & Overman, Henry & Van Reenen, John, 2012. "The Causal Effects of an Industrial Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 6323, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Yi Huang & Marco Pagano & Ugo Panizza, 2020. "Local Crowding‐Out in China," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(6), pages 2855-2898, December.
    9. Fei Nie & Jian Li & Xiaoli Etienne & Gucheng Li, 2023. "Impact of Outward Foreign Direct Investment on Chinese Manufacturing Firms' Financialization and Servitization," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(2), pages 112-136, March.
    10. 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.
    11. Chiara Criscuolo & Ralf Martin & Henry G. Overman & John Van Reenen, 2019. "Some Causal Effects of an Industrial Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 48-85, January.
    12. Lin William Cong & Haoyu Gao & Jacopo Ponticelli & Xiaoguang Yang, 2019. "Credit Allocation Under Economic Stimulus: Evidence from China," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(9), pages 3412-3460.
    13. Ann Harrison & Margaret McMillan, 2022. "Offshoring Jobs? Multinationals And U.S. Manufacturing Employment," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Globalization, Firms, and Workers, chapter 11, pages 255-273, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    14. Kim, Incheol & Miller, Steve & Wan, Hong & Wang, Bin, 2016. "Drivers behind the monitoring effectiveness of global institutional investors: Evidence from earnings management," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 24-46.
    15. Bartelsman, Eric J. & Beetsma, Roel M. W. J., 2003. "Why pay more? Corporate tax avoidance through transfer pricing in OECD countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2225-2252, September.
    16. James R. Hines & Eric M. Rice, 1994. "Fiscal Paradise: Foreign Tax Havens and American Business," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 149-182.
    17. Javier Garcia-Bernardo & Petr Janský & Thomas Tørsløv, 2022. "Decomposing Multinational Corporations’ Declining Effective Tax Rates," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 70(2), pages 338-381, June.
    18. Ali, Ashiq & Zhang, Weining, 2015. "CEO tenure and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 60-79.
    19. Key, Kimberly Galligan, 1997. "Political cost incentives for earnings management in the cable television industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 309-337, November.
    20. Ding, Haoyuan & Fan, Haichao & Jin, Yuying & Qi, Tong, 2022. "Talented overseas returnees and outward foreign direct investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    21. Hope, Ole-Kristian & Ma, Mark (Shuai) & Thomas, Wayne B., 2013. "Tax avoidance and geographic earnings disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 170-189.
    22. Langenmayr, Dominika & Liu, Li, 2023. "Home or away? Profit shifting with territorial taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    23. Keith Cowling & Philip Tomlinson, 2011. "The Japanese model in retrospective: industrial strategies, corporate Japan and the ‘hollowing out’ of Japanese industry," Policy Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 569-583.
    24. Kevin Markle, 2016. "A Comparison of the Tax†Motivated Income Shifting of Multinationals in Territorial and Worldwide Countries," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 7-43, March.
    25. Lee G. Branstetter & Mariko Sakakibara, 2002. "When Do Research Consortia Work Well and Why? Evidence from Japanese Panel Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 143-159, March.
    26. Saskia Kohlhase & Jochen Pierk, 2020. "The effect of a worldwide tax system on tax management of foreign subsidiaries," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(8), pages 1312-1330, October.
    27. Ciao-Wei Chen & Bradford F. Hepfer & Phillip J. Quinn & Ryan J. Wilson, 2018. "The effect of tax-motivated income shifting on information asymmetry," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 958-1004, September.
    28. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    29. Ding, Haoyuan & Fan, Haichao & Li, Chang & Qiu, Larry D., 2023. "The effects of discriminatory protections on cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 501-523.
    30. Dane M. Christensen & David G. Kenchington & Rick C. Laux, 2022. "How do most low ETR firms avoid paying taxes?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 570-606, June.
    31. Herzer, Dierk & Schrooten, Mechthild, 2008. "Outward FDI and domestic investment in two industrialized countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 139-143, April.
    32. Cozza, C. & Rabellotti, R. & Sanfilippo, M., 2015. "The impact of outward FDI on the performance of Chinese firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 42-57.
    33. Christina M. Lewellen, 2023. "Tax haven incorporation and financial reporting transparency," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1811-1855, September.
    34. Li, Feng, 2008. "Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 221-247, August.
    35. Banai, Ádám & Lang, Péter & Nagy, Gábor & Stancsics, Martin, 2020. "Waste of money or growth opportunity: The causal effect of EU subsidies on Hungarian SMEs," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(1).
    36. ECKAUS, Richard S., 2006. "China's exports, subsidies to state-owned enterprises and the WTO," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 1-13.
    37. Jiangyong Lu & Xiaohui Liu & Mike Wright & Igor Filatotchev, 2014. "International experience and FDI location choices of Chinese firms: The moderating effects of home country government support and host country institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 45(4), pages 428-449, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    2. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Sun, Xian & Wu, Qiang, 2016. "CEO political preference and corporate tax sheltering," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 37-53.
    3. Martin Jacob & Anna Rohlfing-Bastian & Kai Sandner, 2021. "Why do not all firms engage in tax avoidance?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 459-495, February.
    4. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2016_005 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ioannis Dokas & Christos Leontidis & Nicolaos Eriotis & Konstantinos Hazakis, 2021. "Earnings Management. An overview of the relative literature," Bulletin of Applied Economics, Risk Market Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 25-55.
    6. Ying Gan & Buhui Qiu, 2019. "Escape from the USA: Government debt-to-GDP ratio, country tax competitiveness, and US-OECD cross-border M&As," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(7), pages 1156-1183, September.
    7. Lee, Cheng-Hsun & Bose, Sudipta, 2021. "Do family firms engage in less tax avoidance than non-family firms? The corporate opacity perspective," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    8. Hyejin Cho, 2020. "Sustainable Tax Behavior of MNEs: Effect of International Tax Law Reform," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-13, September.
    9. Hasan, Iftekhar & Hoi, Chun Keung (Stan) & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2014. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The effect of corporate tax avoidance on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 109-130.
    10. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Sun, Xian & Wu, Qiang, 2016. "CEO political preference and corporate tax sheltering," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 37-53.
    11. 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.
    12. Chen, Hanwen & Liu, Siyi & Wang, Junjie & Wu, Zhijuan, 2022. "The effect of geographic proximity on corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    13. Allen, Arthur & Francis, Bill B. & Wu, Qiang & Zhao, Yijiang, 2016. "Analyst coverage and corporate tax aggressiveness," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 84-98.
    14. Jinshuai Hu & Siqi Li & Terry Shevlin, 2023. "How does the market for corporate control impact tax avoidance? Evidence from international M&A laws," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 340-383, March.
    15. Albertus, James F. & Glover, Brent & Levine, Oliver, 2019. "Heads I win, tails you lose: Asymmetric taxes, risk taking, and innovation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 24-40.
    16. Kelvin K. F. Law & Lillian F. Mills, 2015. "Taxes and Financial Constraints: Evidence from Linguistic Cues," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 777-819, September.
    17. Luca Menicacci, 2022. "Financial reporting and book-tax conformity: A review of the issues," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2022(1), pages 41-77.
    18. Simon Loretz & Padraig Moore, 2013. "Corporate tax competition between firms," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(5), pages 725-752, October.
    19. Sabri Boubaker & Imen Derouiche & Hung Nguyen, 2022. "Voluntary disclosure, tax avoidance and family firms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(1), pages 129-158, March.
    20. De Simone, Lisa & Klassen, Kenneth J. & Seidman, Jeri K., 2022. "The effect of income-shifting aggressiveness on corporate investment," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    21. Campa, Domenico & Hajbaba, Amir, 2016. "Do targets grab the cash in takeovers: The role of earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 56-64.

    More about this item

    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:bla:chinae:v:31:y:2023:i:6:p:179-206. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwepacn.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.