IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/joares/v43y2005i4p557-592.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Earnings Management? The Shapes of the Frequency Distributions of Earnings Metrics Are Not Evidence Ipso Facto

Author

Listed:
  • CINDY DURTSCHI
  • PETER EASTON

Abstract

We provide evidence that the shapes (particularly around zero) of the frequency distributions of earnings metrics examined in the extant earnings management literature are affected by (1) deflation (using, for example, price or market capitalization), (2) sample selection criteria that lead to differential inclusion/exclusion of observations to the left of zero versus observations to the right of zero (implicit in studies focusing on firms followed by I/B/E/S and explicit in studies partitioning on a variable differing between loss observations and profit observations), (3) differences between the characteristics of observations to the left of zero and observations to the right of zero (such as market pricing and analyst optimism/pessimism), or (4) a combination of these factors. Since the shapes of the frequency distributions of earnings metrics at zero are likely due to one of the above effects, we conclude that the shapes cannot be used as ipso facto evidence of earnings management.

Suggested Citation

  • Cindy Durtschi & Peter Easton, 2005. "Earnings Management? The Shapes of the Frequency Distributions of Earnings Metrics Are Not Evidence Ipso Facto," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 557-592, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:43:y:2005:i:4:p:557-592
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-679X.2005.00182.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-679X.2005.00182.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-679X.2005.00182.x?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. Degeorge, Francois & Patel, Jayendu & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1999. "Earnings Management to Exceed Thresholds," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(1), pages 1-33, January.
    2. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    3. Jacob, John & Jorgensen, Bjorn N., 2007. "Earnings management and accounting income aggregation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 369-390, July.
    4. David Holland & Alan Ramsay, 2003. "Do Australian companies manage earnings to meet simple earnings benchmarks?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 43(1), pages 41-62, March.
    5. Burgstahler, David & Dichev, Ilia, 1997. "Earnings management to avoid earnings decreases and losses," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 99-126, December.
    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. Richard Kent & James Routledge & Karen McPherson, 2017. "Use of benchmarks in predicting earnings management?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(1), pages 239-260, March.
    2. Habib, Ahsan & Hossain, Mahmud, 2008. "Do managers manage earnings to ‘just meet or beat’ analyst forecasts?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 79-91.
    3. Cindy Durtschi & Peter Easton, 2009. "Earnings Management? Erroneous Inferences Based on Earnings Frequency Distributions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5), pages 1249-1281, December.
    4. Jia, Y., 2008. "Essays on the role of managerial type in financial reporting," Other publications TiSEM ab1af530-b40f-4c86-9edd-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Vasiliki Athanasakou & Norman Strong & Martin Walker, 2009. "Earnings management or forecast guidance to meet analyst expectations?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 3-35.
    6. Raffaela Casciello & Marco Maffei & David A. Ziebart, 2024. "Regulatory and contextual factors influencing earnings and capital management decisions: evidence from the European banking sector," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 87-146, July.
    7. Jeff Coulton & Sarah Taylor & Stephen Taylor, 2005. "Is ‘benchmark beating’ by Australian firms evidence of earnings management?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 45(4), pages 553-576, December.
    8. Olivier Vidal, 2009. "Are asymmetry measures relevant to analyze accounting thresholds? [Les Indicateurs D'Asymétrie Sont- Ils Pertinents Pour Étudier Les Seuils Comptables ?]," Post-Print hal-02104099, HAL.
    9. Al-Shattarat, Basiem & Hussainey, Khaled & Al-Shattarat, Wasim, 2022. "The impact of abnormal real earnings management to meet earnings benchmarks on future operating performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. Trimble, Madeline, 2018. "A reinvestigation into accounting quality following global IFRS adoption: Evidence via earnings distributions," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 18-39.
    11. Hibbert, Ann Marie & Kang, Qiang & Kumar, Alok & Mishra, Suchi, 2020. "Heterogeneous beliefs and return volatility around seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 571-589.
    12. Bens, Daniel A. & Nagar, Venky & Skinner, Douglas J. & Wong, M. H. Franco, 2003. "Employee stock options, EPS dilution, and stock repurchases," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 51-90, December.
    13. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    14. Martin Nienhaus, 2022. "Executive equity incentives and opportunistic manager behavior: new evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 1276-1318, December.
    15. Wei Jiang & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan & Tingting Zhu, 2016. "Evidence of Avoiding Working Capital Deficits in Australia," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 26(1), pages 107-118, March.
    16. Van Thuan Nguyen & Li Xu, 2010. "The Impact of Dual Class Structure on Earnings Management Activities," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3-4), pages 456-485.
    17. Atif Ellahie & Xiaoxia Peng, 2021. "Management forecasts of volatility," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 620-655, June.
    18. Dennis Fok & Philip Hans Franses, 2013. "Testing earnings management," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 67(3), pages 281-292, August.
    19. Mariela Carvajal & Jeffrey J. Coulton & Andrew B. Jackson & Tom Smith, 2017. "Earnings benchmark hierarchy," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(1), pages 87-111, March.
    20. 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.

    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:joares:v:43:y:2005:i:4:p:557-592. 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: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-8456 .

    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.