IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/joares/v48y2010i2p445-475.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Elections and Discretionary Accruals: Evidence from 2004

Author

Listed:
  • KARTHIK RAMANNA
  • SUGATA ROYCHOWDHURY

Abstract

We examine the accrual choices of outsourcing firms with links to U.S. congressional candidates during the 2004 elections, when corporate outsourcing was a major campaign issue. We find that politically connected firms with more extensive outsourcing activities have more income‐decreasing discretionary accruals. Further, relative to adjacent periods, the evidence is concentrated in the two calendar quarters immediately preceding the 2004 election, consistent with heightened incentives for firms to manage earnings during the election season. The incentives can be attributed to donor firms' concerns about the potentially negative consequences of scrutiny over outsourcing for themselves and for their affiliated candidates.

Suggested Citation

  • Karthik Ramanna & Sugata Roychowdhury, 2010. "Elections and Discretionary Accruals: Evidence from 2004," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 445-475, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:48:y:2010:i:2:p:445-475
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-679X.2010.00373.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-679X.2010.00373.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-679X.2010.00373.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. Timothy Taylor, 2005. "In Defense Of Outsourcing," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 25(2), pages 367-377, Spring/Su.
    2. Kroszner, Randall S & Stratmann, Thomas, 2005. "Corporate Campaign Contributions, Repeat Giving, and the Rewards to Legislator Reputation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(1), pages 41-71, April.
    3. Thomas Stratmann, 2005. "Some talk: Money in politics. A (partial) review of the literature," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 135-156, July.
    4. Jagdish Bhagwati & Arvind Panagariya, 2004. "The Muddles over Outsourcing," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 93-114, Fall.
    5. Fields, Thomas D. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Vincent, Linda, 2001. "Empirical research on accounting choice," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 255-307, September.
    6. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    7. Paul A. Samuelson, 2004. "Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments of Mainstream Economists Supporting Globalization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 135-146, Summer.
    8. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    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. Du, Qianqian & Shen, Rui, 2018. "Peer performance and earnings management," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 125-137.
    2. Rihab Guidara & Younes Boujelbene, 2014. "Earnings Management around Research and Development Manipulation," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 4(2), pages 26-37, April.
    3. Wan, Huishan, 2013. "Does incorporating non-linearity into discretionary accrual models improve their performance?," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 85-96.
    4. Tri Tri Nguyen & Chau Minh Duong & Sunitha Narendran, 2021. "CEO profile and earnings quality," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 987-1025, April.
    5. Ramesh Chandra Das & Chandra Sekhar Mishra & Prabina Rajib, 2018. "Firm-specific Parameters and Earnings Management: A Study in the Indian Context," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 19(5), pages 1240-1260, October.
    6. Nagar, Neerav & Sen, Kaustav, 2016. "Earnings Management Strategies during Financial Distress," IIMA Working Papers WP2016-02-03, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    7. Dhole, Sandip & Lobo, Gerald J. & Mishra, Sagarika & Pal, Ananda M., 2015. "Effects of the SEC's XBRL mandate on financial reporting comparability," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 29-44.
    8. Joanna Lizińska & Leszek Czapiewski, 2018. "Towards Economic Corporate Sustainability in Reporting: What Does Earnings Management around Equity Offerings Mean for Long-Term Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-23, November.
    9. Boone, Jeff & Hao, Jie & Linthicum, Cheryl & Pham, Viet, 2024. "Impression management strategy — The relationship between accounting narrative thematic bias and financial graph distortion," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4).
    10. Vasiliki E. Athanasakou, 2010. "Discussion of The Impact of Dual Class Structure on Earnings Management Activities," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3‐4), pages 486-494, April.
    11. Godsell, David & Huang, Kelly & Lao, Brent, 2023. "Managers’ rank & file employee coordination costs and real activities manipulation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    12. Iatridis, George, 2010. "International Financial Reporting Standards and the quality of financial statement information," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 193-204, June.
    13. Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & Isabel M. Garcia‐Sanchez & Beatriz Cuadrado‐Ballesteros, 2015. "Effect of Financial Reporting Quality on Sustainability Information Disclosure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 45-64, January.
    14. 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.
    15. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    16. Chia-Ling Chao & Shwu-Min Horng, 2013. "Asset write-offs discretion and accruals management in Taiwan: the role of corporate governance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 41-74, January.
    17. Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2011. "Accounting disclosures, accounting quality and conditional and unconditional conservatism," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 88-102, April.
    18. Md Helal Uddin*, 2024. "CEO Compensation and Earnings Management-The Moderating Role of COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Bangladesh," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(1), pages 1605-1622, January.
    19. Ng, Jeffrey & Wu, Hong & Zhai, Weihuan & Zhao, Jing, 2021. "The effect of shareholder activism on earnings management: Evidence from shareholder proposals11We appreciate the helpful comments and suggestions from Stephen Taylor, Gary Biddle, Santosh Ramalingego," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Martin Walker, 2013. "How far can we trust earnings numbers? What research tells us about earnings management," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 445-481, August.

    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:48:y:2010:i:2:p:445-475. 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.