IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/joares/v55y2017i2p371-406.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Direct Evidence on the Informational Properties of Earnings in Loan Contracts

Author

Listed:
  • SCOTT D. DYRENG
  • RAHUL VASHISHTHA
  • JOSEPH WEBER

Abstract

Using a sample of firms that disclose the realizations of earnings used for determining covenant compliance in loan contracts, we provide direct evidence on the informational properties of earnings used in the performance covenants included in debt contracts. We find that the earnings measure used in performance covenants does not exhibit asymmetric loss timeliness and has significantly greater cash flow predictive ability than GAAP measures of earnings. We suggest that these results reflect the idea that contracting parties design accounting rules for performance covenants to enhance their efficacy as “tripwires.”

Suggested Citation

  • Scott D. Dyreng & Rahul Vashishtha & Joseph Weber, 2017. "Direct Evidence on the Informational Properties of Earnings in Loan Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 371-406, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:55:y:2017:i:2:p:371-406
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12168
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679X.12168
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1475-679X.12168?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. Francis, Jennifer & LaFond, Ryan & Olsson, Per & Schipper, Katherine, 2005. "The market pricing of accruals quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 295-327, June.
    2. Lambert, Richard, 2010. "Discussion of "Implications for GAAP from an analysis of positive research in accounting"," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 287-295, December.
    3. Myungsun Kim & William Kross, 2005. "The Ability of Earnings to Predict Future Operating Cash Flows Has Been Increasing—Not Decreasing," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 753-780, December.
    4. S.P. Kothari & Karthik Ramanna & Douglas J. Skinner, 2009. "Implications for GAAP from an Analysis of Positive Research in Accounting," Harvard Business School Working Papers 09-137, Harvard Business School, revised Sep 2010.
    5. Ryan Ball & Robert M. Bushman & Florin P. Vasvari, 2008. "The Debt‐Contracting Value of Accounting Information and Loan Syndicate Structure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 247-287, May.
    6. Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2010. "Debt Covenants and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 137-176, March.
    7. Demerjian, Peter R. & Owens, Edward L., 2016. "Measuring the probability of financial covenant violation in private debt contracts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 433-447.
    8. Demerjian, Peter R., 2011. "Accounting standards and debt covenants: Has the “balance sheet approach” led to a decline in the use of balance sheet covenants?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 178-202.
    9. Philippe Aghion & Patrick Bolton, 1992. "An Incomplete Contracts Approach to Financial Contracting," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 59(3), pages 473-494.
    10. El-Gazzar, Samir & Pastena, Victor, 1990. "Negotiated accounting rules in private financial contracts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 381-396, March.
    11. Ningzhong Li, 2016. "Performance Measures in Earnings‐Based Financial Covenants in Debt Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1149-1186, September.
    12. Gao, Pingyang, 2013. "A measurement approach to conservatism and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 251-268.
    13. Vuong, Quang H, 1989. "Likelihood Ratio Tests for Model Selection and Non-nested Hypotheses," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 307-333, March.
    14. Basu, Sudipta, 1997. "The conservatism principle and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 3-37, December.
    15. Hans B. Christensen & Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2012. "Capital Versus Performance Covenants in Debt Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 75-116, March.
    16. Zender, Jaime F, 1991. "Optimal Financial Instruments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(5), pages 1645-1663, December.
    17. Mark T. Bradshaw & Richard G. Sloan, 2002. "GAAP versus The Street: An Empirical Assessment of Two Alternative Definitions of Earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 41-66, March.
    18. Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2010. "Debt Covenants and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 51-89, March.
    19. Beatty, Anne & Weber, Joseph & Yu, Jeff Jiewei, 2008. "Conservatism and Debt," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 154-174, August.
    20. Frank Gigler & Chandra Kanodia & Haresh Sapra & Raghu Venugopalan, 2009. "Accounting Conservatism and the Efficiency of Debt Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 767-797, June.
    21. Jing LI, 2013. "Accounting Conservatism and Debt Contracts: Efficient Liquidation and Covenant Renegotiation," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1082-1098, September.
    22. Hans B. Christensen & Valeri V. Nikolaev & Regina Wittenberg‐Moerman, 2016. "Accounting Information in Financial Contracting: The Incomplete Contract Theory Perspective," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 397-435, May.
    23. Kothari, S.P. & Ramanna, Karthik & Skinner, Douglas J., 2010. "Implications for GAAP from an analysis of positive research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 246-286, December.
    24. Zhang, Jieying, 2008. "The contracting benefits of accounting conservatism to lenders and borrowers," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 27-54, March.
    25. Ningzhong Li, 2010. "Negotiated Measurement Rules in Debt Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 1103-1144, December.
    26. Bhattacharya, Nilabhra & Black, Ervin L. & Christensen, Theodore E. & Larson, Chad R., 2003. "Assessing the relative informativeness and permanence of pro forma earnings and GAAP operating earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 285-319, 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. Theodore E. Christensen & Hang Pei & Spencer R. Pierce & Liang Tan, 2019. "Non-GAAP reporting following debt covenant violations," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 629-664, June.
    2. Takuma Kochiyama & Ryosuke Nakamura & Akinobu Shuto, 2021. "How do bank lenders use borrowers’ financial statements? Evidence from a survey of Japanese banks," CARF F-Series CARF-F-522, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    3. Yiwei Dou, 2020. "The Debt-Contracting Value of Accounting Numbers and Financial Covenant Renegotiation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1124-1148, March.
    4. Dan Amiram & Edward Owens, 2024. "Accounting-based expected loss given default and debt contract design," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 2437-2467, September.
    5. Zalata, Alaa Mansour & Abdelfattah, Tarek, 2021. "Non-executive female directors and earnings management using classification shifting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 301-315.
    6. Peter Demerjian & John Donovan & Melissa F. Lewis‐Western, 2020. "Income Smoothing and the Usefulness of Earnings for Monitoring in Debt Contracting," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 857-884, June.
    7. Amiraslani, Hami & Donovan, John & Phillips, Matthew A. & Wittenberg-Moerman, Regina, 2023. "Contracting in the Dark: The rise of public-side lenders in the syndicated loan market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1).
    8. Christensen, Hans B. & Macciocchi, Daniele & Morris, Arthur & Nikolaev, Valeri V., 2022. "Financial shocks to lenders and the composition of financial covenants," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).
    9. Sangwook Lee & Sang Hoo Bae & Inshik Seol, 2019. "Loan relation with foreign banks and information asymmetry: evidence from earnings management by local firms in Korea," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 43(2), pages 344-366, April.
    10. Shane S. Dikolli & John C. Heater & William J. Mayew & Mani Sethuraman, 2021. "Chief Financial Officer Co-option and Chief Executive Officer Compensation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 1939-1955, March.
    11. Anne Beatty & Lin Cheng & Tzachi Zach, 2019. "Nonrecurring Items in Debt Contracts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 139-167, March.
    12. Oded Rozenbaum, 2019. "EBITDA and Managers' Investment and Leverage Choices," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 513-546, March.
    13. Zahn Bozanic & Maria Loumioti & Florin P. Vasvari, 2018. "Corporate Loan Securitization and the Standardization of Financial Covenants," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 45-83, March.
    14. Felix Thielemann & Tami Dinh & Helen Kang, 2019. "Non-GAAP Reporting and Debt Market Outcomes: Evidence from Regulation G," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 71(2), pages 169-203, May.
    15. Laux, Christian & Laux, Volker, 2024. "Accounting conservatism and managerial information acquisition," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2).

    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. Baylis, Richard M. & Burnap, Peter & Clatworthy, Mark A. & Gad, Mahmoud A. & Pong, Christopher K.M., 2017. "Private lenders’ demand for audit," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 78-97.
    2. Hans B. Christensen & Valeri V. Nikolaev & Regina Wittenberg‐Moerman, 2016. "Accounting Information in Financial Contracting: The Incomplete Contract Theory Perspective," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 397-435, May.
    3. Richard Barker & Anne McGeachin, 2015. "An Analysis of Concepts and Evidence on the Question of Whether IFRS Should be Conservative," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(2), pages 169-207, June.
    4. Araceli Mora & Martin Walker, 2015. "The implications of research on accounting conservatism for accounting standard setting," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(5), pages 620-650, August.
    5. Takuma Kochiyama & Ryosuke Nakamura & Akinobu Shuto, 2021. "How do bank lenders use borrowers’ financial statements? Evidence from a survey of Japanese banks," CARF F-Series CARF-F-522, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    6. Peter Demerjian & John Donovan & Melissa F. Lewis‐Western, 2020. "Income Smoothing and the Usefulness of Earnings for Monitoring in Debt Contracting," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 857-884, June.
    7. Barbara Su, 2023. "Banking practices and borrowing firms’ financial reporting quality: evidence from bank cross-selling," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 201-236, March.
    8. Yiwei Dou, 2020. "The Debt-Contracting Value of Accounting Numbers and Financial Covenant Renegotiation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1124-1148, March.
    9. Juan Manuel García Lara & Beatriz García Osma & Fernando Penalva, 2014. "Information Consequences of Accounting Conservatism," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 173-198, June.
    10. Anne Beatty & Lin Cheng & Tzachi Zach, 2019. "Nonrecurring Items in Debt Contracts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 139-167, March.
    11. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    12. Colleen Honigsberg & Sharon P. Katz & Sunay Mutlu & Gil Sadka, 2021. "State contract law and the use of accounting information in debt contracts," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 124-171, March.
    13. Umair Bhutta & Jéssica Nunes Martins & Mário Nuno Mata & Ali Raza & Rui Miguel Dantas & Anabela Batista Correia & Muhammad Rafiq, 2021. "Intellectual Structure and Evolution of Accounting Conservatism Research: Past Trends and Future Research Suggestions," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-13, June.
    14. Daniel Bens & Sterling Huang & Liang Tan & Wan Wongsunwai, 2020. "Contracting and Reporting Conservatism around a Change in Fiduciary Duties," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 2472-2500, December.
    15. Ningzhong Li, 2016. "Performance Measures in Earnings‐Based Financial Covenants in Debt Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1149-1186, September.
    16. Dan Amiram & Edward Owens, 2024. "Accounting-based expected loss given default and debt contract design," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 2437-2467, September.
    17. Inder K. Khurana & Changjiang Wang, 2015. "Debt Maturity Structure and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1-2), pages 167-203, January.
    18. Peter R. Demerjian & John Donovan & Chad R. Larson, 2016. "Fair Value Accounting and Debt Contracting: Evidence from Adoption of SFAS 159," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1041-1076, September.
    19. Freudenberg, Felix & Imbierowicz, Björn & Saunders, Anthony & Steffen, Sascha, 2017. "Covenant violations and dynamic loan contracting," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 540-565.
    20. Hans B. Christensen & Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2017. "Contracting on GAAP Changes: Large Sample Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 1021-1050, December.

    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:55:y:2017:i:2:p:371-406. 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.