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Conservative financial reporting, debt covenants, and the agency costs of debt

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  • Guay, Wayne R.

Abstract

Considerable research has documented the role of debt covenants and conservative financial accounting in addressing agency conflicts between lenders and borrowers. Beatty, A., Weber, J., and Yu, J. [2008. Conservatism and debt. Journal of Accounting and Economics, forthcoming] document interesting, but mixed, findings on the relation between debt covenants and conservative accounting, and the extent to which the two contracting mechanisms act as substitutes or complements. In this paper, I discuss the economic roles of financial reporting, debt covenants, and conservatism within the debt contracting environment, and attempt to fit BWY's findings within this context.

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  • Guay, Wayne R., 2008. "Conservative financial reporting, debt covenants, and the agency costs of debt," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 175-180, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaecon:v:45:y:2008:i:2-3:p:175-180
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    1. Guay, Wayne & Verrecchia, Robert, 2006. "Discussion of an economic framework for conservative accounting and Bushman and Piotroski (2006)," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 149-165, October.
    2. 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.
    3. Ball, Ray & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2005. "Earnings quality in UK private firms: comparative loss recognition timeliness," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 83-128, February.
    4. 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.
    5. Smith, Clifford Jr. & Warner, Jerold B., 1979. "On financial contracting : An analysis of bond covenants," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 117-161, June.
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    1. repec:mul:jdp901:doi:10.12831/73633:y:2013:i:1:p:51-65 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Shan, Chenyu & Tang, Dragon Yongjun & Winton, Andrew, 2019. "Do banks still monitor when there is a market for credit protection?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    3. Ettredge, Michael & Huang, Ying & Zhang, Weining, 2012. "Earnings restatements and differential timeliness of accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 489-503.
    4. Sabrina Pisano & Luigi Lepore & Rocco Agrifoglio, 2015. "Corporate governance and information asymmetry between shareholders and lenders: an analysis of Italian listed companies," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(2), pages 27-53.
    5. Richard Zhe Wang, 2013. "This paper empirically tests the relation between a firm’s degree of accounting conservatism and its level of operating risk. This paper constitutes the first empirical study in the accounting liter," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 7(1), pages 55-68.
    6. Flavio Bazzana & Eleonora Broccardo, 2013. "The role of bondholder coordination in freeze-out exchange offers," Journal of Financial Management, Markets and Institutions, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 67-84, January.
    7. 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.
    8. Han Li, 2019. "Conservatism, Earnings Management and R&D Capitalization," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(2), pages 52-60, April.
    9. Todd A. Gormley & Bong Hwan Kim & Xiumin Martin, 2012. "Do Firms Adjust Their Timely Loss Recognition in Response to Changes in the Banking Industry?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 159-196, March.
    10. 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).
    11. 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.
    12. Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Yura & Mantecon, Tomas & Song, Kyojik Roy, 2019. "Short-term institutional investors and agency costs of debt," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 195-210.
    13. Jacqueline Birt & Michaela Rankin & Chen L. Song, 2013. "Derivatives use and financial instrument disclosure in the extractives industry," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(1), pages 55-83, March.

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