IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v51y2005i11p1626-1632.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accounting Conservatism and Managerial Incentives

Author

Listed:
  • Young K. Kwon

    (School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University, Singapore 178900, and University of Illinois at Urbana--Champaign, Urbana--Champaign, Illinois)

Abstract

There are two sources of agency costs under moral hazard: (1) distortions in incentive contracts and (2) implementation of suboptimal decisions. In the accounting literature, the relation between conservative accounting and agency costs of type (1) has received considerable attention (cf. Watts 2002). However, little appears to be known about the effects of accounting conservatism on agency costs of type (2) or trade-offs between agency costs of types (1) and (2). The purpose of this study is to examine this void. In a principal-agent setting in which the principal motivates the agent to expend effort using accounting earnings, this study shows that accounting earnings become more useful for reducing agency costs of type (2) when measured conservatively than when measured aggressively. Combined with the result in Kwon et al. (2001) that agency costs of type (1) decrease with accounting conservatism, this analysis suggests that conservative accounting enhances the incentive value of accounting signals with respect to both types of agency costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Young K. Kwon, 2005. "Accounting Conservatism and Managerial Incentives," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(11), pages 1626-1632, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:51:y:2005:i:11:p:1626-1632
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1050.0417
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1050.0417
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.1050.0417?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. Richard A. Lambert, 1986. "Executive Effort and Selection of Risky Projects," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 77-88, Spring.
    2. Paul R. Milgrom, 1981. "Good News and Bad News: Representation Theorems and Applications," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 380-391, Autumn.
    3. Zhang, Xiao-Jun, 2000. "Conservative accounting and equity valuation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 125-149, February.
    4. Bengt Holmstrom, 1979. "Moral Hazard and Observability," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 74-91, Spring.
    5. Feltham, Ga, 1977. "Cost Aggregation - Information Economic-Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 42-70.
    6. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    7. Mark Bagnoli & Susan G. Watts, 2005. "Conservative Accounting Choices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(5), pages 786-801, May.
    8. Hao Li, 2001. "A Theory of Conservatism," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(3), pages 617-636, June.
    9. 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.
    10. Kanodia, C & Bushman, R & Dickhaut, J, 1989. "Escalation Errors And The Sunk Cost Effect - An Explanation Based On Reputation And Information Asymmetries," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 59-77.
    11. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1979. "Optimal incentive contracts with imperfect information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 231-259, April.
    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. Jeroen Suijs, 2008. "On the Value Relevance of Asymmetric Financial Reporting Policies," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1297-1321, December.
    2. Naveed Razzaq, Zhang Rui, 2018. "Does Conditional Conservatism affect the Cost of Capital? Evidence from China," Journal of Finance and Economics Research, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 3(1), pages 57-70, March.
    3. Hui Chen & Bjorn N. Jorgensen, 2018. "Market Exit Through Divestment—The Effect of Accounting Bias on Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(1), pages 164-177, January.
    4. Sebastian Kronenberger & Volker Laux, 2022. "Conservative Accounting, Audit Quality, and Litigation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(3), pages 2349-2362, March.
    5. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Hovakimian, Gayane & Sharma, Zenu, 2023. "Gender pay gap in American CFOs: Theory and evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    6. 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.
    7. FU, Qiang & LI, Ming, 2010. "Policy Making with Reputation Concerns," Cahiers de recherche 09-2010, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    8. Hyoungsik Noh, 2023. "Conservativeness in jury decision-making," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 95(1), pages 151-172, July.
    9. Christian Lukas & Jens Robert Schöndube, 2008. "Trust and Adaptive Learning in Implicit Contracts," FEMM Working Papers 08017, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.
    10. Liu, Sun, 2019. "The impact of ownership structure on conditional and unconditional conservatism in China: Some new evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 49-68.
    11. Raghavan J. Iyengar & Ernest M. Zampelli, 2010. "Does accounting conservatism pay?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(1), pages 121-142, March.
    12. Laux, Volker & Ray, Korok, 2020. "Effects of accounting conservatism on investment efficiency and innovation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    13. Langberg, Nisan & Sivaramakrishnan, K., 2008. "Voluntary disclosures and information production by analysts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 78-100, September.
    14. Fu, Qiang & Li, Ming, 2014. "Reputation-concerned policy makers and institutional status quo bias," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 15-25.
    15. Fabio B. Gaertner & Asad Kausar & Logan B. Steele, 2020. "Negative accounting earnings and gross domestic product," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 1382-1409, December.
    16. Budde, Jörg, 2013. "Verifiable and Nonverifiable Information in a Two-Period Agency Problem," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 445, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    17. Dea¡¯a Al-Deen Omar Al-Sraheen & Faudziah Hanim Fadzil & Syed Soffian Bin Syed Ismail, 2014. "Does Corporate Governance Matter? Evidence from Accounting Conservatism Practices among Jordanian Listed Companies," International Journal of Learning and Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 4(4), pages 64-80, December.
    18. 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. Raghavan J. Iyengar & Ernest M. Zampelli, 2010. "Does accounting conservatism pay?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(1), pages 121-142, March.
    2. Niemann, Rainer, 2007. "Risikoübernahme, Arbeitsanreiz und differenzierende Besteuerung," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 28, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    3. Ramakrishnan, Ram T S & Thakor, Anjan V, 1984. "The Valuation of Assets under Moral Hazard," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(1), pages 229-238, March.
    4. Jed De Varo & Suraj Prasad, 2015. "The Relationship between Delegation and Incentives Across Occupations: Evidence and Theory," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 279-312, June.
    5. O’Connor, Matthew & Rafferty, Matthew & Sheikh, Aamer, 2013. "Equity compensation and the sensitivity of research and development to financial market frictions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2510-2519.
    6. An, Suwei, 2023. "Essays on incentive contracts, M&As, and firm risk," Other publications TiSEM dd97d2f5-1c9d-47c5-ba62-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Steven N. Kaplan & Per Strömberg, 2003. "Financial Contracting Theory Meets the Real World: An Empirical Analysis of Venture Capital Contracts," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 281-315.
    8. de La Bruslerie, H. & Deffains-Crapsky, C., 2008. "Information asymmetry, contract design and process of negotiation: The stock options awarding case," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 73-91, April.
    9. Xu Tan & Quan Wen, 2020. "Information acquisition and voting with heterogeneous experts," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(4), pages 1063-1092, December.
    10. Campbell, Cynthia J. & Wasley, Charles E., 1999. "Stock-based incentive contracts and managerial performance: the case of Ralston Purina Company," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 195-217, February.
    11. Hearn, Bruce, 2014. "Institutional impact on the expropriation of private benefits of control in North Africa," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 1-23.
    12. Gehan A. Mousa, 2014. "The Association between Accounting Conservatism and Cash Dividends: Evidence from Emerging Markets," 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(4), pages 210-220, October.
    13. Lambert, Richard A., 2001. "Contracting theory and accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 3-87, December.
    14. Chandra Kanodia & Haresh Sapra, 2016. "A Real Effects Perspective to Accounting Measurement and Disclosure: Implications and Insights for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 623-676, May.
    15. Sanford J. Grossman & Oliver D. Hart, 1982. "Corporate Financial Structure and Managerial Incentives," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Information and Uncertainty, pages 107-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. John S. Marsh & Rachel Graefe-Anderson, 2018. "Undermining incentives: CEO reactions to compensation rebalancing," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(2), pages 365-391, June.
    17. Dilger, Alexander, 2012. "How (not) to pay non-executive directors," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 9/2012, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    18. Chan, Alex W.H. & Cheung, Hoi Yan, 2016. "Extraversion, individualism and M&A activities," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 356-369.
    19. Bartsch, Elga, 1996. "Enforcement of environmental liability in the case of uncertain causality and asymmetric information," Kiel Working Papers 755, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. Marc C. Chopin & Ross N. Dickens & Roger M. Shelor, 1995. "An Empirical Examination of Compensation of REIT Managers," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 10(3), pages 263-278.

    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:inm:ormnsc:v:51:y:2005:i:11:p:1626-1632. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.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.