IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jfr/afr111/v3y2014i4p105.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cosmetic Earnings Management before and after Corporate Governance Legislation in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Charles E. Jordan
  • Stanley J. Clark
  • Marilyn A. Waldron

Abstract

Cosmetic earnings management (CEM) occurs when income is rounded (manipulated) up by a relatively small increment to reach a key reference point for users, which creates a disproportionately more favorable view of the company than would have existed otherwise. Significant research shows this type of biased reporting occurred virtually worldwide prior to the corporate governance legislation enacted in many countries in the early-to-mid 2000s. However, more recent research provides evidence that CEM in the U.S. disappeared after implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002. Yet, outside the U.S., little research exists on this form of earnings management following the enactment of similar corporate governance legislation. Using Benford’s Law and digital analysis, the current study tests for CEM in Canada before and after Ontario Bill 198 and other corporate governance legislation in that country. The results reveal clear signs of CEM in Canada prior to this legislation but no indications of it afterward, thus suggesting the legislation contributed to the eradication of CEM in Canada much like SOX did in the U.S.Â

Suggested Citation

  • Charles E. Jordan & Stanley J. Clark & Marilyn A. Waldron, 2014. "Cosmetic Earnings Management before and after Corporate Governance Legislation in Canada," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(4), pages 105-105, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:jfr:afr111:v:3:y:2014:i:4:p:105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/afr/article/download/5809/3456
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/afr/article/view/5809
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jyrki Niskanen & Matti Keloharju, 2000. "Earnings cosmetics in a tax-driven accounting environment: evidence from Finnish public firms," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 443-452.
    2. Salma Ibrahim & Li Xu & Genese Rogers, 2011. "Real and accrual‐based earnings management and its legal consequences," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(1), pages 50-78, July.
    3. Tom Van Caneghem, 2004. "The impact of audit quality on earnings rounding-up behaviour: some UK evidence," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 771-786.
    4. Aono, June Y. & Guan, Liming, 2008. "The impact of Sarbanes-Oxley act on cosmetic earnings management," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 205-215.
    5. Lin, Fengyi & Wu, Sheng-Fu, 2014. "Comparison of cosmetic earnings management for the developed markets and emerging markets: Some empirical evidence from the United States and Taiwan," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 466-473.
    6. Kalelkar, Rachana & Nwaeze, Emeka T., 2011. "Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the quality of earnings and accruals: Market-based evidence," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 275-294, May.
    7. Ilanit Gavious & Mosi Rosenboim, 2013. "The Disciplining Role of the Market Versus Government Regulation: The Case of Sarbanes--Oxley and the Earnings Quality of M&A Targets," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 15(1), pages 300-332.
    8. Chung, Janne & Farrar, Jonathan & Puri, Poonam & Thorne, Linda, 2010. "Auditor liability to third parties after Sarbanes-Oxley: An international comparison of regulatory and legal reforms," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 66-78.
    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. Theoharry Grammatikos & Nikolaos I. Papanikolaou, 2021. "Applying Benford’s Law to Detect Accounting Data Manipulation in the Banking Industry," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 59(1), pages 115-142, April.
    2. Bonache, Adrien & Moris, Karen, 2009. "Nonlinear and chaotic patterns in Japanese video game console sales and consequences for management control," MPRA Paper 18196, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Lin, Fengyi & Lin, Li-Jung & Yeh, Chin-Chen & Wang, Teng-Shih, 2018. "Does the board of directors as Fat Cats exert more earnings management? Evidence from Benford’s law," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 158-170.
    4. Dominique Geyer & Christoph Drechsler, 2014. "Detecting Cosmetic Debt Management Using Benford's Law," Post-Print hal-01059758, HAL.
    5. Etienne Harb & Nohade Nasrallah & Rim El Khoury & Khaled Hussainey, 2022. "Applying Benford’s Law to detect accounting data manipulation in the pre-and post-financial engineering periods: Evidence from Lebanon," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2022-10, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    6. Sebastian Lebert & Ulf Mohrmann & Ulrike Stefani, 2021. "Rounding up performance measures in German firms: Earnings cosmetics or earnings management on a larger scale?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3-4), pages 564-586, March.
    7. Bernhard Rauch & Max G�ttsche & Stephan Langenegger, 2014. "Detecting Problems in Military Expenditure Data Using Digital Analysis," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 97-111, April.
    8. Bernhard Rauch & Max Göttsche & Gernot Brähler & Stefan Engel, 2011. "Fact and Fiction in EU‐Governmental Economic Data," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 12(3), pages 243-255, August.
    9. Bonache, Adrien & Moris, Karen & Maurice, Jonathan, 2009. "Risque associé à l'utilisation de la loi de Benford pour détecter les fraudes dans le secteur de la mode [Risk of Reviews based on Benford Law in the Fashion Sector]," MPRA Paper 15352, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Aineas Kostas Mallios, 2023. "Manipulation in reported dividends: Empirical evidence from US banks," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(1), pages 441-461.
    11. Lacina, Michael & Lee, B. Brian & Kim, Dong Wuk, 2018. "Benford’s Law and the effects of the Korean financial reforms on cosmetic earnings management," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 2-17.
    12. Marcel Haak & Michelle Muraz & Roland Zieseniß, 2018. "Joint Audits: Does the Allocation of Audit Work Affect Audit Quality and Audit Fees?," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 55-80, January.
    13. Henselmann, Klaus & Scherr, Elisabeth & Ditter, Dominik, 2012. "Applying Benford's Law to individual financial reports: An empirical investigation on the basis of SEC XBRL filings," Working Papers in Accounting Valuation Auditing 2012-1, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Accounting and Auditing.
    14. Yves Mard, 2003. "Performance Comptable Et Gestion Des Resultats," Post-Print halshs-00582798, HAL.
    15. Viana, Jr., Dante Baiardo C. & Lourenço, Isabel & Black, Ervin L. & Martins, Orleans Silva, 2023. "Macroeconomic instability, institutions, and earnings management: An analysis in developed and emerging market countries," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    16. Oriol Amat & Catherine Gowthorpe, 2004. "Creative accounting: Nature, incidence and ethical issues," Economics Working Papers 749, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    17. Zhang, Eden Quxian, 2022. "Why are distressed firms acquisitive?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Moehrle, Stephen R. & Mintchik, Natalia & Mohrman, Mary Beth & Reynolds-Moehrle, Jennifer A. & Vargus, Mark, 2014. "Developments in accounting regulation: A synthesis and annotated bibliography of evidence and commentary in the 2011 academic literature," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 175-195.
    19. Karen Benson & Peter M Clarkson & Tom Smith & Irene Tutticci, 2015. "A review of accounting research in the Asia Pacific region," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 36-88, February.
    20. Sandeep Goel, 2014. "Creating Accounting Numbers Using Designed Choices: A Case Study of Indian Hotel Industry," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 3, pages 29-35, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    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:jfr:afr111:v:3:y:2014:i:4:p:105. 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: Sciedu Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.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.