IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reaccs/v26y2021i3d10.1007_s11142-021-09610-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Doing good when doing well: evidence on real earnings management

Author

Listed:
  • William Grieser

    (Texas Christian University)

  • Charles J. Hadlock

    (Michigan State University)

  • Joshua R. Pierce

    (University of Alabama)

Abstract

We provide evidence on earnings management by exploiting temporary exogenous shocks to utility firms’ sales arising from weather variation. We find that sample firms’ sales are highly sensitive to annual changes in average temperatures in the region where the firm operates, but this sensitivity disappears quickly as one moves down the income statement. This evidence, while indirect, is suggestive of earnings management activities. In search of direct evidence, we study charitable giving decisions by sample firms and uncover a significant positive sensitivity of charitable spending to weather-driven demand shocks, behavior that is highly consistent with the presence of real earnings management efforts. We find no convincing evidence supporting possible alternative explanations for this evidence, but we do find limited support for the presence of a larger giving–weather relation when earnings management incentives are likely to be elevated. If other real decisions with similar characteristics scale proportionally to charitable giving, our findings suggest that the overall magnitude of real earnings management activities could be quite substantial.

Suggested Citation

  • William Grieser & Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2021. "Doing good when doing well: evidence on real earnings management," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 906-932, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reaccs:v:26:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s11142-021-09610-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11142-021-09610-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11142-021-09610-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11142-021-09610-y?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shiyou Li & Emeka Nwaeze & Jennifer Yin, 2016. "Earnings management in the electric utility industry: profit incentives," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 633-660, April.
    2. Marianne Bertrand & Matilde Bombardini & Raymond Fisman & Francesco Trebbi, 2020. "Tax-Exempt Lobbying: Corporate Philanthropy as a Tool for Political Influence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(7), pages 2065-2102, July.
    3. Navarro, Peter, 1988. "Why Do Corporations Give to Charity?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 65-93, January.
    4. Louis, Henock, 2004. "Earnings management and the market performance of acquiring firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 121-148, October.
    5. Hao Liang & Luc Renneboog, 2017. "On the Foundations of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 853-910, April.
    6. Foong Soon Cheong & Jacob Thomas, 2018. "Management of Reported and Forecast EPS, Investor Responses, and Research Implications," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(9), pages 4277-4301, September.
    7. Doyle, Jeffrey T. & Jennings, Jared N. & Soliman, Mark T., 2013. "Do managers define non-GAAP earnings to meet or beat analyst forecasts?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 40-56.
    8. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2005. "The economic implications of corporate financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 3-73, December.
    9. Bartov, Eli & Givoly, Dan & Hayn, Carla, 2002. "The rewards to meeting or beating earnings expectations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 173-204, June.
    10. Ferrell, Allen & Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc, 2016. "Socially responsible firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 585-606.
    11. Francisco Pérez-González & Hayong Yun, 2013. "Risk Management and Firm Value: Evidence from Weather Derivatives," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 2143-2176, October.
    12. Roychowdhury, Sugata & Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2019. "The effects of financial reporting and disclosure on corporate investment: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    13. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    14. Dichev, Ilia D. & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2013. "Earnings quality: Evidence from the field," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 1-33.
    15. Dessaint, Olivier & Matray, Adrien, 2017. "Do managers overreact to salient risks? Evidence from hurricane strikes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 97-121.
    16. James P. Naughton, 2019. "Regulatory oversight and trade-offs in earnings management: evidence from pension accounting," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 456-490, June.
    17. Lamont, Owen, 1997. "Cash Flow and Investment: Evidence from Internal Capital Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 83-109, March.
    18. Ali, Ashiq & Zhang, Weining, 2015. "CEO tenure and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 60-79.
    19. Toni M. Whited & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Financial Constraints Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 531-559.
    20. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    21. Barth, ME & Elliott, JA & Finn, MW, 1999. "Market rewards associated with patterns of increasing earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 387-413.
    22. Foong Soon Cheong & Jacob Thomas, 2011. "Why Do EPS Forecast Error and Dispersion Not Vary with Scale? Implications for Analyst and Managerial Behavior," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 359-401, May.
    23. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    24. Erickson, Merle & Wang, Shiing-wu, 1999. "Earnings management by acquiring firms in stock for stock mergers," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 149-176, April.
    25. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    26. Somnath Das & Kyonghee Kim & Sukesh Patro, 2012. "On the Anomalous Stock Price Response to Management Earnings Forecasts," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(7-8), pages 905-935, September.
    27. Patricia M. Dechow & Amy P. Hutton & Jung Hoon Kim & Richard G. Sloan, 2012. "Detecting Earnings Management: A New Approach," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 275-334, May.
    28. Daniel Cohen & Shailendra Pandit & Charles E. Wasley & Tzachi Zach, 2020. "Measuring Real Activity Management†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 1172-1198, June.
    29. Brown, William O. & Helland, Eric & Smith, Janet Kiholm, 2006. "Corporate philanthropic practices," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 855-877, December.
    30. Burgstahler, David & Dichev, Ilia, 1997. "Earnings management to avoid earnings decreases and losses," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 99-126, December.
    31. James R. Brown & Matthew T. Gustafson & Ivan T. Ivanov, 2021. "Weathering Cash Flow Shocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 1731-1772, August.
    32. Hall, Steven C., 1993. "Political scrutiny and earnings management in the oil refining industry," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 325-351.
    33. Degeorge, Francois & Patel, Jayendu & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1999. "Earnings Management to Exceed Thresholds," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(1), pages 1-33, January.
    34. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    35. Daniel A. Bens & Venky Nagar & M. H. Franco Wong, 2002. "Real Investment Implications of Employee Stock Option Exercises," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 359-393, May.
    36. Grieser, William D. & Hadlock, Charles J., 2019. "Panel-Data Estimation in Finance: Testable Assumptions and Parameter (In)Consistency," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(1), pages 1-29, February.
    37. Petrovits, Christine M., 2006. "Corporate-sponsored foundations and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 335-362, September.
    38. McInnis, John & Collins, Daniel W., 2011. "The effect of cash flow forecasts on accrual quality and benchmark beating," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 219-239, April.
    39. Stein, Jeremy C., 2003. "Agency, information and corporate investment," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 111-165, Elsevier.
    40. Ronald W. Masulis & Syed Walid Reza, 2015. "Agency Problems of Corporate Philanthropy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(2), pages 592-636.
    41. Irani, Rustom M. & Oesch, David, 2016. "Analyst Coverage and Real Earnings Management: Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(2), pages 589-627, April.
    42. Daniel Bergstresser & Mihir Desai & Joshua Rauh, 2006. "Earnings Manipulation, Pension Assumptions, and Managerial Investment Decisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 157-195.
    43. Amiyatosh Purnanandam & Daniel Weagley, 2016. "Can Markets Discipline Government Agencies? Evidence from the Weather Derivatives Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(1), pages 303-334, February.
    44. Greiner, Adam J., 2017. "An examination of real activities management and corporate cash holdings," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 79-90.
    45. Baruch Lev & Christine Petrovits & Suresh Radhakrishnan, 2010. "Is doing good good for you? how corporate charitable contributions enhance revenue growth," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 182-200, February.
    46. Dechow, Patricia M. & Myers, Linda A. & Shakespeare, Catherine, 2010. "Fair value accounting and gains from asset securitizations: A convenient earnings management tool with compensation side-benefits," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1-2), pages 2-25, February.
    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. Tsang, Albert & Frost, Tracie & Cao, Huijuan, 2023. "Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure: A literature review," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    2. Ahsan Habib & Dinithi Ranasinghe & Julia Yonghua Wu & Pallab Kumar Biswas & Fawad Ahmad, 2022. "Real earnings management: A review of the international literature," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4279-4344, December.
    3. James Jianxin Gong & S. Mark Young & Aner Zhou, 2023. "Real earnings management and the strategic release of new products: evidence from the motion picture industry," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1209-1249, September.

    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. Eiler, Lisa A. & Filzen, Joshua J. & Jackson, Mark & Tama-Sweet, Isho, 2021. "Real earnings management and the properties of analysts' forecasts," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    2. Davis, Frederick & Khadivar, Hamed, 2024. "Accrual and real earnings management by rumored takeover targets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    3. Neururer, Thaddeus, 2022. "Meet-or-beat streak heterogeneity and equity prices," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 455-470.
    4. Anup Srivastava, 2019. "Improving the measures of real earnings management," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1277-1316, December.
    5. Qin, Yiyi & Cai, Jun & Rhee, S. Ghon, 2021. "Do Japanese firms systematically inflate expected rate of returns from defined benefit pension plans?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. Frost, Carol Ann & Guragai, Binod & Rapley, Eric T., 2017. "Differences in responses to accounting-based and market-based benchmarks – Evidence from Nasdaq," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 46-62.
    7. Dung Viet Tran & M. Kabir Hassan & Reza Houston, 2020. "Discretionary loan loss provision behavior in the US banking industry," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 605-645, August.
    8. Fargher, Neil & Wee, Marvin, 2019. "The impact of Ball and Brown (1968) on generations of research," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 55-72.
    9. Sun, Zeyu & Kong, Ningning & Wu, Lei & Bao, Yu, 2024. "Does contingent payment in M&As induce acquirers’ earnings management? Evidence from performance commitment," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Griffin, Paul A. & Hong, Hyun A. & Liu, Yun & Ryou, Ji Woo, 2021. "The dark side of CEO social capital: Evidence from real earnings management and future operating performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    11. Galdi, Fernando Caio & Johnson, E. Scott, 2021. "Accounting for inventory costs and real earnings management behavior," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    12. Takuya Iwasaki & Norio Kitagawa & Akinobu Shuto, 2012. "Managerial discretion over initial earnings forecasts “Forthcoming in Pacific-Basin Finance Journalâ€," CARF F-Series CARF-F-369, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo, revised Nov 2022.
    13. Dichev, Ilia D. & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2013. "Earnings quality: Evidence from the field," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 1-33.
    14. Jake Thomas & Wentao Yao & Frank Zhang & Wei Zhu, 2022. "Meet, beat, and pollute," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 1038-1078, September.
    15. Al-Shattarat, Basiem & Hussainey, Khaled & Al-Shattarat, Wasim, 2022. "The impact of abnormal real earnings management to meet earnings benchmarks on future operating performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    16. Doukas, John A. & Zhang, Rongyao, 2020. "Corporate managerial ability, earnings smoothing, and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Ahsan Habib & Dinithi Ranasinghe & Julia Yonghua Wu & Pallab Kumar Biswas & Fawad Ahmad, 2022. "Real earnings management: A review of the international literature," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4279-4344, December.
    18. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    19. Sondes Draief & Adel Chouaya, 2012. "Effet de la gestion comptable et réelle des résultats sur le coût de la dette : analyse avant et après SOX," Post-Print hal-00691020, HAL.
    20. Espahbodi, Reza & Liu, Nan & Weigand, Robert A., 2022. "Opportunistic earnings management or performance-related effects? Evidence from dividend-paying firms," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    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:spr:reaccs:v:26:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s11142-021-09610-y. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.