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Pension Contributions and Earnings Quality

Author

Listed:
  • John Kim

    (Department of Economics, Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Ave, NY, NY 10065, USA)

  • John Li

    (Department of Economics, Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Ave, NY, NY 10065, USA)

  • Fang Sun

    (Department of Economics, Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Ave, NY, NY 10065, USA)

Abstract

We investigate whether defined benefit (DB) pension contributions convey information about earnings quality proxied by different measurements of discretionary accruals (DA). We find that greater DA are negatively is associated with discretionary pension contributions. Since greater DA is associated with lower earnings quality, the result implies a positive relationship between earnings quality and voluntary pension contributions. In contrast, our evidence does not suggest a similar relationship holds for earnings quality and mandatory pension contributions. In addition, while our analysis identifies a negative relation between DA and total pension contributions, the relation is statistically weaker than that between DA and voluntary pension contribution. Robustness tests are conducted and results are found to continue to hold. Our results are consistent with the theoretical argument that voluntary pension contributions are indicative of firms' earnings quality since both the voluntary pension contributions and earnings quality result from the same set of incentives behind managerial discretions. Our study sheds light on the management's motivation for making voluntary pension contributions and improves our understanding of firms' consideration in funding strategies for DB pension plans.

Suggested Citation

  • John Kim & John Li & Fang Sun, 2013. "Pension Contributions and Earnings Quality," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(01), pages 1-31.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:rpbfmp:v:16:y:2013:i:01:n:s021909151350001x
    DOI: 10.1142/S021909151350001X
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Avishek Bhandari & Babak Mammadov & Maya Thevenot, 2018. "The impact of executive inside debt on sell-side financial analyst forecast characteristics," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 283-315, August.
    2. Helena Isidro & José G. Dias, 2017. "Earnings quality and the heterogeneous relation between earnings and stock returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 1143-1165, November.
    3. F. Wang & Ting Zhang, 2014. "The effect of unfunded pension liabilities on corporate bond ratings, default risk, and recovery rate," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 781-802, November.
    4. Bikki Jaggi & Santanu Mitra & Mahmud Hossain, 2015. "Earnings quality, internal control weaknesses and industry-specialist audits," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 1-32, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Defined benefit pension plan; discretionary pension contributions; mandatory pension contributions; information content; earnings quality; discretionary accruals; M48; G18; G32;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

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