IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecl/upafin/05-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Earnings Management and Cross Listing: Are Reconciled Earnings Comparable to US Earnings?

Author

Listed:
  • Lang, Mark

    (U of North Carolina)

  • Raedy, Jana Smith
  • Wilson, Wendy

Abstract

We compare the characteristics of US GAAP earnings for US firms with reconciled earnings for non-US firms cross listing on US markets. We find that the reconciled earnings for non-US firms differ systematically from US GAAP earnings for US firms, and are characterized by more evidence of smoothing, a greater tendency to manage earnings towards a target, a lower association with share price and less timely recognition of losses. Further, splitting by country of domicile, firms from countries with relatively weak local investor protection environments show more evidence of earnings management in the reconciled accounts, suggesting that the extra layer of regulation imposed by the SEC does not supplant the effect of the local regulatory environment. While evidence of earnings management is stronger for cross-listed firms that reconcile to US GAAP than for those that prepare local accounts in accordance with US GAAP, both sets show more evidence of earnings management than the matched US firms, suggesting that reconciliation may explain part, but not all, of the results.

Suggested Citation

  • Lang, Mark & Raedy, Jana Smith & Wilson, Wendy, 2005. "Earnings Management and Cross Listing: Are Reconciled Earnings Comparable to US Earnings?," Working Papers 05-3, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Weiss Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecl:upafin:05-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=511842
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marco Pagano & Ailsa A. Röell & Josef Zechner, 2002. "The Geography of Equity Listing: Why Do Companies List Abroad?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2651-2694, December.
    2. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 2000. "Investor protection and corporate governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 3-27.
    3. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    4. Leuz, Christian & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter D., 2003. "Earnings management and investor protection: an international comparison," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 505-527, September.
    5. Barth, Mary E. & Beaver, William H. & Landsman, Wayne R., 2001. "The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting: another view," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 77-104, September.
    6. Cramer, J. S., 1987. "Mean and variance of R2 in small and moderate samples," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2-3), pages 253-266, July.
    7. Ball, Ray & Kothari, S. P. & Robin, Ashok, 2000. "Corrigendum to "The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings"; [Journal of Accounting and Economics 29 (2000) 1-51]," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 241-241, October.
    8. 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.
    9. Brown, Stephen & Lo, Kin & Lys, Thomas, 1999. "Use of R2 in accounting research: measuring changes in value relevance over the last four decades," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 83-115, December.
    10. Holthausen, Robert W. & Watts, Ross L., 2001. "The relevance of the value-relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 3-75, September.
    11. Ball, Ray & Kothari, S. P. & Robin, Ashok, 2000. "The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-51, February.
    12. 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.
    13. Mark Lang & Jana Smith Raedy & Michelle Higgins Yetman, 2003. "How Representative Are Firms That Are Cross‐Listed in the United States? An Analysis of Accounting Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 363-386, May.
    14. Frost, Ca & Pownall, G, 1994. "Accounting Disclosure Practices In The United-States And The United-Kingdom," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 75-102.
    15. Ball, Ray & Robin, Ashok & Wu, Joanna Shuang, 2003. "Incentives versus standards: properties of accounting income in four East Asian countries," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 235-270, December.
    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. Iatridis, George, 2010. "International Financial Reporting Standards and the quality of financial statement information," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 193-204, June.
    2. Iatridis, George & Kadorinis, George, 2009. "Earnings management and firm financial motives: A financial investigation of UK listed firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 164-173, September.
    3. Iatridis, George & Rouvolis, Sotiris, 2010. "The post-adoption effects of the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards in Greece," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 55-65.
    4. Mounir Bellari, 2024. "The quality of accounting information: between qualitative and quantitative perspectives [La qualité de l'information comptable : entre optique qualitative et optique quantitative]," Post-Print hal-04687328, HAL.
    5. Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2011. "Accounting disclosures, accounting quality and conditional and unconditional conservatism," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 88-102, April.
    6. Justin Y. Jin, 2013. "Investor Attention and Earnings Management around the World," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(2), pages 165-187, June.

    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. Lang, Mark & Smith Raedy, Jana & Wilson, Wendy, 2006. "Earnings management and cross listing: Are reconciled earnings comparable to US earnings?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 255-283, October.
    2. Günther, Nina & Gegenfurtner, Bernhard & Kaserer, Christoph & Achleitner, Ann-Kristin, 2009. "International financial reporting standards and earnings Quality: the myth of voluntary vs. mandatory adoption," CEFS Working Paper Series 2009-09, Technische Universität München (TUM), Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS).
    3. Goncharov, Igor & Werner, Joerg R. & Zimmermann, Jochen, 2009. "Legislative demands and economic realities: Company and group accounts compared," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 334-362, December.
    4. Karampinis, Nikolaos I. & Hevas, Dimosthenis L., 2011. "Mandating IFRS in an Unfavorable Environment: The Greek Experience," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 304-332, September.
    5. Barth, Mary E. & Landsman, Wayne & Lang, Mark, 2007. "International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality," Research Papers 1976, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    6. Mary E. Barth & Wayne R. Landsman & Mark H. Lang, 2008. "International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 467-498, June.
    7. Kamarudin, Khairul Anuar & Ariff, Akmalia M. & Jaafar, Aziz, 2020. "Investor protection, cross-listing and accounting quality," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    8. Iatridis, George, 2010. "International Financial Reporting Standards and the quality of financial statement information," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 193-204, June.
    9. Holthausen, Robert W., 2003. "Testing the relative power of accounting standards versus incentives and other institutional features to influence the outcome of financial reporting in an international setting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 271-283, December.
    10. Himanshu & Jatinder P. Singh & Ashwani Kumar, 2020. "Prioritizing and Establishing Cause and Effect Relationships Among Financial Reporting Quality Metrics," Vision, , vol. 24(3), pages 330-344, September.
    11. Ioannis Tsalavoutas & Paul André & Lisa Evans, 2009. "Transition to IFRS and value relevance in a small but developed market: A look at Greek evidence," Post-Print halshs-00460532, HAL.
    12. Hu, Jinshuai & Li, Annie Yuansha & Zhang, Feida (Frank), 2014. "Does accounting conservatism improve the corporate information environment?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 32-43.
    13. Zhaoyang Gu, 2007. "Across‐sample Incomparability of R2s and Additional Evidence on Value Relevance Changes Over Time," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(7‐8), pages 1073-1098, September.
    14. 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.
    15. Liu, Xiang & Saidi, Reza & Bazaz, Mohammad, 2014. "Institutional incentives and earnings quality: The influence of government ownership in China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 248-261.
    16. Macías, Marta & Muiño, Flora, 2011. "Examining dual accounting systems in Europe," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 51-78, March.
    17. Hans B. Christensen & Edward Lee & Martin Walker & Cheng Zeng, 2015. "Incentives or Standards: What Determines Accounting Quality Changes around IFRS Adoption?," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 31-61, May.
    18. Houqe, Muhammad Nurul & van Zijl, Tony & Dunstan, Keitha & Karim, A.K.M. Waresul, 2012. "The Effect of IFRS Adoption and Investor Protection on Earnings Quality Around the World," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 333-355.
    19. Srinidhi, Bin & Lim, Chee Yeow & Hossain, Mahmud, 2009. "Effects of country-level legal, extra-legal and political institutions on auditing: A cross-country analysis of the auditor specialization premium," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 34-46.
    20. Chi, Wuchun & Liu, Chiawen & Wang, Taychang, 2009. "What affects accounting conservatism: A corporate governance perspective," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 47-59.

    More about this item

    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:ecl:upafin:05-3. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wcupaus.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.