IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rug/rugwps/10-665.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Earnings Management in Nonprofit Organizations: Does Governmental Financing Play a Role?

Author

Listed:
  • S. VERBRUGGEN
  • J. CHRISTIAENS

Abstract

A vast amount of research has documented the existence of earnings management in for-profit settings. Nonprofit organizations are thought to pay less attention to the bottom line of the income statement. Earnings management research in nonprofit settings has therefore focused on the manipulation of expenses in order to improve efficiency ratios or taxable income, not reported earnings per se. Given a setting in which such ratios are not reported to the public, manipulation of the actual bottom line by nonprofit organizations is explored in light of the importance of governmental subsidies. The results suggest that nonprofit organizations drive their results towards the breakeven point and that manipulation seems to be intensified by increased governmental funding.

Suggested Citation

  • S. Verbruggen & J. Christiaens, 2010. "Earnings Management in Nonprofit Organizations: Does Governmental Financing Play a Role?," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 10/665, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    • Handle: RePEc:rug:rugwps:10/665
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_10_665.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    2. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    3. Eldenburg, Leslie & Hermalin, Benjamin E. & Weisbach, Michael S. & Wosinska, Marta, 2004. "Governance, performance objectives and organizational form: evidence from hospitals," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 527-548, September.
    4. Fields, Thomas D. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Vincent, Linda, 2001. "Empirical research on accounting choice," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 255-307, September.
    5. Brickley, James A & Van Horn, R Lawrence, 2002. "Managerial Incentives in Nonprofit Organizations: Evidence from Hospitals," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(1), pages 227-249, April.
    6. 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.
    7. Deneffe, Daniel & Masson, Robert T., 2002. "What do not-for-profit hospitals maximize?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 461-492, April.
    8. Fisman, Raymond & Glenn Hubbard, R., 2005. "Precautionary savings and the governance of nonprofit organizations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(11-12), pages 2231-2243, December.
    9. DeFond, Mark L. & Jiambalvo, James, 1994. "Debt covenant violation and manipulation of accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 145-176, January.
    10. S. Verbruggen & J. Christiaens & K. Milis, 2009. "Can resource dependence and coercive isomorphism explain nonprofit organizations’ compliance with reporting standards?," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 09/616, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    11. Weisbrod, Burton A. & Dominguez, Nestor D., 1986. "Demand for collective goods in private nonprofit markets: Can fundraising expenditures help overcome free-rider behavior?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 83-96, June.
    12. McNichols, Maureen F., 2000. "Research design issues in earnings management studies," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(4-5), pages 313-345.
    13. Deneffe, Daniel & Masson, Robert T., 2002. "Erratum to "What do not-for-profit hospitals maximize?": [Internat. J. of Ind. Organization 20(4) (2002) 461-492]," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(7), pages 1059-1059, September.
    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. Hofmann, Mary Ann & McSwain, Dwayne, 2013. "Financial disclosure management in the nonprofit sector: A framework for past and future research," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 61-87.
    2. Nguyet T. M. Nguyen & Abdullah Iqbal & Radha K. Shiwakoti, 2022. "The context of earnings management and its ability to predict future stock returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 123-169, July.
    3. Chang, Chu-Hsuan & Lin, Hsiou-Wei William, 2018. "Does there prevail momentum in earnings management for seasoned equity offering firms?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 111-129.
    4. Aljughaiman, Abdullah A. & Nguyen, Tam Huy & Trinh, Vu Quang & Du, Anqi, 2023. "The Covid-19 outbreak, corporate financial distress and earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    5. 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.
    6. Jorge Farinha & Luis Filipe Viana, 2006. "Board structure and modified audit opinions: the case of the Portuguese Stock Exchange," CEF.UP Working Papers 0609, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    7. Alissa, Walid & Bonsall, Samuel B. & Koharki, Kevin & Penn, Michael W., 2013. "Firms' use of accounting discretion to influence their credit ratings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 129-147.
    8. Bruce K. Bennett & Michael E. Bradbury, 2010. "An analysis of the reasons for the asymmetries surrounding earnings benchmarks," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(3), pages 529-554, September.
    9. Paul Coram & James R. Frederickson & Matthew Pinnuck, 2024. "Earnings management: Who do managers consider and what is the relative importance of ethics?," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 49(2), pages 214-248, May.
    10. Julia Sawicki & Keshab Shrestha, 2014. "Misvaluation and Insider Trading Incentives for Accrual-based and Real Earnings Management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7-8), pages 926-949, September.
    11. Davis, Frederick & Khadivar, Hamed, 2024. "Accrual and real earnings management by rumored takeover targets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    12. Joanna Lizińska & Leszek Czapiewski, 2018. "Towards Economic Corporate Sustainability in Reporting: What Does Earnings Management around Equity Offerings Mean for Long-Term Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-23, November.
    13. Anessi-Pessina, Eugenio & Steccolini, Ileana, 2024. "Do conformity and bailouts affect misreporting? The case of public health-care organisations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    14. Seraina C. Anagnostopoulou & Andrianos E. Tsekrekos, 2017. "The effect of financial leverage on real and accrual-based earnings management," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 191-236, February.
    15. Cannon, James N. & Lamboy-Ruiz, Melvin A. & Watanabe, Olena V., 2022. "Ownership type and earnings management in U.S. hospitals," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    16. Ramesh Chandra Das & Chandra Sekhar Mishra & Prabina Rajib, 2018. "Firm-specific Parameters and Earnings Management: A Study in the Indian Context," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 19(5), pages 1240-1260, October.
    17. Hibbert, Ann Marie & Kang, Qiang & Kumar, Alok & Mishra, Suchi, 2020. "Heterogeneous beliefs and return volatility around seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 571-589.
    18. Muhammad Kaleem Khan & Yixuan Qin & Chengsi Zhang, 2022. "Financial structure and earnings manipulation activities in China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(8), pages 2593-2621, August.
    19. Nitai Chandra Debnath & Suman Paul Chowdhury & Safaeduzzaman Khan, 2022. "The impact of audit quality on real earnings management: evidence from Bangladesh," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(2), pages 218-231, June.
    20. Vasilescu, Camelia & Millo, Yuval, 2016. "Do industrial and geographic diversifications have different effects on earnings management? Evidence from UK mergers and acquisitions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 33-45.

    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:rug:rugwps:10/665. 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: Nathalie Verhaeghe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferugbe.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.