The Value-Relevance of Earnings Management

• Main Authors: Che-Chia Chang, 張哲嘉
• Other Authors: Victoria Shao-Pin Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40255569614636954017

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 會計學研究所 === 93 === From 1996 onward, a series of financial scandals have not only surprised local and international capital markets, but also have led to grave losses of investors and creditors. In order to observe whether the market responses to earnings management efficiently in the stock returns, this paper, based on the American stock market, explores the relationship between discretionary accruals and stock returns under three earnings management hypotheses in both short and long intervals. The empirical results suggest that, under the performance measure hypothesis, when nondiscretionary earnings over-reacting to economic shocks, the discretionary accruals are negatively correlated with stock returns. In short intervals, the coefficients for discretionary long-term accruals are substantially lower than that for discretionary current accruals. Whereas, under the opportunistic accrual management hypothesis, the discretionary accruals are negatively correlated with stock returns. In short interval, the coefficients for discretionary long-term accruals is substantially higher than that for discretionary current accruals. Finally, as the intervals expand, the relationship between stock returns and discretionary accruals reduces under both the performance measure hypothesis and the opportunistic accrual management hypothesis. This empirical result implies that, based on the data collected in this study, stock returns are able to reflect the impact of earnings management in the U.S. stock market, i.e., earnings management is value-relevant.