This paper reconsiders various hypotheses tested in the literature concerning income smoothing, the big bath, financial distress, debt covenants, management turnover, ownership structure, and auditors. The results show that changes in accounting policy have been carried out for income smoothing....

Prior studies argue that stable shareholders do not encourage firm managers to manage their earnings to achieve short-term earnings goals. They also state that firm managers with stable shareholders have an incentive to report smooth earnings to maintain long-term relationships with such...

In order to test the implication of Watts's (2003) argument that accounting conservatism can increase the efficiency of executive compensation contracts, we investigate the relationship between the adoption of accounting conservatism and the payment of excess executive compensation in Japanese...

This study investigates the effect of managerial discretion over their initial earnings forecasts on future performance. First, by estimating the discretionary portion of initial management earnings forecasts (defined as discretionary forecasts) based on the findings of fundamental analysis...

This paper examines the differences in accrual-based and real earnings management across countries from the perspective of investor protection. Following prior research (Leuz et al., 2003), we hypothesize that accrual-based earnings management is more constrained by strict discipline in...

This paper investigates if the level of financial development influences accrual-based and real earnings management in an international setting. It is likely that financial development heightens the monitoring and scrutiny of accounting figures, because of strengthened laws and regulations for...

This study examines the association among abnormal accruals, long-term stock returns, and probability of informed trading. Some analytical and empirical research for postearnings announcement drift provide evidence that a high arrival rate of informed traders helps stock prices become more...

This study investigates the relationship between dirty surplus items on the balance sheet and the cost of debt for Japanese firms. We focus on three dirty surplus items-unrealized gains and losses on available-for-sale securities (SEC), foreign currency translation adjustment (FOC), and land...