the earnings volatility of the firm's own reported fiscal year. To the extent managers use accruals to reduce annual … find that cash flow and accrual patterns for firms with high values of our smoothing measure are more consistent with … primarily driven by accruals rather than cash flows. Overall, we contribute to the literature exploring alternative explanations …

measure the pervasiveness of earnings management (PEM) using the properties of quarterly accrual volatility. The PEM index can … to mean-shifting studies in the literature, our measure based on accrual volatility yields two major advantages. First …-perspective on the overall patterns in earnings management. The methodology based on accrual volatility can address issues like the …