Address the questions: Why earnings are so important that firms feel compelled to manipulate them? What is earnings management? What set of circumstances will induce earnings management? And how will the interaction among management, boards of directors, investors, employees, suppliers,...

1 Overview (Kunio Ito). Part 1 Earnings Attributes and Corporate Behavior -- 2 What do Smoothed Earnings Tell Us about the Future? (Yusuke Takasu and Makoto Nakano) -- 3 The Effect of Accounting Conservatism on Corporate Investment Behavior (Souhei Ishida and Kunio Ito) -- 4 Matching expenses...