This paper discusses the sign of the expected measurement error in discretionary accruals (DAC) estimates when accrual models do not control for the asymmetric treatment of gains and losses underlying conservatism. I find that DAC in firms with “bad news” are expected to be understated...

This study makes two main contributions to the literature. Firstly, it tests empirically the relative timeliness of accrual measures and earnings components used as explanatory variables in accrual models (“accrual drivers”) regarding the impact of conservatism. Secondly, taking into account...

In this paper I analyze the interaction between firms’ earnings management behavior and conservatism. I predict that firms having conservatism-related bad news in the period have more pervasive earnings management than firms having good news. Departing from Burgstahler and Dichev (1997)...

In this paper I test two intuitions. First, that small private firms have incentives to undertake earnings management. Second, that firms’ financing needs are one of such incentives, constraining the sense of the income manipulation. The tax incentive is deemed to motivate firms into adopting...

Adopting the financial scandals in the United States as the background context, the current study discusses whether it would have been possible an investor medianly diligent to detect signs of the earnings manipulation underlying such scandals. It proposes an easy methodology, based on a limited...

This book fills an essential gap in the existing literature by analyzing fraud, and the weakening of ethical relations as parts of an overall global process, in an interdisciplinary, international and multidimensional perspective. It provides an in-depth analysis of fraud in its multiple facets,...