We investigate whether income smoothing affects the usefulness of earnings for contracting through the monitoring role of earnings-based debt covenants. First, we examine initial contract design and predict that income smoothing will increase (decrease) the use of earnings-based covenants if...

Recent work shows that the role of accrual accounting in mitigating the timing differences between cash flows and operating performance has been disappearing over time (Bushman, Lerman, and Zhang 2016). We argue that even though there is noise in the accrual accounting process, sophisticated...

Purpose – The aim is to explore whether principles-based versus rules-based accounting standards have an effect on measures of financial reporting quality and earnings management strategies. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a firm-year-specific variable that captures the extent...

We investigate whether income smoothing affects the usefulness of earnings for contracting through the monitoring role of earnings-based debt covenants. First, we examine initial contract design and predict that income smoothing will increase (decrease) the use of earnings-based covenants if...

We explore a new mechanism of earnings management whereby a parent company shifts income from not-wholly-owned subsidiaries to itself to avoid losses. Consolidated net income attributable to the parent company increases if earnings are shifted from not-wholly-owned subsidiaries to the parent, as...

We examine the relation between the transparency of disclosures about activity in valuation allowance and reserve accounts and accruals-based earnings management. We classify disclosures as being transparent if they provide detailed information about activity in the allowance and reserve...

This study analyzes the level of earnings management in Latin America after the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and analyzes the role of cross-listing in the United States. The literature on earnings management in less developed countries is still under...

Using income smoothing and its two components – the informational component and the garbled component – we examine whether and how the time-oriented tendency embedded in languages influences corporate financial reporting decisions. Separating languages into weak- versus strong- future time...