Accrual management and the decision to sell or hold shares acquired from the exercise of employee stock options

This study extends the employee stock option literature by examining the impact of accrual management, before and after stock option exercise, on the timing of sales of shares acquired at exercise. We find evidence that accrual management prior to exercise is positively associated with the decision to quickly sell shares after exercise, facilitating a short-term exercise-and-sell strategy. Alternatively, we find that, among executives initially choosing to hold at exercise, tax incentives appear to drive both post-exercise accrual management and the timing of sale transactions. Specifically, our results suggest that executives use income-increasing accruals during the holding period to bolster their stock option gains sand then sell immediately after satisfying the minimum (twelve month) holding period for long-term capital gain treatment. These results provide context for prior research that found evidence of earnings management leading up to option exercise on the expectation of an immediate sale.

PERBEDAAN MANAJEMEN LABA AKRUAL DAN MANAJEMEN LABA RILL SEBELUM DAN SESUDAH ADOPSI IFRS PADA PERUSAHAAN MANUFAKTUR YANG TERDAFTAR DI BEI

The purpose of this research is to examine and provide empirical evidence regarding the presence of management differences actual benefit before and after IFRS adopstion which is measured by using jones models modification and the differences of management real benefit through the expense of production. The adopstion of IFRS which is done by many countries be able to increase the benefit of quality management and the punctuality of accountancy information.Samples of this research are 78 manufactur campanies which are listed in BEI since 2010-2011 dan 2013-2014 which 293 data. The result of this research indicates that there is not differences between the benefit of accrual management before and after IFRS adoption , but there is differentiation of real benefit management before and after IFRS adopstion.

Accrual management as an indication of money laundering through legally registered Mafia firms in Italy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how accounting is used to disguise and carry out money laundering activities in specific socio-economic and political contexts and whether discretionary accruals can provide evidence of such illicit practices performed through legally registered Mafia firms (LMFs). Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a sample of 224 Italian firms identified as LMFs, due to having been confiscated by judicial authorities because of their owners being accused of Mafia-type association. Using a multivariate regression model, specifically developed discretionary accrual proxies for LMFs are compared with those of a population of lawful firms (LWFs). Findings The results reveal that in the pre-confiscation years, LMFs manage aggregate, revenue and expense accruals more than LWFs do, in order to smooth earnings and disguise/carry out money laundering. In contrast, in the post-confiscation years, there is no significant difference in the level of accrual management between LMFs and LWFs, as a consequence of the effective intervention of legal administrators. Originality/value This study adopts discretionary revenue and expense accrual proxies that provide additional insight into the simultaneous manipulation of revenues and expenses, linked to money laundering, which may not be fully detected by traditional aggregate accrual models. Furthermore, it suggests that the incentive for LMFs to manage accruals may be fostered by the irrelevance of their financial statements to trades with stakeholders. Finally, this paper may provide regulators with financial accounting signals which could be included in risk assessment models aiming to detect money laundering activities within firms.

Do Firms Manage Earnings to Influence Credit Ratings? Evidence from Negative Credit Watch Resolutions

ABSTRACT We investigate whether issuers on negative credit watch manage earnings upward and whether such earnings management favorably influences the watch resolution. We find that rating, industry, and performance matched discretionary accruals reported during negative watch are significantly higher than their respective pre- and post-watch levels, after controlling for accrual reversal. Consistent with its opportunistic nature, we find that accrual management increases with issuers' incentives to avoid downgrade, and decreases with their earnings management constraints and the strength of the external monitoring. Surprisingly, such accrual management significantly increases the likelihood of a favorable resolution—issuers in the top half of the discretionary accruals distribution are 24 percent less likely to be downgraded than those in the propensity score matched bottom half. We find that issuers that avoid downgrades through income-increasing accrual management significantly underperform those that do not over the ensuing year, mitigating the signaling or measurement error explanations for our results. Finally, we find that accrual management does not reflect attempts to improve short-term credit quality. JEL Classifications: M41; G29; G38.

Classification Shifting in the Income-Decreasing Discretionary Accrual Firms

This study investigates whether managers use classification shifting to classify operating expenses as non-operating. Using a methodology similar to McVay (2006), I find no evidence of classification shifting between operating and non-operating expenses. However, I find evidence that managers classify operating expenses as non-operating in the absence of income decreasing accrual management. This finding can be explained that income-decreasing accrual management both affects operating and non-operating expenses and measuring classification shifting without considering discretionary accrual management produces meaningless results.

The impact of idiosyncratic risk on accrual management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to add an important new dimension to the earnings management literature by establishing a link between idiosyncratic risk and the degree of accrual management. Design/methodology/approach Based on a comprehensive sample of 44,599 firm-year observations during the period spanning 1987-2009, the study offers robust empirical evidence of the importance of firm-specific idiosyncratic volatility as a determinant of earnings manipulation. The authors use standard measures of earnings management and idiosyncratic volatility. The authors test the hypotheses with robust econometrics techniques. Findings The authors document a strong positive relationship between idiosyncratic risk and accruals management. Further, the authors find a positive association between residual volatility and discretionary accruals whether accruals are income inflationary or income deflationary. The findings are robust to alternate idiosyncratic risk proxies and variables associated with earnings management. Originality/value Overall, the knowledge derived from this study provides additional tools to assess the degree of earnings management by firms, and hence the quality of the financial reporting. Thus the findings will enable standard setters, financial market regulators, analysts, and investors to make more informed legislative, regulatory, resource allocation, and investment decisions.