Earnings management
Part of a series on |
Accounting |
---|
Earnings management, in
Earnings management has a negative effect on
Occurrence and response by regulators
Earnings management is believed to be widespread. A 1990 report on earnings management situations stated that "short-term earnings are being managed in many, if not all companies",
The SEC has criticized earnings management as having adverse consequences for financial reporting, and for masking "the true consequences of management's decisions".
Motivations and methods
"Increasingly, I have become concerned that the motivation to meet Wall Street earnings expectations may be overriding common sense business practices. Too many corporate managers, auditors, and analysts are participants in a game of nods and winks. In the zeal to satisfy consensus earnings estimates and project a smooth earnings path, wishful thinking may be winning the day over faithful representation."[5] |
—Arthur Levitt, in a speech to the NYU Center for Law and Business, 28 September 1998. |
Earnings management involves the manipulation of company earnings towards a pre-determined target. This target can be motivated by a preference for more stable earnings, in which case management is said to be carrying out income smoothing.[6] Opportunistic income smoothing can in turn signal lower risk and increase a firm's market value.[11] Other possible motivations for earnings management include the need to maintain the levels of certain accounting ratios due to debt covenants, and the pressure to maintain increasing earnings and to beat analyst targets.[12]
Earnings management may involve exploiting opportunities to make accounting decisions that change the earnings figure reported on the
Detecting earnings management
Earnings management may be difficult for individual investors to detect due to the complexity of accounting rules,
Further reading
- Vladu, A. B., Amat, O., & Cuzdriorean, D. D. (2014). Truthfulness in accounting: How to discriminate accounting manipulators from non-manipulators, Economics Working Papers 1434, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
References
- ^ Schipper, Katherine. 1989. “Commentary on Earnings Management.” Accounting Horizons (December): 91–102.
- ^ Healy, Paul M., and James Wong. Wahlen. 1999. “A Review of the Earnings Management Literature and Its Implications for Standard Setting.” Accounting Horizons 13 (4): 365–383.
- ^ a b Akers, Michael D.; Giacomino, Don E.; Bellovary, Jodi L. "Earnings Management and Its Implications: Educating the Accounting Profession". The CPA Journal. The New York State Society of CPAs. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ^ a b Munter, Paul (1999). "SEC Sharply Criticizes "Earnings Management" Accounting" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 September 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ^ a b c d "Remarks by Chairman Arthur Levitt". SEC. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ^ a b c "What is earnings management?". Investopedia. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- .
- ^ "Improper revenue recognition tops SEC fraud cases".
- ^ "SEC Charges Former Chief Accounting Officer of Beazer Homes for Fraudulent Earnings Management Scheme". SEC. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- ^ "COMMISSION CHARGES TWO FORMER BRISTOL-MYERS OFFICERS FOR FRAUDULENT EARNINGS MANAGEMENT SCHEME". SEC. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- .
- )
- ^ Weil, Roman L. "Quality of Earnings and Earnings Management: A Primer for Audit Committee Members" (PDF). AICPA. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
- . Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- S2CID 154999202. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- .
- .
- S2CID 27832619.