The role of earnings management in the relationship between accruals and market value

Abstract

The paper aims to clarify the role of earnings management in the relationship between accruals and the market value of companies. Previous studies suggest that some managers, for providing a desirable image of their performance, manage their profits through distorting cash or accruals. Consequently, investors rely on this information and estimate inaccurate stability of accruals which lead to mispricing phenomenon. Finally, the returns earned by the investors will not be equal to the expected return and thus the accrual anomaly will be created.To this aim, two hypotheses were developed and three regression models were applied to analyze the data. To analyze and estimate the models employed, the financial information of 110 companies listed on the stock exchange between years 2008 to 2014 is used. A selective approach to test the hypotheses is studying cross-sectional data.After conducting statistical tests, the results showed that discretionary accruals through which earnings management is done are improperly valued by the market, but the issue is not applicable regarding the non-discretionary accruals. Based on the close relationship between earnings management and discretionary accruals it can be found that earnings management can have an effect on the relationship between accruals and market value.