基于成本收益理论视角的公司盈余管理方法选择研究

Selection of Earnings Management based on Cost-benefit Theoretical

本文基于成本收益理论,以2010-2013年沪深两市上市公司作为样本,分析了管理者如何选择盈余管理方法。研究发现:真实盈余管理的成本和应计盈余管理的水平正相关;同样,应计盈余管理的成本与真实盈余管理的水平也是正相关,说明管理者会考虑两种方法的成本孰低进行选择;管理者会根据当年已实现的真实盈余管理的结果,调整其应计盈余管理的水平,即两种盈余管理方法之间有替代关系。

It is an important issue that earnings management related to the investor protection and accounting standards, it has became an important research questions in the field of accounting and even the economy. Earnings management methods include real earnings management and accrual earnings management, the focus of the current academic research is on the economic consequences of earnings management and regulatory issue. But the problem that those managers how to trade-off between real earnings management and accrual earnings management is not in-depth done. Based on cost-benefit theory, I study how firms trade off two earnings management strategies, using a large sample of Chinese listed firms. I find that managers trade off the two earnings management methods based on their relative costs and that managers adjust the level of accrual-based earnings management according to the level of real activities manipulation realized, there are substitute relationship between the two earnings management methods.