IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/joares/v43y2005i2p205-243.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Earnings Management through Transaction Structuring: Contingent Convertible Debt and Diluted Earnings per Share

Author

Listed:
  • CAROL MARQUARDT
  • CHRISTINE WIEDMAN

Abstract

In this article we examine whether firms structure their convertible bond transactions to manage diluted earnings per share (EPS). We find that the likelihood of firms issuing contingent convertible bonds (COCOs), which are often excluded from diluted EPS calculations under Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (SFAS) 128, is significantly associated with the reduction that would occur in diluted EPS if the bonds were traditionally structured. We also document that firms' use of EPS‐based compensation contracts significantly affects the likelihood of COCO issuance and find weak evidence that reputation costs, measured using earnings restatement data, play a role in the structuring decision. These results are robust to controlling for alternative motivations for issuing COCOs, including tax and dilution arguments. In addition, an examination of announcement returns reveals that investors view the net benefits and costs of COCOs as offsetting one another. Our results contribute to the literature on earnings management, diluted EPS, financial reporting costs, and financial innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Carol Marquardt & Christine Wiedman, 2005. "Earnings Management through Transaction Structuring: Contingent Convertible Debt and Diluted Earnings per Share," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 205-243, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:43:y:2005:i:2:p:205-243
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-679x.2005.00168.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-679x.2005.00168.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-679x.2005.00168.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rastad, Mahdi, 2016. "Capital structure pre-balancing: Evidence from convertible bonds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 43-65.
    2. Lewis, Craig & Verwijmeren, Patrick, 2014. "Cash-settled convertible bonds and the value relevance of their accounting treatment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 101-111.
    3. Warrick van Zyl & Enrico Uliana, 2022. "Fixing diluted earnings per share: Recognising the dilutive effects of employee stock options," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2993-3019, June.
    4. de Jong, Abe & Dutordoir, Marie & Verwijmeren, Patrick, 2011. "Why do convertible issuers simultaneously repurchase stock? An arbitrage-based explanation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 113-129, April.
    5. Elizabeth A. Gordon & Elaine Henry & Bjorn N. Jorgensen & Cheryl L. Linthicum, 2017. "Flexibility in cash-flow classification under IFRS: determinants and consequences," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 839-872, June.
    6. Kim, Byung-June & Jang, Bong-Gyu, 2021. "Convertible bond valuation with regime switching," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    7. Joseph McManus, 2018. "Hubris and Unethical Decision Making: The Tragedy of the Uncommon," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 169-185, April.
    8. Elizabeth A. Gordon & Elaine Henry & Bjorn N. Jorgensen & Cheryl L. Linthicum, 2013. "Flexibility in Cash Flow Reporting Classification Choices under IFRS," Working Papers 0199acc, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    9. Li, Xiaoyang & Lin, Shannon & Tucker, Alan L., 2016. "The curious case of converts," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-17.
    10. Dean Hanlon, 2019. "Mandatory accounting change and debt covenant violation: Additional evidence from SFAS 150," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 44(3), pages 355-387, August.
    11. Neil Fargher & Baljit K. Sidhu & Ann Tarca & Warrick van Zyl, 2019. "Accounting for financial instruments with characteristics of debt and equity: finding a way forward," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(1), pages 7-58, March.
    12. Henderson, Brian J. & Zhao, Bo, 2014. "More than meets the eye: Convertible bond issuers' concurrent transactions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 57-79.
    13. Gilliam, Thomas A. & Heflin, Frank & Paterson, Jeffrey S., 2015. "Evidence that the zero-earnings discontinuity has disappeared," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 117-132.
    14. Dutordoir, Marie & Lewis, Craig & Seward, James & Veld, Chris, 2014. "What we do and do not know about convertible bond financing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 3-20.
    15. Marie Dutordoir & Patrick Verwijmeren, 2008. "Why do Convertible Issuers simultaneously Repurchase Stock? An Arbitrage-based Explanation," Working Papers 0802, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, revised Feb 2008.
    16. Jaworski, Piotr & Liberadzki, Kamil & Liberadzki, Marcin, 2017. "How does issuing contingent convertible bonds improve bank's solvency? A Value-at-Risk and Expected Shortfall approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 162-168.
    17. Mary E. Barth & Javier Gomez-Biscarri & Ron Kasznik & Germán López-Espinosa, 2012. "Fair Value Accounting, Earnings Management and the use of Available-for-Sale Instruments by Bank Managers," Faculty Working Papers 05/12, School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Navarra.
    18. Bhagat, Sanjai & Bolton, Brian, 2008. "Corporate governance and firm performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 257-273, June.
    19. Lewis, Craig M. & Verwijmeren, Patrick, 2011. "Convertible security design and contract innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 809-831, September.
    20. Hassanein, Ahmed & Hussainey, Khaled, 2015. "Is forward-looking financial disclosure really informative? Evidence from UK narrative statements," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 52-61.
    21. Philippe Oster, 2020. "Contingent Convertible bond literature review: making everything and nothing possible?," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(4), pages 343-381, December.
    22. Stephen V. Brown & Jennifer Wu Tucker, 2011. "Large‐Sample Evidence on Firms’ Year‐over‐Year MD&A Modifications," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 309-346, May.
    23. Preeti Choudhary & Shivaram Rajgopal & Mohan Venkatachalam, 2009. "Accelerated Vesting of Employee Stock Options in Anticipation of FAS 123‐R," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 105-146, March.
    24. Elyas Elyasiani & Yuan Wen & Rongrong Zhang, 2017. "Institutional Ownership And Earning Management By Bank Holding Companies," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 40(2), pages 147-178, June.
    25. Bo Zhang & Hongliu Yuan & Xiaoqiang Zhi, 2017. "ROE as a performance measure in performance-vested stock option contracts in China," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:43:y:2005:i:2:p:205-243. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-8456 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.