IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eco/journ1/2012-04-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Earnings Management, Audit Quality and Legal Environment: An International Comparison

Author

Listed:
  • Mehmet nsal Memis

    (ukurova University, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences,Department of Business Administration, Adana, Turkey.)

  • Emin H seyin Cetenak

    (ukurova University, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration, Adana, Turkey.)

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between earnings management-audit quality and earnings management-legal system quality by using 1507 firms' observations from listed companies in private firms across different 8 emerging countries. Consistent with previous research, differentiation between Big 4 and non-Big 4 audit firms are used as a audit quality proxy and discretionary accruals are used to measure the earnings management. According to the results, only for Brazilian and Mexican companies, there is significant relationship between the discretionary accruals and audit quality. For the other countries there is not significant relationship. Furthermore efficiency of the legal system helps decrease earnings management incentives. Along with results, the big four auditors do not constrain the earnings management incentives in every emerging country but effective legal system does. In this analysis we used other earnings management related variables like the size of the firms, leverage, lagged ROA of the firms which have loss in the previous year and Tobin Q as control variables

Suggested Citation

  • Mehmet nsal Memis & Emin H seyin Cetenak, 2012. "Earnings Management, Audit Quality and Legal Environment: An International Comparison," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 2(4), pages 460-469.
    • Handle: RePEc:eco:journ1:2012-04-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/download/299/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijefi/article/view/299/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jenkins, David S. & Velury, Uma, 2008. "Does auditor tenure influence the reporting of conservative earnings?," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 115-132.
    2. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 2002. "Investor Protection and Corporate Valuation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(3), pages 1147-1170, June.
    3. Zingales, Luigi & Dyck, Alexander, 2002. "Private Benefits of Control: An International Comparison," CEPR Discussion Papers 3177, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Boonlert-U-Thai, Kriengkrai & Meek, Gary K. & Nabar, Sandeep, 2006. "Earnings attributes and investor-protection: International evidence," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 327-357, 012.
    5. La Porta, Rafael & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1131-1150, July.
    6. Clive Lennox, 1999. "Are large auditors more accurate than small auditors?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 217-227.
    7. Shen, Chung-Hua & Chih, Hsiang-Lin, 2005. "Investor protection, prospect theory, and earnings management: An international comparison of the banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(10), pages 2675-2697, October.
    8. Enomoto, Masahiro & Kimura, Fumihiko & Yamaguchi, Tomoyasu, 2015. "Accrual-based and real earnings management: An international comparison for investor protection," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 183-198.
    9. Leuz, Christian & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter D., 2003. "Earnings management and investor protection: an international comparison," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 505-527, September.
    10. Boone, Jeff P. & Khurana, Inder K. & Raman, K.K., 2010. "Do the Big 4 and the Second-tier firms provide audits of similar quality?," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 330-352, July.
    11. Patricia M. Dechow & Richard G. Sloan & Amy P. Sweeney, 1996. "Causes and Consequences of Earnings Manipulation: An Analysis of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions by the SEC," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-36, March.
    12. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    13. Ball, Ray & Kothari, S. P. & Robin, Ashok, 2000. "Corrigendum to "The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings"; [Journal of Accounting and Economics 29 (2000) 1-51]," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 241-241, October.
    14. Paul Hribar & D. Craig Nichols, 2007. "The Use of Unsigned Earnings Quality Measures in Tests of Earnings Management," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 1017-1053, December.
    15. Stijn Claessens & Simeon Djankov & Joseph P. H. Fan & Larry H. P. Lang, 2002. "Disentangling the Incentive and Entrenchment Effects of Large Shareholdings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2741-2771, December.
    16. Brenda Van Tendeloo & Ann Vanstraelen, 2008. "Earnings Management and Audit Quality in Europe: Evidence from the Private Client Segment Market," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 447-469.
    17. Bartov, Eli & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Tsui, J.S.L.Judy S. L., 2000. "Discretionary-accruals models and audit qualifications," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 421-452, December.
    18. Ball, Ray & Kothari, S. P. & Robin, Ashok, 2000. "The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-51, February.
    19. Subramanyam, K. R., 1996. "The pricing of discretionary accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-3), pages 249-281, October.
    20. Steven Maijoor & Ann Vanstraelen, 2006. "Earnings management within Europe: the effects of member state audit environment, audit firm quality and international capital markets," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 33-52.
    21. Ronald A. Davidson & Dean Neu, 1993. "A Note on the Association between Audit Firm Size and Audit Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 479-488, March.
    22. Dye, Ronald A, 1993. "Auditing Standards, Legal Liability, and Auditor Wealth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(5), pages 887-914, October.
    23. Jerry Sun & Guoping Liu, 2011. "Client-specific litigation risk and audit quality differentiation," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 26(4), pages 300-316, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Chi Duong Thi, 2023. "Audit Quality, Institutional Environments, and Earnings Management: An Empirical Analysis of New Listings," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.
    2. Sayaf Algrady & Xie Xiaojun, 2022. "Influential Factors Affecting Earnings Management in Public Listed Companies: A Conceptual Model," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 12(2), pages 1-10, March.
    3. Ahmad Ibrahim Karajeh & Mohd Yussoff B. Ibrahim, 2017. "Impact of Audit Committee on the Association Between Financial Reporting Quality and Shareholder Value," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(3), pages 14-19.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Masahiro Enomoto, 2018. "Cross-Country Research on Earnings Quality: A Literature Review and Future Opportunities," Discussion Paper Series DP2018-06, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Oct 2020.
    2. Marra, Antonio & Mazzola, Pietro & Prencipe, Annalisa, 2011. "Board Monitoring and Earnings Management Pre- and Post-IFRS," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 205-230, June.
    3. Wil Martens & Prem Yapa & Maryam Safari, 2021. "Earnings Management in Frontier Market: Do Institutional Settings Matter?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, February.
    4. Ugur Lel, 2019. "The role of foreign institutional investors in restraining earnings management activities across countries," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(6), pages 895-922, August.
    5. Oz, Ibrahim Onur & Yelkenci, Tezer, 2018. "Examination of real and accrual earnings management: A cross-country analysis of legal origin under IFRS," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 24-37.
    6. Susana Callao & José I. Jarne & David Wróblewski, 2019. "A New Perspective on Earnings Management in Emerging European Countries: Investigation on Environmental Factors that Explain Differences in Earnings Management," Journal of Accounting, Business and Finance Research, Scientific Publishing Institute, vol. 7(2), pages 59-81.
    7. J�rgen Ernstberger & Michael Stich & Oliver Vogler, 2012. "Economic Consequences of Accounting Enforcement Reforms: The Case of Germany," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 217-251, August.
    8. Reiner Quick & Niklas Schenk & Florian Schmidt & Thilo Towara, 2018. "The impact of corporate governance on auditor choice: evidence from Germany," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(2), pages 251-283, June.
    9. Belén Gill de Albornoz Noguer & Simona Rusanescu, 2017. "Foreign ownership and financial reporting quality in private subsidiaries," Working Papers. Serie EC 2017-02, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    10. Persakis, Anthony & Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2016. "Audit quality, investor protection and earnings management during the financial crisis of 2008: An international perspective," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 73-101.
    11. Ferrer García, Cristina & Laínez Gadea, José Antonio, 2013. "Detectando diferencias en la medición de la calidad del resultado: evidencia empírica para empresas españolas || Detecting Differences on the Earnings Quality Measurement: Empirical Evidence on Spanis," Revista de Métodos Cuantitativos para la Economía y la Empresa = Journal of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, vol. 16(1), pages 5-28, December.
    12. Kanagaretnam, Kiridaran & Lim, Chee Yeow & Lobo, Gerald J., 2014. "Effects of international institutional factors on earnings quality of banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 87-106.
    13. Giuseppe Iuliano & Gaetano Matonti, 2015. "Do big 4 audit companies detect earnings management and report it in the audit opinion? Empirical evidence from italian non-listed firms," ESPERIENZE D'IMPRESA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(2), pages 5-43.
    14. Chi, Wuchun & Wang, Chenchin, 2010. "Accounting conservatism in a setting of Information Asymmetry between majority and minority shareholders," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 465-489, December.
    15. Charles Piot & Alain Schatt, 2010. "La réglementation de l’audit est-elle dans l’intérêt public:quelques enseignements du modèle français," Working Papers CREGO 1100606, Université de Bourgogne - CREGO EA7317 Centre de recherches en gestion des organisations.
    16. Pierre Bonetti & Antonio Parbonetti & Michel Magnan, 2013. "The Influence of Country- and Firm-Level Governance on Financial Reporting Quality: Revisiting the Evidence," CIRANO Working Papers 2013s-03, CIRANO.
    17. Houqe, Muhammad Nurul & van Zijl, Tony & Dunstan, Keitha & Karim, A.K.M. Waresul, 2012. "The Effect of IFRS Adoption and Investor Protection on Earnings Quality Around the World," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 333-355.
    18. Yasean A. Tahat & Ahmed H. Ahmed & David Power, 2022. "Earnings quality and investment efficiency: the role of the institutional settings," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1277-1306, April.
    19. Sha, Yezhou & Qiao, Lu & Li, Suyang & Bu, Ziwen, 2021. "Political freedom and earnings management," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    20. Uribe-Bohorquez, María-Victoria & Martínez-Ferrero, Jennifer & García-Sánchez, Isabel-María, 2018. "Board independence and firm performance: The moderating effect of institutional context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 28-43.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Audit Quality; Earnings Management; Legal Enforcement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M42 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Auditing
    • M48 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    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:eco:journ1:2012-04-8. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Ilhan Ozturk (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.econjournals.com .

    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.