IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijaape/v17y2021i1-2p73-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The trade-off between accrual-based and real earnings management: evidence from Jordan

Author

Listed:
  • Mohammad Azzam
  • Alaa AlQudah
  • Lara Al-Haddad
  • Ayman Abu Haija

Abstract

This study examines the extent of accrual-based and real earnings management surrounding three important turning points in the Jordanian business environment. Using a sample of 1748 firm-year observations between 2002 and 2016, the results show that firms have a great tendency towards using discretionary accruals to alter their reported earnings compared with real manipulation. Indeed, the magnitude of accrual-based earnings manipulation is increased significantly in the aftermath of the issuance of listing requirements. Interestingly, accrual-based and real earnings management is decreased significantly with the passage of the corporate governance code. In relation to the Arab Spring era, no clear evidence appears that firms are engaged in earnings management to embellish their financial reports. The overall results suggest that the ability of managers to exercise their discretion over earnings depends on firms' attributes such as the quality of the governance system, regulatory requirements and the surrounding business and political environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad Azzam & Alaa AlQudah & Lara Al-Haddad & Ayman Abu Haija, 2021. "The trade-off between accrual-based and real earnings management: evidence from Jordan," International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 17(1/2), pages 73-92.
  • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijaape:v:17:y:2021:i:1/2:p:73-92
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=117574
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    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:ids:ijaape:v:17:y:2021:i:1/2:p:73-92. 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: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=41 .

    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.