IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reaccs/v23y2018i3d10.1007_s11142-018-9454-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Opportunistic financial reporting around municipal bond issues

Author

Listed:
  • Amanda W. Beck

    (Georgia State University)

Abstract

Understanding how government officials exercise discretion over financial reporting is essential for citizens, regulators, and researchers to interpret and monitor financial performance. I examine two measures of discretion in governmental financial statements: abnormal accruals in full accrual financial statements, and other financing sources and uses in modified accrual financial statements. Using a unique dataset of hand-collected financial data from California, I document empirically that municipal governments pursue a break-even income in both sets of financial statements, and that they focus particularly on avoiding deficits. Further, I find evidence that municipalities employ discretionary accruals but not other financing sources and uses to a greater extent before issuing bonds. Prior to bond issuance, officials facing deficits use less discretion. The results highlight the multidimensional and sometimes conflicting incentives government officials face, and the reporting strategies they use as they weigh the expected costs and benefits of using accounting gimmicks to report favorable bottom lines.

Suggested Citation

  • Amanda W. Beck, 2018. "Opportunistic financial reporting around municipal bond issues," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 785-826, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reaccs:v:23:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s11142-018-9454-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11142-018-9454-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11142-018-9454-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11142-018-9454-2?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
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Naughton, James & Petacchi, Reining & Weber, Joseph, 2015. "Public pension accounting rules and economic outcomes," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 221-241.
    2. Boochun Jung & Naomi Soderstrom & Yanhua Sunny Yang, 2013. "Earnings Smoothing Activities of Firms to Manage Credit Ratings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 645-676, June.
    3. Eaton, Tim V. & Nofsinger, John R., 2004. "The effect of financial constraints and political pressure on the management of public pension plans," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 161-189.
    4. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Agency Problems and Residual Claims," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 327-349, June.
    5. Yixin Liu & Yixi Ning & Wallace N. Davidson III, 2010. "Earnings Management Surrounding New Debt Issues," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 659-681, August.
    6. Bartov, Eli & Givoly, Dan & Hayn, Carla, 2002. "The rewards to meeting or beating earnings expectations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 173-204, June.
    7. Giroux, Gary & McLelland, Andrew J., 2003. "Governance structures and accounting at large municipalities," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 203-230.
    8. Robyn Pilcher, 2011. "Local governmental management of discretionary and specific accruals," International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(1/2), pages 32-60.
    9. Robbins, Wa & Austin, Kr, 1986. "Disclosure Quality In Governmental Financial Reports - An Assessment Of The Appropriateness Of A Compound Measure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 412-421.
    10. Alissa, Walid & Bonsall, Samuel B. & Koharki, Kevin & Penn, Michael W., 2013. "Firms' use of accounting discretion to influence their credit ratings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 129-147.
    11. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    12. Crabtree, Aaron & Maher, John J. & Wan, Huishan, 2014. "New debt issues and earnings management," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 116-127.
    13. Ranjani Krishnan & Michelle H. Yetman, 2011. "Institutional Drivers of Reporting Decisions in Nonprofit Hospitals," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 1001-1039, September.
    14. Zimmerman, Jl, 1977. "Municipal Accounting Maze - Analysis Of Political Incentives," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15, pages 107-155.
    15. James Jiambalvo & Shivaram Rajgopal & Mohan Venkatachalam, 2002. "Institutional Ownership and the Extent to which Stock Prices Reflect Future Earnings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 117-145, March.
    16. William Baber & Pradyot Sen, 1986. "The political process and the use of debt financing by state governments," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 201-215, January.
    17. Stephen P. Davies & Laurence E. Johnson & Suzanne Lowensohn, 2017. "Ambient Influences on Municipal Net Assets: Evidence from Panel Data," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(2), pages 1156-1177, June.
    18. Nolan Kido & Reining Petacchi & Joseph Weber, 2012. "The Influence of Elections on the Accounting Choices of Governmental Entities," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 443-476, May.
    19. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    20. Gore, Angela K., 2004. "The effects of GAAP regulation and bond market interaction on local government disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 23-52.
    21. Augusta Ferreira & João Carvalho & Fátima Pinho, 2013. "Earnings Management Around Zero: A motivation to local politician signalling competence," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(5), pages 657-686, June.
    22. Wescott, Sh, 1984. "Accounting Numbers And Socioeconomic Variables As Predictors Of Municipal General Obligation Bond Ratings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 412-423.
    23. Ingram, Rw & Copeland, Rm, 1982. "Municipal Market Measures And Reporting Practices - An Extension," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 766-772.
    24. Carol A. Marquardt & Christine I. Wiedman, 2004. "How Are Earnings Managed? An Examination of Specific Accruals," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 461-491, June.
    25. Beck, Amanda W. & Stone, Mary S., 2017. "Why municipalities fail: Implications for uncertainty disclosures," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-9.
    26. Brian Vansant, 2016. "Institutional Pressures to Provide Social Benefits and the Earnings Management Behavior of Nonprofits: Evidence from the U.S. Hospital Industry," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(4), pages 1576-1600, December.
    27. Walid M. Alissa & Samuel B. Bonsall Iv & Kevin Koharki & Michael W. Penn Jr., 2013. "Firms' use of accounting discretion to influence their credit ratings," Post-Print hal-01069190, HAL.
    28. Hansen, James C., 2010. "The effect of alternative goals on earnings management studies: An earnings benchmark examination," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 459-480, September.
    29. Paul Hribar & Daniel W. Collins, 2002. "Errors in Estimating Accruals: Implications for Empirical Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 105-134, March.
    30. Wallace, Wa, 1981. "The Association Between Municipal Market Measures And Selected Financial-Reporting Practices," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 502-520.
    31. DeFond, Mark L. & Jiambalvo, James, 1994. "Debt covenant violation and manipulation of accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 145-176, January.
    32. J. Christiaens & C. Vanhee & F. Manes-Rossi & N. Aversano, 2013. "The Effect of IPSAS on Reforming Governmental Financial Reporting: an International Comparison," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 13/845, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    33. Leone, Andrew J. & Van Horn, R. Lawrence, 2005. "How do nonprofit hospitals manage earnings?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 815-837, July.
    34. Cuny, Christine, 2016. "Voluntary disclosure incentives: Evidence from the municipal bond market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 87-102.
    35. Maria Jose Arcas & Caridad Martí, 2016. "Financial Performance Adjustment in English Local Governments," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 26(2), pages 141-152, June.
    36. Copeland, Ronald M. & Ingram, Robert W., 1983. "Municipal bond market recognition of pension reporting practices," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 147-165.
    37. Cheng, Rita Hartung, 1992. "An empirical analysis of theories on factors influencing state government accounting disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-42.
    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. Pierre Donatella & Torbjörn Tagesson, 2021. "CFO characteristics and opportunistic accounting choice in public sector organizations," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(2), pages 509-534, June.
    2. Cheng, Stephanie F. & De Franco, Gus & Lin, Pengkai, 2023. "Marijuana liberalization and public finance: A capital market perspective on the passage of medical use laws," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1).
    3. Bagchi, Sutirtha & Naughton, James P., 2021. "Public-sector pension plans and the discount rate assumption: The role of political incentives," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    4. Stephanie F. Cheng, 2021. "The Information Externality of Public Firms’ Financial Information in the State‐Bond Secondary Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 529-574, May.
    5. Amanda Beck & Collin Gilstrap & Jordan Rippy & Brian Vansant, 2021. "Strategic reporting by nonprofit hospitals: an examination of bad debt and charity care," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 933-970, September.
    6. Vladan Pavlovic & Goranka Knezevic & Radica Bojicic, 2022. "The Impact of Gender and Age on Earnings Management Practices of Public Enterprises – A Case Study of Belgrade," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 130-148.
    7. Johnathon Cziffra & Steve Fortin & Zvi Singer, 2023. "Differences in government accounting conservatism across jurisdictions, their determinants, and consequences: the case of Canada and the United States," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 1035-1073, June.
    8. Dambra, Michael & Even-Tov, Omri & Naughton, James P., 2023. "The economic consequences of GASB financial statement disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2).
    9. Christine Cuny & Jungbae Kim & Mihir N. Mehta, 2020. "Politically Connected Governments," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 915-952, September.

    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. Crabtree, Aaron & Maher, John J. & Wan, Huishan, 2014. "New debt issues and earnings management," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 116-127.
    2. Anessi-Pessina, Eugenio & Steccolini, Ileana, 2024. "Do conformity and bailouts affect misreporting? The case of public health-care organisations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    3. Stephanie F. Cheng, 2021. "The Information Externality of Public Firms’ Financial Information in the State‐Bond Secondary Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 529-574, May.
    4. Peter Demerjian & John Donovan & Melissa F. Lewis‐Western, 2020. "Income Smoothing and the Usefulness of Earnings for Monitoring in Debt Contracting," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 857-884, June.
    5. Maria Jose Arcas & Caridad Martí, 2016. "Financial Performance Adjustment in English Local Governments," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 26(2), pages 141-152, June.
    6. Yu Flora Kuang, 2008. "Performance‐vested Stock Options and Earnings Management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9‐10), pages 1049-1078, November.
    7. Margaret J. Greenwood & Richard M. Baylis & Lei Tao, 2017. "Regulatory incentives and financial reporting quality in public healthcare organisations," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 831-855, November.
    8. Antonia Botsari & Geoff Meeks, 2008. "Do Acquirers Manage Earnings Prior to a Share for Share Bid?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5‐6), pages 633-670, June.
    9. Frost, Carol Ann & Guragai, Binod & Rapley, Eric T., 2017. "Differences in responses to accounting-based and market-based benchmarks – Evidence from Nasdaq," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 46-62.
    10. Dung Viet Tran & M. Kabir Hassan & Reza Houston, 2020. "Discretionary loan loss provision behavior in the US banking industry," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 605-645, August.
    11. Ioannis Dokas & Christos Leontidis & Nicolaos Eriotis & Konstantinos Hazakis, 2021. "Earnings Management. An overview of the relative literature," Bulletin of Applied Economics, Risk Market Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 25-55.
    12. Nolan Kido & Reining Petacchi & Joseph Weber, 2012. "The Influence of Elections on the Accounting Choices of Governmental Entities," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 443-476, May.
    13. Jorge Farinha & Luis Filipe Viana, 2006. "Board structure and modified audit opinions: the case of the Portuguese Stock Exchange," CEF.UP Working Papers 0609, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    14. Tsipouridou, Maria & Spathis, Charalambos, 2014. "Audit opinion and earnings management: Evidence from Greece," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 38-54.
    15. Sven Hartlieb & Thomas R. Loy, 2022. "The impact of cost stickiness on financial reporting: evidence from income smoothing," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 3913-3950, September.
    16. Florian Kiy & Theresa Zick, 2020. "Effects of declining bank health on borrowers’ earnings quality: evidence from the European sovereign debt crisis," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 90(4), pages 615-673, May.
    17. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    18. Hazarika, Sonali & Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Nahata, Rajarishi, 2012. "Internal corporate governance, CEO turnover, and earnings management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 44-69.
    19. Bruce K. Bennett & Michael E. Bradbury, 2010. "An analysis of the reasons for the asymmetries surrounding earnings benchmarks," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(3), pages 529-554, September.
    20. Eliza Xia Zhang, 2020. "The impact of cash flow management versus accruals management on credit rating performance and usage," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1163-1193, May.

    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:spr:reaccs:v:23:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s11142-018-9454-2. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.