Earnings Management and Its Determinants: Closing Gaps in Empirical Accounting Research

In recent time a number of high-profile accounting scandals highlighted the problem of optimal allocation of savings to investment opportunities. To resolve this problem and to reduce damage caused to stakeholders of a company, it is important to understand the negative implications of earnings management and the conditions under which earnings management occurs. The study begins with the discussion of the earnings quality concept and the summary of prior evidence on the motivations for and the constraints of earnings management. The following empirical analyses shed some light on the effect of accounting standards and competing incentives on the level of earnings management.

Autorentext

The Author: Igor Goncharov was born in 1980 in St. Petersburg (Russia). After graduation from St. Petersburg State University, School of Management and University of Bremen, Master of Business Studies, he worked as a research officer at the Chair of Accounting and Control, University of Bremen. In 2005 he joined the Monopolies Commission (Germany) as a scientific assistant.

Inhalt

Contents: Earnings management and the quality of earnings - Techniques for detection of earnings management - Motivations for and constraints of earnings management - The extent of earnings management under different accounting frameworks - Earnings management when incentives compete.