내부회계관리제도 모범규준시행에 따른 이익조정변화 검증

This study examines whether the level of earnings management(EM) has changed after the enforcement of internal accounting control system(IACS) standards established by the Korea Listed Firms Association, introduced as one of accounting reforms. It also tests whether there is significant EM differences between adopters of IACS standards and non-adopters. The effectiveness of IACS standards enforcement was tested using a sample of listed large firms that were required to adopt IACS standards since 2006 and listed small and medium firms as non-adopters. Absolute value of discretionary accruals, which was estimated by modified Jones model and performance matched model, was used as a proxy for EM. Hypothesis that there is EM change before and after the adoption of IACS standards by large firms was tested using multi-regression models. It was found that the level of EM has significantly reduced after the enforcement of standards for IACS standards adopters, while the level of EM has not significantly changed for not-adopters. It was also found that there were significant differences between adopters and non-adopters after the enforcement of IACS standards. Other independent variables such as operating cash flows, size, debt ratio, time trend, and stock market variable also turned out to have a significant relationship with EM. The results of this study imply that the reliability and the transparency of Korean firms' financial statements is improved by the enforcement of IACS standards as it reduces earnings management by firms. This provides initial empirical evidence on the effectiveness of IACS standards enforced since 2006.