분기이익조정에 관한 연구 : 청산가설의 재검토

This paper conducts an empirical study on the behavior of quarterly earnings management in Korea. Some domestic prior studies find reversal pattern on quarterly earnings management and argue that it is due to liquidation effect. Instead, Some foreign prior studies show different views on the pattern of quarterly earnings management. Das et al.(2007) argue that the reversal pattern is not because of the liquidation effect but because of earnings smoothing for annual target earnings. Das et al.(2007) made a complicated experimental design for the test of quarterly earnings management pattern, but those of domestic prior studies are not complicated and rigorous, making it difficult to accept their results robust. The domestic studies calculate quarterly discretionary accruals using the (performance-matched)modified Jones Model and regression analysis to draw the relations of discretionary accruals between interim quarters and the fourth quarter. They find negative relations in the regression and interpret those relations as originated by liquidation effects. The liquidation effect implies that accounting estimations and errors made in the interim quarters are reexamined and adjusted in the fourth quarter that is the quarter for the preparation of annual financial statements audited by external auditors. Thus this paper try to reexamine the robustness of the reversal pattern and liquidation that have been suggested by prior research. We approach differently to the test of quarterly earnings management. For comparisons of quarterly discretionary accruals, we use the pooled estimation technique and the CFO models. As the result of using the CFO models, quarterly discretionary accruals turn to positive relations from negative relations(reversal). These results, as Dechow(1994) have argued, is because the CFO models eliminate the functional negative relations intrinsic between accrual and cash from operations. We judge that the reversal patterns of quarterly earnings management are the functional negative relations intrinsic between accruals and cash from operations. This finding is a counterevidence against the reversal pattern of quarterly earnings management that domestic prior research have argued. Thus this finding implicates that it may be premature to accept the reversal of quarterly earnings management as a general pattern.