원가행태의 비대칭성은 이익조정을 통해 완화되는가?

[Purpose] In the situation of sales decreasing, performance evaluation based on accounting income may be a pressure on a manager who makes a decision considering both the trend of sales and committed costs. If the manager increases accounting income by earnings management, the level of cost stickiness can be affected in consequence. This study investigates whether earnings management affects alleviation of asymmetric cost behavior for the companies which are expected to have conditions for sticky cost. [Methodology] This study analyzes the relationship between earnings management level and stickiness with samples for the period of 2007 to 2014 on the condition that they are in the first year of sales decreasing and the employees number to sales ratio and fixed assets to sales ratio are more than last year. [Findings] As a result of empirical tests, there is a negative relationship between book－tax difference (BTD) and stickiness, which means earnings management can cause decrease of stickiness level. And the results are consistent with additional tests which use unexpected earnings and incremental book－tax difference respectively as proxies for earnings management. [Implications] This study contributes to identify an additional case of earnings management with conditions in which cost stickiness is expected.