상장폐지 직전 이익조정: IFRS와 K-GAAP 채택 기간 간의 시계열 비교

The purpose of this study is to compare the intensity of earnings management prior to delisting between K-GAAP and IFRS adoption period. Previous literature has pointed out that conceptually, principle-based accounting standards can deter managers from abuse of financial reporting discretion, but for practical reasons, there is also a risk that managerial discretion may be further expanded. From a similar perspective, we investigate whether companies with high risk of delisting are more motivated to manage earnings in order to avoid delisting in the period of IFRS adoption than in K-GAAP. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, after dividing the sample period into K-GAAP and IFRS periods, we measure the abnormal accruals during the 5 years prior to delisting and analyze the time series trend of abnormal accruals. As a result, in the K-GAAP period, we observe that the abnormal accruals tended to decrease as they approached the delisting time. However, we do not confirm the decreasing trend of abnormal accruals during the adoption period of IFRS. Second, We analyze whether discretionary accruals of delisted companies in the year immediately preceding delisting are different between the period of application of K-GAAP and IFRS. As a result, we confirm that the discretionary accrual of the IFRS adoption period is significantly greater than the K-GAAP adoption period. These results suggest that the motivation for earnings management just before delisting tends to increase in the period after the adoption of IFRS.