臺大管理論叢 NTU Management Review VOL.30 NO.2

71 DOI:10.6226/NTUMR.202008_30(2).0003 美國證管會鬆綁外國公司編制調節表對採用 IFRS 或 U.S.GAAP 公司之盈餘管理策略的影響 The Effects of Relaxing the Reconciliation Requirement in Foreign Private Issuers’ SEC Filings on Earnings Management Strategies: IFRS Adopters versus U.S. GAAP Adopters NTU Management Review Vol. 30 No. 2 Aug. 2020, 71-134 專刊主編：黃華瑋教授 Abstract We investigate the earnings management potential of allowing non-U.S. cross-listed firms to choose International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) reporting following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) elimination of the IFRS-to-U.S.-GAAP reconciliation requirement in 2007. We also investigate whether differences exist between earnings management strategies for firms whose filing choice is most likely attributable to the SEC’s regulatory change (i.e., firms that switched to IFRS voluntarily from local standards after the elimination) and those for firms that adopted U.S. GAAP voluntarily after the elimination. We find evidence of simultaneity and substitution between discretionary accruals and real activities manipulation (i.e., abnormal production costs and discretionary expenditures) for the two test samples of IFRS adopters and U.S. GAAP adopters. Nevertheless, in contrast to strategies for voluntary IFRS adopters after the elimination, our findings from additional analyses reveal that simultaneous (before the balance sheet date) and sequential (after the balance sheet date) decision processes (i.e., recognizing discretionary accruals and real activities manipulation in order to achieve expected earnings targets) co-exist in firms voluntarily adopting IFRS prior to the regulatory change, and that mandatory IFRS adopters do not manage earnings through discretionary accruals and discretional expenditures simultaneously. We also provide evidence that executives’ reporting incentives, which include “big bath”, income smoothing, and debt covenant restrictions, appear to affect the trade-off decision between discretionary accruals and real activities manipulation. However, the existence and tightness of accounting-based debt covenants seem to play a minor role in this decision for firms that switched to IFRS voluntarily after the elimination. Our empirical results underscore the importance of incorporating reporting incentives and earnings management strategies when examining the effects of regulatory changes in accounting standards. 【 Keywords 】 discretionary accruals, real activities manipulation, reconciliation requirement Chia-Ling Chao , Department of Accounting and Information Technology, National Chung Cheng University 曹嘉玲 / 國立中正大學會計與資訊科技學系 Shwu-Min Horng , Department of Business Administration, National Chengchi University 洪叔民 / 國立政治大學企管系 Received 2017/7, Final revision received 2018/11