دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی کیفیت درآمد ها در شرکت های خصوصی کوچک و متوسط - وایلی 2017

This study investigates the impact of CEO demographics on earnings quality for private SMEs. Using a 2012 sample of 30,476 French firms, we first find strong empirical support for a gender effect: female-run firms engage in less earnings management than do male-run firms. This result is consistent with female CEOs being more risk averse than their male counterparts are when making financial decisions. Second, CEO age is negatively correlated with the magnitude of discretionary accruals, and the relationship between gender and earnings quality is stronger for older CEOs. Overall, our findings suggest that CEO demographics affect the quality of accounting information.

Discussion

Overview

This study provides a first analysis of the impact of CEO demographics on the magnitude of earnings management for private SMEs. Using a 2012 sample of 30,476 French private companies, we show that regardless of the accrual model, firms run by female CEOs significantly engage in less earnings management than do firms run by male CEOs. We also highlight a more general effect of the feminization of the executive committee on earnings quality. In investigating the influence of CEO age, we first observe that it is negatively correlated with the magnitude of accruals. Moreover, both CEO age and gender appear as significant determinants of the propensity to engage in earnings management. A deeper analysis of age-gender interactions yields certain notable findings: in particular, although older female CEOs have a significantly lower propensity to manage earnings than their male counterparts, the accounting behavior of younger male and female CEOs appears to be more homogenous.

We complement the existing evidence of the impact of top management demographics on earnings management. The closest papers are Barua et al. (2010) and Liu, Wei, and Xie (2016), which rely on U.S. and Chinese public companies, respectively, and show that firms with female CFOs report lower discretionary accruals. Their research setting is relevant to the extent that CFOs’ risk preferences (more than those of CEOs) have been shown to affect decisions concerning accruals in listed firms (Chava and Purnanandam 2010).