دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی مدیریت درآمد واقعی و عدم تقارن اطلاعات در بازار سهام - تیلور و فرانسیس 2018

Abstract

The literature suggests that real earnings management (REM) activities can increase adverse selection risk in capital markets. Due to their opacity and the difficulties in understanding their implications, REM strategies may increase the level of information asymmetry among investors. This paper examines the association between earnings management through real activities manipulation and information asymmetry in the equity market. To estimate the level of adverse selection risk we use a comprehensive index of information asymmetry measures proposed by the market microstructure literature. For a sample of Spanish listed firms, we find that firms’ strategies of increasing earnings through REM are associated with higher information asymmetry in those firms that meet last year’s earnings. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that earnings management through real activities manipulation garbles the market, enhances private information production, and exacerbates information asymmetry in the stock market.

5. Conclusion

This study examines the consequences of real activities manipulation on information asymmetry in Spain. Previous studies have examined this association basically for US markets, providing inconclusive evidence. We consider that the analysis of the Spanish market may shed new light because it exhibits a weaker investor protection, lower accounting quality and stock market liquidity, and higher incentives for investors to search for private information than US. We use 468 firm-year observations from 2001 to 2008 and an information asymmetry index built on microstructure measures such as the bid-ask spread, illiquidity measure developed in Amihud (2002), price impact introduced by Huang and Stoll (1996), PIN, and VPIN.

In line with previous literature, we find that firms with high strong incentives to engage in earnings management to just meet last year’s earnings, show higher levels of income increasing REM. Overall, our evidence on the association between REM and information asymmetry is consistent with the prediction that firms’ strategies of REM garble the market and create information asymmetry among traders. Thus, in a setting where REM measures are highly likely to indicate low earnings quality (suspect sample) we find a significant and positive association between proxies for earnings management through real activities manipulation and information asymmetry among investors. In contrast, in a setting where the empirical proxies for REM could be capturing situations rather related with business circumstances than with earnings manipulation, we find that deviations from normal activity are significantly and negatively associated with the level of information asymmetry. Thus, we show that the private information production and its influence on the level of information asymmetry in the market depend on firm’s circumstances.