Investigating the nonlinear relationship between debt structure and real and accrual-based earnings management

Abstract

Earning is one of the most important items of financial statements. Sometimes managers manipulate and distort earning reports to maximize their own benefits, reach a certain profitability level, or achieve a certain corporate objective. Firms with a low level of debt tend to have few or no restrictive clauses in their debt contracts, which allow them to operate with less concern about breaching these contracts and give less incentive to managers to engage in earning management reports through accrual manipulation. However, when firms accumulate large amounts of debt, the relationship between debt and accrual-based earnings management tends to get reversed. In firms with large debts, managers are incentivized to report good earnings as they are under pressure to avoid the penalties of violating the restrictive clauses in their debt contracts. In the absence of scientific and empirical evidence regarding this issue, the present study examined the nonlinear relationship between debt structure and real and accrual-based earnings management. For this purpose, the data pertaining to a sample of 130 firms listed on the Tehran stock exchange from 2014 to 2019 were collected and analyzed. The results of multivariate regression analysis showed a nonlinear relationship between debt structure and accrual-based earnings management. A non-linear relationship was also found between current debt structure and real earnings management. However, the results could not confirm the presence of a non-linear relationship between total debt structure and real earnings management.