Examination of real and accrual earnings management: A cross-country analysis of legal origin under IFRS

Abstract

This study examines the impact of legal origin differences on accrual and real earnings management behaviors for 14 international financial reporting standards (IFRS) countries. Specifically, a cross-country analysis determines the effects of enforcement intensity and IFRS adoption on earnings management (EM) types, depending on code or common law origins. The results indicate that legal origin directly affects EM behaviors, whereas enforcement intensity and IFRS result in different accrual earnings management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM) behaviors depending on the different legal origins. In particular, the findings also suggest that an increase in enforcement strength may not produce similar EM results for each legal tradition, specifically for the expected shift from AEM to REM as recent studies have proposed. This study also offers evidence that IFRS represent a constraint on AEM in code law origin countries, and it highlights a constraint on REM only for common law countries when the enforcement intensity increases.