Discretionary Accruals, Earnings Management, and Earnings Benchmarks*

Abstract

This study examines whether firms just above and just below three earnings benchmarks (loss avoidance, earnings changes, and analyst forecast) have differing levels of discretionary accruals. If discretionary accruals are a measure of earnings management, then firms above (benchmark beaters) and firms below a benchmark should have differing levels of discretionary accruals. Dechow et al. (2003) investigate a similar question for the loss avoidance benchmark (earnings levels). They find that firms just above the loss avoidance benchmark do not have discretionary accruals that are significantly different than firms just below the benchmark. However, they do not consider firms just below the loss avoidance benchmark that might be using discretionary accruals to avoid missing an alternative benchmark. I find that after I remove firms that might be using discretionary accruals to beat an alternative benchmark from the firms that just missed the loss avoidance benchmark, firms just above the benchmark have significantly higher discretionary accruals. I find similar results for the earnings changes and analyst forecast benchmarks. These findings are consistent with firms managing earnings to beat earnings benchmarks.