Impact of Proximity to Debt Covenant Violation on Earnings Management

Abstract

We examine the impact of differential incentives arising from proximity to debt covenant violation on earnings management. We reason that firms with loans close to violation or in technical default of their debt covenants have greater incentives to engage in earnings management than firms that are far from violating their debt covenants. We find results consistent with this expectation. Firms close to violation or in technical default of their debt covenants engage in higher levels of accounting earnings management, real earnings management, and total earnings management than far-from-violation firms. In additional analysis, we find that firms with stronger incentives to avoid covenant violation switched from using more accounting earnings management before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to using more real earnings management and more total earnings management after the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We also document that the earnings management implications of debt covenant violation are observed primarily for firms with a poor credit rating and for firms that do not meet analyst forecasts.