earticle

영어

Earnings management hides the true performance of the firm from accounting information users, such that earnings become a less reliable measure of firm performance. Prior Studies show that reported earnings are less informative to investors when the incentive to manage earnings is high and that opportunistic earnings management reduces the value relevance of accounting information. In general, the degree of earnings management is measured by discretionary accruals. Therefore, when the absolute value of discretionary accruals increases, the information risk and cost of debt financing is expected to increase. Some studies in Korea document empirically a positive association between discretionary accruals and costs of debt. They interpret the discretionary accruals increase as an increase of information uncertainty. On the other hand, according to previous research, earnings smoothing can improve earnings informative by delivering private information to capital market. In particular, Tucker and Zarowin(2006) find that a higher-smoothing firm’s future earnings are impounded in its current stock price to a larger extent than that of a lower-smoothing firm. Such results are robust after they decompose earnings into operating cash flows and accruals. Thus, they document empirically that an important effect of managers’ use of financial reporting discretion is to reveal more information about firms’ future earnings and cash flows. Furthermore, Using the Tucker-Zarowin statistic of income smoothing, Li and Richie(2009) find firms with higher earnings smoothing rankings exhibit lower cost of debt and higher credit ratings. The results support the notion that income smoothing represents information signaling. In other words, discretionary accruals related earnings smoothing is expected to improve the information environment. Consistent with these views, we investigate the control effect of earnings smoothing on the relation between discretionary accruals and cost of debt. The results are summarized as follows. First, costs of debt increases as the absolute value of discretionary accruals increases. These results can be interpreted as discretionary earnings management increases the information risk and the cost of debt financing. Second, the positive relation between costs of debt and the absolute value of discretionary accruals disappear when the level of earnings smoothing is high. These results can be interpreted as earnings smoothing reduces the information risk. As described by Tucker and Zarowin (2006), earnings smoothing would offset the information risk increased by discretionary earnings management. Such results suggest that bond buyers consider managers’ use of financial reporting discretion as a factor for the increase in accounting information risk. On a separate note, the earnings smoothing offsets the negative effects of discretionary accruals by improving the informativeness of discretionary accruals about future earnings and cash flows. Our study is expected to provide additional information into the literatures about income smoothing. The contribution of this study are as follows: First, this study offers practical implications on corporate financing decisions makings through an analysis of earnings contributes related to cost of debt capital. Second, These results contribute to the literature on income smoothing.

한국어

일반적으로 경영자의 이익조정은 회계이익의 신뢰성을 저해하는 요인으로 평가되고 있다. 이러한 맥락에서 이익조정 정도를 의미하는 재량적 발생액의 절대적 크기가 증가할수록 정보위험을 증가시켜 부채 조달비용이 증가한다는 실증결과가 보고되고 있다. 한편, 이익유연화에 관한 선행연구에 의하면 이익유연화는 경영자의 사적정보를 자본시장에 전달함으로써 회계정보유용성을 향상시킬 수 있다. 특히, Tucker and Zarowin (2006)은 발생액 조정을 이용한 이익유연화와 회계정보유용성의 관계를 분석한 결과, 이익유연화 수준이 증가할수록 발생액의 정보유용성이 증가하는 것으로 나타나고 있다. 즉, 재량적 발생액이 이익유연화와 관련이 있는 경우에는 오히려 정보환경을 개선시킬 수 있는 것으로 기대된다. 이러한 배경에서 본 연구는 재량적 발생액과 부채조달비용의 관련성을 살펴본 선행연구를 확장하여, 이익유연화와 관련이 있는 재량적 발생액과 부채조달비용의 관련성을 추가적으로 분석하였다. 분석결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 재량적 발생액의 절댓값이 증가할수록 부채조달비용이 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 경영자의 재량적 이익조정이 정보위험을 증가시킨다는 것으로 해석될 수 있다. 둘째, 이익유연화 수준이 낮은 경우 재량적 발생액의 절댓값과 부채조달비용 간 양(+)의 관계는 상대적으로 뚜렷하게 나타나지만, 이익유연화 수준이 높은 경우에는 재량적 발생액과 부채조달비용 간의 관련성이 발견되지 않았다. 이러한 결과는 이익유연화가 정보위험을 감소시킨 것으로 해석된다. 즉, Tucker and Zarowin(2006) 등이 주장하는 바와 같이 이익유연화에 의해 기업의 미래 성과에 관한 정보가 자본시장에 전달되고 정보환경이 개선됨에 따라 재량적 이익조정에 의해 증가한 정보위험이 상쇄된 것으로 풀이된다