Experimental research work: earnings management and firm-level determinants

Abstract

The experiment aims to establish major firm-level EM determinants with significant impactbetween state and private ownership structure companies.Sample includes 20 largest corporations bysize and sales across different industries listed on KASE stock exchange operating during last 10 yearsperiod 2009-2018. (180 observations available).To estimate the discretionary accruals EM, the ModifiedJones (1995) model is utilized.The residuals (discretionary accruals) are regressed on a set of explanatoryvariables (ownership structure, capital structure and dividend policy) that hypothesize to determineEM.We also examined the influence of ownership structure, capital structure and dividend policy decisionson EM between state and private companies. Overall, the extent of manipulations is significantlyhigher in companies with private ownership structure though factors that determine EM turned to bedifferent compared to state-owned enterprises.The experimental study is considered the first to relateEM and firm-level determinants between different ownership structures (state vs private) in Kazakhstan.Due to issues with manual data collection and market results generalization based on small populationof KASE listed companies, research literature on Kazakhstani data is scarce. So, our experiment definitelybrings theoretical value and reduces literature gap. Empirical results believe to bring additional analysisto the market participants (investors, owners, regulators, standard-setters etc.) to improve decisionmakingand corporate reporting.