This study addresses the influence of income smoothing on earnings persistence in the Brazilian market. We argue that accounting choices made by firms in order to report stability can affect the informational level of performance reported to the market, and thus affect its usefulness, particularly for company valuations and fund allocating decisions. The sample was set based on open companies listed on the BM&FBOVESPA between 2004 and 2013. The firms in the sample were separated into two groups with regards to the presence of income smoothing, based on the EM1 and EM2 metrics from Leuz, Nanda, and Wysocki (2003). We then inserted a multiplicative dummy variable into the basic persistence model, to assess the effect of smoothing on persistence. The results show increased transience in the time series, caused by the presence of income smoothing, which denotes that reported stability, conveyed via a series of smooth earnings, decreased the sustainability of reported performance, captured by persistence of the series. Additional controls show a negative influence of smoothing on persistence for small firms and when incurring losses, and a positive one for operations in sectors with accounting regulation. We conclude that, at least for the firms in the sample, reporting of constant performance resulted in a loss in the sustainability of income as a form of information on which investors, fund providers, and administrators base their decisions.
This research approaches the influence of smoothing on persistence, two
time-series properties of the same earnings stream, considering the adoption
of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), in Brazil. This
influence is interesting from the possibility of the disclosure to inform
stability to influence the information quality for valuation. The objective
was to investigate whether the IFRS adoption modified the
smoothing-persistence relation. We inserted dummies in autoregressive
models, to identify the influence of smoothing on persistence regarding
different accounting environments. The findings show that (i) the IFRS
adoption increased the quality of earnings; (ii) the IFRS shifted the role
of smoothing, that previously increased and then decreased the persistence;
and (iii) the smoothing suppressed the benefits for information quality
brought by IFRS adoption. We conclude that IFRS increased the informational
level of earnings, evidencing that interferences to mitigate impacts on
reported income ceased to increase and started to decrease its
usefulness.
O CPC00R1 afirma que as informações financeiras serão relevantes se tiverem o potencial de alterar as decisões que estão sendo analisadas pelos seus usuários. Portanto, ele assume que a existência e o uso dos sistemas de contabilidade antecedem o ato de decidir; as funções exercidas por esses sistemas independem da natureza das decisões; e cabe à contabilidade facilitar decisões e não formatar o processo decisório. Este artigo analisou o caso da Refinaria Oriental para demonstrar como os gerentes da Bosphorus Petroleum usaram informações contábeis para contestar o montante dos custos fixos que lhe foram debitados; e como os conceitos e as técnicas para a contabilidade e o controle dos custos dos departamentos de serviços poderiam ser usados na avaliação do mérito dessa contestação. Ele ilustra uma situação em que a decisão precede o uso da contabilidade, e a contabilidade é usada para municiar argumentos políticos e formatar o processo decisório.
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