비용의 자의적 분류를 이용한 이익조정에 관한 연구

초록

The line items of income statement which contain information about differences in the underlying economic events can be used to improve future profitability forecasts. Prior research shows that investors put different values on the persistent and transitory components of earnings. Specifically, the stock price is expected to be more affected by persistent components than transitory components. Therefore, managers wishing to influence stock price might shift expenses down the income statement. Compared with accruals management and the manipulation of real activities, earnings management using classification shifting bears a relatively low cost: there is neither accruals that later reverse nor lost revenues from forgone opportunities. Moreover, because the allocation of expenses to specific accounts can be subjective, auditors might be limited in their verification of the appropriate classification, and because bottom-line income does not change, they might not scrutinize the identification or compulsory adjustments of these accounts (Nelson et al. 2002; McVay 2006). McVay(2006) examines the classification of items within the income statement as an earnings management tool. As suspected, her study results are consistent with managers opportunistically shifting expenses from core expenses to special items. This vertical movement of expenses does not change bottom-line earnings, but overstates core earnings. In addition, it appears that managers use this earnings management tool to meet the analyst forecast earnings benchmark, as special items tend to be excluded from both pro forma and analyst earnings definitions. In Korea, the income statement does not contain special items. However, Kim and Kim(2003) shows that most of non-operating expenses have neither persistence nor explanatory power for stock prices. Their results indicate that non-operating expenses have similar characteristics to those of special items and motivate us to study earnings management using misclassification of items in the Korean market. Based on McVay`s study(2006), we investigate earnings management using classification of expense to increase operating income. The results of this study are as follows: First, the result of analysis using unexpected operating income estimated by McVay`s model reveals that transitory non-operating expense is positively associated with contemporaneous unexpected operating income level. This finding suggests that the operating income of firms with high level transitory non-operating expense exceeds that of those with normal level. Second, the transitory non-operating expense shows negative relation with unexpected operation income change in year t+1, however, the relation is insignificant. Third, when transitory non-operating expense is divided into shiftable expense and non-shiftable expense, the former is negatively related to the unexpected operation incomes change in year t+1. This finding means that the unexpected operating income increased by non-operating expense is transitory. Fourth, when operating income exceeds the previous operating income slightly, transitory non-operating expense is negatively related to the unexpected operation incomes change in year t+1. These results show that when the classification shifting allows firms to meet(or beat) the targets, the probability of earnings management using classification shifting increases. In addition, the result of analysis applying earnings persistence model used by Fairfield et al.(2003), and Richardson et al. shows that transitory non-operating expense reduces operating income persistence. Especially, positive operating income persistence is reduced. The results indicate that as transitory non-operating expense increases, positive operating income contains more portion that reverses in the next year. In summary, the earnings management using discretionary classification of expense is observed in Korean market. Most of Korean accounting research is focused on accrual management. This study is expected to provide an additional perspective about earnings management practice and to be informative for analysts, investors, and regulators.

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