Do Discretionary Accruals Help Distinguish between Internal Control Weaknesses and Fraud?

Estimation Sample Selection for Discretionary Accruals Models

We examine how the criteria for choosing estimation samples (peer firms) affect the ability to detect discretionary accruals, using several variants of the Jones (1991) model. Researchers commonly estimate accruals models in cross-section, and define the estimation sample as all firms in the same industry. We examine whether firm size performs at least as well as industry membership as the crit...

Peer Firm Selection for Discretionary Accruals Models

Taking as given the discretionary accruals models that exist in the literature, we examine how the selection of peer firms affects the researcher’s ability to detect earnings management. Researchers commonly estimate accruals models in cross section, and define the peer set (the firms used to estimate the cross section) as all firms in the same industry. We challenge this view by examining whet...

A Model for Investigating Internal Control Weaknesses

Estimating discretionary accruals using a grouping genetic algorithm

A number of different models have been suggested for detecting earnings management but the linear regression-based model presented by Jones (1991) is the most frequently used. The underlying assumption with the Jones model is that earnings are managed through accounting accruals. Typically, the companies for which earnings management is studied are grouped based on their industries. It is thus ...

Predicting Stock Market Returns with Aggregate Discretionary Accruals∗

We find that the positive relation between aggregate accruals and one-year-ahead market returns documented in Hirshleifer, Hou and Teoh [2009] is driven by discretionary accruals but not normal accruals. The return forecasting power of aggregate discretionary accruals is robust to choices of sample periods, return measurements, estimation methods, business condition and risk premium proxies, an...