A study on the effect of earnings management on restatement and the changes on information content of earnings following restatements: Evidence from Tehran Stock Exchange

Abstract

The current impressive increase in the number of the restatements, encourage many researchers to find the causes of restatements including earnings management. Moreover, restatements increase the uncertainties of investors about earnings and decrease its information content. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between earnings management and earnings restatements. In addition, this paper examines the information content of earnings and cash flow following restatements period. For this purpose, we use one logistic regression and three multiple regressions with OLS method over the period 2001-2011. The results indicate that there was no significant relationship between discretionary accruals and earnings restatement, but magnitude of the discretionary accruals as the proxy of earnings management was significant and positively associated with the earnings restatement. Moreover, the earnings had more information content than cash flow before and after the earnings restatement. The overall result suggests that the one reason for earnings restatement is to make earnings management in an emerging market.

Keywords

• Earnings Management
• Earnings Restatement
• Discretionary Accruals
• Information Content of Earnings
• Tehran Stock Exchange