THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EARNINGS MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTING CONSERVATISM IN BRAZILIAN PUBLIC LISTED COMPANIES

In this paper we investigate if there is a relation between earnings management and the degree of accounting conservatism in Brazilian public companies. In our methodology, first the discretionary accruals were estimated. Then, regression models for accounting conservatism were applied using two different specifications: one with reported earnings and the other using earnings minus discretionary accruals, our proxy for “non-managed earnings”. Our results indicate that, on average, there Brazilian firms aren’t conservative, because they tend to anticipate gains instead of losses. In addition, there is no difference between the degrees of conservatism on reported earnings when compared to “non-managed earnings”.