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Earnings Management Surrounding New Debt Issues
Author(s) -
Liu Yixin,
Ning Yixi,
Davidson III Wallace N.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
financial review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.621
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1540-6288
pISSN - 0732-8516
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6288.2010.00265.x
Subject(s) - issuer , earnings , bond , debt , business , earnings management , equity (law) , monetary economics , financial system , finance , economics , political science , law
We examine whether firms manage earnings before issuing bonds to achieve a lower cost of borrowing. We find significant income‐increasing earnings management prior to bond offerings. We also find that firms that manage earnings upward issue debt at a lower cost, after controlling for various bond issuer and issue characteristics. Our results are consistent with studies that report earnings management around equity issuance. The results indicate that, like equity holders, bondholders fail to see through the inflated earnings numbers in pricing new debt.