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Opportunistic earnings manipulation among bankrupt unlisted firms - How and when they do that -

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2013-05
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Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales. Decanato
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Abstract
Firms’ bankruptcy is a problem not only related to companies but also affects social welfare. Analysing a matched sample of bankrupt and healthy unlisted companies from a code law institutional setting (Spain), this paper has three main objectives: it aims to demonstrate that bankrupt firms are more keen to manage financial statements in comparison with their nonbankrupt pairs; it investigates when and what practices they use; finally, it provides empirical evidence across time and sectors. Using proxies of sale and production cost manipulation, the results highlight upwards earnings manipulation among Spanish bankrupt firms in comparison with healthy ones, starting at least four years before the beginning of the legal procedure, sale and cost manipulation, used differently in each sector and across the time period investigated.
El concurso de acreedores es un problema que no sólo afecta a las empresas sino también al bienestar social. Analizando una muestra pareada de empresas en concurso y sanas no cotizadas desde un enfoque institucional no anglosajón (España), este artículo tiene tres objetivos principales: demostrar que las empresas en concurso son más propensas a manipular los estados financieros en comparación con sus pares que no están en concurso; cuándo y qué prácticas usan; finalmente, se presenta evidencia empírica en el tiempo y entre sectores. Usando dos “proxis” de ventas y costes de producción, los resultados destacan una manipulación hacia arriba del resultado entre empresas en concurso en comparación con las sanas, empezando al menos cuatro años antes de su entrada en concurso, utilizando tanto manipulación en ventas como en coste de producción, de manera diferente entre sectores y en el período de tiempo investigado.
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We acknowledge the support of Complutense University of Madrid and BSCH project No. 931559 of INIFCO research group. We also want thank Dr. Javier Martinez for his help in relation to the legal topics and the participants to the workshop held at the Complutense University of Madrid for their helpful insights.
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Finanzas , Contabilidad (Economía)
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5303 Contabilidad Económica
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/41443
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