This paper examines if Australian firms engaged in a higher level of earnings management during the global financial crisis (GFC) and if there was any industry effect on firms’ earnings management. During financial crises many firms experience a systematic decline in incomes, and majority of them report a fall in earnings or losses. The onset of a financial crisis may, therefore, trigger or magnify managerial motives to engage in earnings management, attributing the reduced earnings (or losses) to the macroeconomic shocks rather than to poor managerial performance. Earnings management has been defined in terms of the discretionary components of total accruals. We use parametric and non-parametric tests and panel data regression methods to analyse the impact of the GFC and industry effect on the discretionary accruals sample comprised of 149 Australian firms during the 2006 to 2009 period. We find that Australian firms engaged in a higher level of income-decreasing earnings management during the GFC. This finding is consistent with that of earlier research in the Asian Financial Crisis context. We also find that firms’ industry classification has statistically significant effect on their earnings management.

中文翻译：

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全球金融危机期间审计质量和审计委员会特征对盈余管理的影响-来自澳大利亚的证据

本文研究了在全球金融危机（GFC）期间澳大利亚公司是否进行了更高级别的收益管理，以及行业是否对公司的收益管理产生了影响。在金融危机期间，许多公司的收入都出现了系统性下降，其中大多数公司报告了收益或亏损下降。因此，金融危机的发作可能会触发或放大从事盈余管理的管理动机，将减少的盈余（或损失）归因于宏观经济冲击而不是不良的管理绩效。盈余管理已根据应计费用总额的自由裁量权进行了定义。我们使用参数和非参数检验以及面板数据回归方法来分析GFC的影响和行业对2006年至2009年期间由149家澳大利亚公司组成的可自由支配应计收入样本的影响。我们发现，在全球金融危机期间，澳大利亚公司从事更高级别的减收收益管理。这一发现与亚洲金融危机背景下的早期研究相一致。我们还发现，企业的行业分类对他们的盈余管理具有统计学上的显着影响。