Gerenciamento de resultados e nível dos accruals discricionários trimestrais no mercado acionário brasileiro

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the behavior of the quarterly earnings management level of Brazilian public companies. For this, a sample of 112 companies listed on the BM&FBovespa was selected and the quarterly discretionary accruals among 2012 and 2015 were estimated using Paulo model as a proxy for earnings management. These accruals averages were analyzed for all quarters in the period, as well as consolidated for each quarter (1Q, 2Q, 3Q and 4Q). Then, a second regression with the quarterly discretionary accruals and dummy variables representative of each quarter was used. The results indicate that, on average, the magnitude of discretionary accruals are higher in the fourth quarter, followed by the third quarter, first quarter and the second quarter. The regression analysis also showed that discretionary accruals for the fourth and first quarters were statistically significant. These findings suggest that the earnings management level in the fourth quarter is greater than in the other quarters. In addition, the earnings management level in the first quarter is statistically different from the levels of the second and third, possibly caused by the accruals reversal from the previous period in the next period. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that earnings management occurs differently throughout the year, as the incentives for earnings management tend to be stronger in the annual financial statements in relation to quarterly statements, deserving attention of investors, analysts, regulators, auditors and other users of accounting information.