본 연구는 한국 상장기업들이 이익관리를 할 때 어느 수단을 이용하는지를 실증적으로
연구하였다. 이를 위하여 1995년부터 2001년까지의 기업-년자료 2,895개를 발생액의 정도
에 따라 각각 이익증가집단, 중간집단 및 이익감소집단으로 구분하여 이익관리수단에 어떤
체계적인 차이가 있는지를 분석하였다.
본 연구에서는 영업활동으로 인한 현금흐름과 함께 회계이익을 구성하는 발생액을 3단계에
걸쳐 체계적으로 구분하였으며, 기업들이 보고이익을 증가하거나 감소시킬 때 어느 수단을
활용하는지를 검토하였다.
실증분석결과 보고이익증가집단과 보고이익감소집단 간에는 기업들이 활용하는 이익관리수단
에 상당한 차이가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 구체적으로 보면 이익증가집단은 자산처분차익을
주로 활용하는 반면, 이익감소집단은 대손상각비와 자산처분차손을 주로 활용하는 것으로 나
타났다.

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In this study, I investigated 2,895 firm-year observations from
the period of 1995 to 2001 to identify the vehicles that Korean firms use when
the firms manage earnings. I partitioned the sample into three equal size
sub-samples based on discretionary accruals in order to distinguish incomeincreasing
firms from income-decreasing firms. The low accrual firms are
defined as income-decreasing firms while the high accrual firms are considered
income-increasing firms in this study.
I used a systematic decomposition approach to examine the relationships
between the degree of earnings management and the primary tools firms use.
Accounting earnings can be broken into cash flows from operations and total
accruals. Total accruals, in turn, are broken into non-current accruals and
current accruals(First-tier decomposition). Non-current accruals then are broken
down into non-cash expenses and non-cash revenues. Current accruals are
separated into changes in operation-related assets and operation-related
liabilities(Second-tier decomposition). Finally, accruals are separated into
individual elements including depreciation expenses, bad-debt expenses, retirement
benefits expenses, asset disposal losses, changes in accounts receivable,
changes in inventory, changes in accounts payable, other non-current accruals
and other current accruals(Third-tier decomposition).
Discretionary accruals are estimated by regressing total accruals on three
explanatory variables. Two variables(change in cash revenues and change in
cash expenses) proxy for current accruals and a sum of depreciation and
retirement benefits expenses proxies for non-current accruals. I then examine
if the earnings management vehicles firms use follow some particular patterns
depending upon the extent of earnings management. To identify the particular
patterns of earnings management vehicles, I use three tests of mean difference
tests, correlation tests and regression analyses.
The empirical results of the study reveal that there are clear differences
between income-increasing firms and income-decreasing firms in the employment
of earnings management vehicles. More specifically, income-increasing firms
depend heavily on non-cash gains when the firms increase reported earnings.
In contrast, income-decreasing firms depend heavily on non-cash expenses
including bad debt expenses and asset disposition losses.

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