Ownership Structure, Business Group Affiliation, Listing Status, and Earnings Management: Evidence from Korea

Abstract:     
Using a large sample of both publicly traded and privately held firms in Korea, this paper investigates whether, and how, the deviation of controlling shareholders' control from ownership, business group affiliation, and listing status differentially affect the extent of earnings management. Our results show the following: First, as the control-ownership disparity becomes larger, controlling shareholders tend to engage more in opportunistic earnings management to hide adverse consequences of their self-serving behavior. The result of our full-model regression reveals that an increase in the control-ownership wedge by 1% leads to an increase in the magnitude of (unsigned) discretionary accruals by 1.3% of lagged total assets, ceteris paribus. Second, we find that for our full model regression, the magnitude of (unsigned) discretionary accruals is greater for group-affiliated firms than non-affiliated firms by 0.8% of lagged total assets. This result suggests that business group affiliation provides controlling shareholders with more incentives and opportunities for earnings management. Finally, we find that for our full-model regression, the magnitude of (unsigned) discretionary accruals is greater for publicly traded firms than for privately held firms by 1.2% of lagged total assets. This result supports the notion that stock markets create incentives for public firms to manage reported earnings to satisfy the expectations of various market participants that are often expressed in earnings numbers.

Keywords: Corporate governance, Voting rights, Cash flow rights, Business group, Chaebol, Listing status, Privately held firms, Earnings management, Korea

JEL Classification: M41, M43, G34

Accepted Paper Series