Earnings Management and Accounting Values: A Test of Gray (1988)

ABSTRACT: This study examines the ability of Gray's (1988) accounting values to explain earnings management in a sample of 31 countries. We quantify these accounting values in two different ways and examine their relationship to the five earnings management measures developed in Leuz et al. (2003). In our analyses, we control for legal enforcement and outside investor rights (La Porta et al. 1998). We also control for the breadth of accounting standards (at the country level) using the absence measure developed in Ding et al. (2007). Our analyses are generally supportive of a positive relationship between earnings management and Gray's (1988) accounting values of statutory control, uniformity, conservatism, and secrecy.