盈餘管理門檻與資產價值減損

Earnings management and asset impairments

王僅媛(Chin-Yuan Wang)

指導教授 ： 林維珩

中原大學/商學院/會計學系/碩士(2006年)

https://doi.org/10.6840/cycu200600386

摘要

本研究探討在避免損失及避免盈餘減少門檻下，操縱前盈餘未達門檻(0及去年盈餘)的公司是否有運用資產減損之策略以影響減損提列的可能性及金額，以操縱前盈餘已達門檻之公司為比較公司，預期操縱前盈餘未達門檻的小獲利公司或盈餘小額增加公司提列減損的可能性較低，若公司選擇提列減損，則預期其提列的金額亦較低，以營業活動現金流量做為操縱前盈餘的代理變數。
研究結果指出，以避免損失為門檻的公司，其操縱前盈餘是否達到門檻對於提列減損的可能性及金額並無太大影響，即無法推論操縱前盈餘為負的小獲利公司提列減損的可能性及金額是低於操縱前盈餘為正的小獲利公司。比較提列減損時點的樣本特性，發現提前適用的樣本中提列減損的情形，與預期一致，由於會計師只能鼓勵而無法強迫公司提前適用公報，使得提前適用之裁決性成分較大，較能看出預期的結果。然而，在公報生效開始，受限於會計師的要求(基於查核風險)，使得公司可能不得不提列減損，以致較無法看出原預期的結果，此綜合的結果使得兩群樣本在全部樣本中無明顯的差異；以避免盈餘減少為門檻的公司，操縱前盈餘低於去年盈餘的盈餘小額增加公司提列減損的可能性及金額較操縱前盈餘高於去年盈餘的公司為低，支持假說二，即避免盈餘減少的公司比較有策略的運用資產減損的提列。
以不同研究區間作為敏感性分析，結果指出提列減損金額的測試受到研究區間的影響較提列減損可能性的測試大；操縱前盈餘的代理變數以裁決性應計項目之角度代替原本的營運活動現金流量，研究結果未獲得支持，推測原因可能係1.WCA估計上的衡量誤差2.受到實務上審計的限制，減損損失的提列可能未必全然皆為裁決性的。以營運活動現金流量和以WCA之衡量方法造成避免盈餘減少門檻的衡量結果不同，顯示所得結果相當敏感，除所推測的可能原因外，亦可能為實務上公司未考量到平穩化的行為。
研究結果，亦發現小獲利樣本或盈餘小額增加的公司，再次提列減損的可能性高，其中盈餘小額增加的公司再次提列減損的金額高。

關鍵字

盈餘管理門檻 ； 資產減損 ； 避免損失 ； 避免盈餘減少

並列摘要

This paper investigates whether firms that pre-managed earnings doesn't meet the threshold (0 or the prior year's earnings) use asset impairment strategy to influence adoption and amount of asset impairment in order 1) to avoid reporting a loss, and 2) to avoid reporting a decrease in earnings. We use cash flows from operating activities as the proxy of pre-managed earnings. As expected, firms that have small positive earnings or slightly larger reported earnings than the prior year when pre-managed earnings are below the earnings threshold (zero for the first hypothesis and the prior year's earnings for the second hypothesis) have lower adoption possibility and amounts of asset impairment.
The results are mixed as to the possibility of recognition impairment losses. The regression results show that whether pre-managed earnings met threshold of avoiding losses or not has no influence to adopt asset impairment possibility and amounts. Thus, there is no evidence that firms with small positive earnings and with pre-managed losses have lower early adoption possibility and amounts of asset impairment than have positive pre-managed earnings. Small positive firms are shown to have less strategic consideration for adopt possibility and amounts of asset impairment. However, it is shown that early adopters are more likely to be small positive earnings firms in terms of percentage of early adopters. The decisions to early adopt accounting standards are discretionary. It seems that threshold effects on the adoption of accounting standards exist in the early adopters.
We have stronger evidence that firms with pre-managed earnings below the prior year's earnings are less likely to report asset impairment or report less amount of impairment in order to avoid reporting a decrease in earnings. Our second hypothesis is supported.
We also find that small positive earnings or slightly larger reported earnings samples are more likely to report subsequent impairments. Subsequent impairment amount is higher than the initial recorded amount for slight earnings increase firm.

並列關鍵字

earnings management threshold ； asset impairment ； avoi

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