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Working Paper
Earnings Management and Corporate Investment Decisions
We investigate the relationship between earnings management and the efficiency of corporate investment decisions. Using discretionary accruals to measure intertemporal transfers of earnings, we show that earnings management exhibits a concave relationship with the investment sensitivity to investment opportunities as measured by Tobin's Q. We find that the association is concentrated among high Q firms. The effect is present among well governed firms, suggesting that better governed firms manage accruals strategically. The concave relationship suggests that the marginal impact of earnings ...