State ownership and earnings management around initial public offerings : evidence from China

Abstract

This study investigates the earnings management for firms going public in domestic Chinese equity market. Using a sample of 437 firms, we document that Chinese firms on average inflate earnings upward around the time of initial public offering (IPO). By taking the discretionary accruals as a proxy for earnings management, our regression analysis indicates that the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) manage earnings opportunistically less than non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs) around IPOs. Furthermore, we identify three characters for SOEs less CEO shareholding, favorable access to equity market, and favorable access to bank loans resulting in weaker earnings management incentives for SOEs than NSOEs. Using path analysis, we confirm that the three characters can explain more than 65% of why SOEs manage earnings less than NSOEs in the IPO year.