Author(s)

Congyue Luo

School of Economics & Management, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China.

This paper investigates the substitution between accrual earnings management and real earnings management of listed companies after the change from four to three classifications of financial assets in China. This paper divides the financial data of A + H listed companies in China into two groups for the period of 2015-2020, considering the implementation of the Financial Instruments Standard as the time point, and investigates the impact of the change from four to three classifications of financial assets on the earnings management of financial assets of listed companies through OLS regression analysis and suest test. The results of the study show that after the change from four to three classifications of financial assets, the manipulation of financial asset classifications and derecognition of financial assets by listed companies decreased, and the manipulation of fair value measurement of financial assets increased; at the same time, the proportion of financial assets at fair value through profit or loss held by listed companies was significantly and positively related to the level of accrual earnings management.

Financial Assets, Reclassification from Four to Three, Fair Value Hierarchy Measurement, Earnings Management

Luo, C. (2022) Will the Change from Four to Three Classifications of Financial Assets Lead to a Substitution of Accrual Earnings Management for Real Earnings Management?. Open Journal of Accounting, 11, 1-20. doi: 10.4236/ojacct.2022.111001.