Legibilidad de las notas y devengo discrecional
Notes Readability and Discretionary Accruals
Resumen
La información narrativa debería ayudar a los usuarios externos a comprender mejor los ajustes por periodificación discrecionales de la dirección. Sin embargo, tanto la información narrativa como los beneficios devengados están sujetos a la discrecionalidad de la dirección. Este estudio investiga la relación esperada entre la gestión de los beneficios, medida por los devengos discrecionales (DA), y la legibilidad, medida por el índice Fog (Li, 2008). Los estudios anteriores investigan la relación en términos de legibilidad de la discusión y análisis de la dirección (MD&A), que no está directamente relacionada con la divulgación de la estimación de los devengos y tampoco es una sección auditada del informe anual de la empresa. Este estudio aporta una contribución única a la literatura existente al proporcionar evidencia empírica sobre la asociación entre los DA y la legibilidad de las notas a los estados financieros. Basándose en 1.021 observaciones de datos del Reino Unido extraídos de empresas no financieras del FTSE All Share durante el período 2005 a 2011, una regresión por mínimos cuadrados ordinarios (MCO) encuentra una relación positiva entre los DA y la legibilidad de las Notas. Una asociación positiva muestra que los directivos de las empresas que gestionan los DA tienden a producir Notas más legibles. Es probable que este resultado se deba a la ausencia de incentivos para gestionar los DA y a que los directivos son conscientes del riesgo que conlleva producir notas menos legibles, lo que podría dar lugar a un análisis más profundo por parte de los auditores y, en consecuencia, a una mayor probabilidad de que detecten los DA. Así pues, los participantes en el mercado no deberían confiar siempre en la mayor legibilidad de las notas como indicador de una mayor calidad de los estados financieros, ya que los resultados sugieren que una mayor legibilidad está asociada a un mayor DA.
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