Denna studie fokuserar på effekten av IFRS/IAS på earnings management. Huvudsyftet är att identifiera earnings management före och efter införandet av IFRS/IAS för att klargöra om de internationella redovisningsstandarderna har påverkat förekomsten av resultatmanipulering inom svenska börsbolag. Perioden som studeras är åren 2002-2008. För att identifiera earnings management används den modifierade Jones-modellen som går ut på att detektera förekomsten av godtyckliga periodiseringar som ett mått på resultatmanipulering. Vi kontrollerar även för om variablerna storlek och bransch kan förklara förekomsten av företeelsen före och efter införandet av IFRS/IAS.

The executives of a firm possess considerable influence over a company's financial reports. The numbers can be adjusted in a favorable direction by engaging in Earnings Management, which harms the reliability of the financial reporting. Previous research suggests that Earnings Management can differ between genders. In recent years the debate about a woman's role in the business world has received generous attention in media. Moreover, the presence of women in leading positions has become a relevant issue for firms.

Common wisdom dictates that because payment of dividends decreases funds available for investment, a high payout ratio is to be associated with low earnings growth. This notion has been challenged in recent years by empirical research that has found a positive relationship between payout ratio and future earnings growth, both on the aggregated market level and the company level in different countries. This study investigated the aforementioned relationship on the Swedish market by statistically analyzing future earnings growth as a function of payout ratio on a large sample of publicly listed companies over the period 1980 to 2011. The results are in line with those found in previous research and indicate that companies with high dividend payout ratio tend to experience strong future earnings growth. The results are robust to the presence of mean reversion, the use of an alternative accounting measure of earnings, non-symmetrical earnings growth cycles and alternative practices for dealing with outliers..

This paper tests the information signalling hypothesis on a sample of firms making open market stock repurchases. Using an earnings-based valuation model, we find that a majority of repurchasing firms are undervalued relative to their economic value. This result is consistent with previous academic studies, which claim that undervaluation is the prevalent factor explaining the observed abnormal return following the announcement of a repurchase program. We do not, however, find any evidence that the repurchase is consciously made by management to provide the market with new information. .

This paper replicates a test performed by Burgstahler and Dichev (1997), which identifies a kink in the frequency distribution of earnings for companies listed on American stock exchanges. Their claim, that the kink is evidence of earnings management, has however been dismissed as a methodical consequence. To address this concern, this paper not only replicates the test in general, but also performs tests on a split sample, where founding family-owned companies are separated from the others, since earlier research has shown that founding family ownership is correlated with less earnings management. The results are in line with the findings of Burgstahler and Dichev, with a significant kink in the frequency distribution in the general test. The findings also show that the significance of the kink increases in the non-family-owned sample, while it disappears in the family-owned sample.

The main intention with this thesis is to investigate the relationship between dividends and investments. We hypothesize that firms may be forced to cut back on investments if dividends are not curtailed in times of poor annual earnings. According to contemporary theories, we argue that firms may be reluctant to cut back on dividends even when annual earnings decline and the level of investments will consequently be determined by the financial mobility of companies. The survey is carried out by means of a quantitative analysis, which includes all firms quoted on the exchange of Stockholm from 1980 through 2000. On the contrary of previous research, we conclude that even firms with high dividends can be forced to curtail investments if payouts to shareholders are maintained or increased when companies are faced with a decline in annual earnings..

The purpose of our study is to find out if insiders in Sweden generate abnormal earnings through insider trades. We want to pinpoint the cause for abnormal earnings by dividing transactions after company market value, size of the trade and type of insider. A quantitative approach using the market model have been used. We have conducted an event study over two short term event windows. We conclude that insiders in Sweden generate positive abnormal earnings for sales and negative for purchases in our ?long? event window.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the stock market reacts differently to accounting information, depending on the stock market climate. The study focuses solely on stocks listed on the OMX Stockholm 30 during each year from 2005 to 2009. By applying the concept of Earnings Response Coefficient we can estimate how the market reacts to accounting information. The dependent variable in the equation is the market reaction on unexpected earnings, in the study described as the abnormal return on stock. For quality purposes we measure this on a ±1,5,10 and 20 days basis.

This paper seeks to investigate whether there is a positive relationship between bonus as a part of total executive compensation and lower accounting quality among Swedish companies. In this study, accounting quality is defined as the degree by which a company's earnings are subject to earnings management. To detect earnings management accrual-based modified Jones model is applied to companies listed on the Large-, Mid- and Small-Cap lists on the Stockholm stock exchange during 2011. We find a statistically significant positive relationship between bonus as a part of total executive compensation and lower accounting quality. Thus, in line with prior research, our results suggest that managers, interested in maximizing their bonus, will select income increasing accruals to manage earnings upwards.

In line with Sloan (1996) but on European data (STOXX 600) we are investigating whether stock prices reflect information about future earnings contained in the accrual and cash flow components. The extent to which current earnings performance persists into the future earnings performance is shown to depend on the relative magnitudes of the cash and accrual components of current earnings. Moreover, we still find a significant positive excess return (Jensen?s alpha and size-adjusted return) by replicating Sloans (1996) hedge portfolio by taking a long position in the stock of firms reporting relatively low levels of accruals and a short position in the stock of firms reporting relatively high levels of accruals. However, we find no evidence of negative excess returns for companies with relatively high accruals, this somewhat lower the total excess returns for all the portfolios.

In line with Sloan (1996) but on European data (STOXX 600) we are investigating whether stock prices reflect information about future earnings contained in the accrual and cash flow components. The extent to which current earnings performance persists into the future earnings performance is shown to depend on the relative magnitudes of the cash and accrual components of current earnings. Moreover, we still find a significant positive excess return (Jensen?s alpha and size-adjusted return) by replicating Sloans (1996) hedge portfolio by taking a long position in the stock of firms reporting relatively low levels of accruals and a short position in the stock of firms reporting relatively high levels of accruals. However, we find no evidence of negative excess returns for companies with relatively high accruals, this somewhat lower the total excess returns for all the portfolios.

Purpose: The main objective of this study is to research whether an announcement of an acquisition generates positive/negative abnormal short-term return towards the buying company?s shareholders. The secondary purpose is to research whether any differences could be due to selected factors: firm size and industry.Method: The study is quantitative in nature where the research aims at the stock price movement around the announcement of an acquisition. The sample size includes 30 companies between the years 2000-2010. The abnormal return is investigated by an Event Study.Conclusion: Our study shows that the publication gives a positive abnormal return in comparison to the respective sector indexes.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate if the companies listed on Nasdaq/OMX Stockholm Large Cap use the earnings management phenomenon Big Bath Accounting to a greater extent when a change of management (CEO) is made.Management tends to use earnings management when there is a bonus plan linked to the result of the company. To gain maximum bonus the management will try to manipulate the result in a way that in a long term maximize their utility. Through the earnings management technique Big Bath the management is given the possibility to take one large cost as a one-time expend, even though the cost is supposed to run over several financial years. This, of course, within the legal framework. A big bath may occur when there is an impairment of goodwill, tangible and/or intangible assets or larger provisions for future expense, or both of them at the same time..

The aim with this study is to investigate the market reactions to announcements of special dividends and redemptions in Sweden and thus if these announcements can signal information. This study is an event study, where the event is the day of the announcement of a suggestion regarding issuance of special dividends or redemptions. The abnormal returns were estimated for two samples with the market adjusted returns model, one including special dividend announcing firms and the other redemption announcing firms. The signalling hypothesis and the hypothesis of a tax induced clientele effect are the most important hypotheses for this study. The efficient market hypothesis is another theoretical base that may explain the market reactions to the studied announcements, especially the pre-announcement activities that may occur.

A multivariate cross-sectional model is used in this thesis to proxy for expected earnings and to estimate return on equity for 214 companies over the period 2009-2013, using Swedish data. The model, which has never been tested on Swedish data before, is first confirmed to function as a forecasting model for expected return. Furthermore, the model is evaluated through a comparison with two univariate models based on the assumption that return on equity follows a mean reversion process. Forecast accuracy is calculated as the difference of estimated returns and actual returns. The results show that the univariate models' forecasts are superior to the multivariate model's..