Effect of Mandatory Disclosure of IAS/IFRS on Earnings Management Among Listed Firms At The Uganda Securities Exchange

Abstract

Prior research provides conflicting results on whether mandatory adoption IAS/IFRS deters or contributes to greater earnings management. On this basis, this study sought to examine the effect of mandatory disclosure of IAS/IFRS on earnings management among listed firms at the Uganda Securities Exchange. First and in accordance with prior empirical disclosure research, mandatory disclosure of IAS/IFRS is examined using a disclosure index. Secondly, earnings management represented by the absolute value of discretionary accruals is measured using the modified Jones model. Thirdly, robust regression is used to examine the effect of mandatory disclosure of IAS/IFRS on earnings management for a census of 9 non-financial companies for the period 2012 to 2017. We find an increase in earnings management following the 2005 mandatory adoption of IAS/IFRS among listed firms at the Uganda Securities Exchange. One important implication of this study is that studying several IFRS enables the accounting standard setters to identify standards that have a significant influence on financial reporting quality and those that need to be revised as they offer the opportunity to manage earnings and allow managers to opportunistically exercise the allowed reporting latitude. Secondly, the mandatory disclosure index used in this study might act as a benchmark for regulators for purposes of future analysis and evaluation. Despite the evidence documented in this study, the population of listed non-financial firms used in this study is small. Consequently this limited the number of firm year observations available over the six year period