Reversal of impairment losses and earnings management

Abstract

Although the impairment test is relevant to the quality of accounting information, it requires subjective estimates that allow discretion to manage companies and give rise to earnings management, especially when losses can be reversed. In this context, this research aimed to investigate whether there is a relationship between the reversals of impairment losses evidenced by Brazilian companies listed on B3 and the practice of earnings management between 2010 and 2019. For this, descriptive and quantitative research was conducted, which tested three hypotheses initially developed in the work of Duh et al. (2009) to analyze whether the companies that most recognize impairment losses reverse these losses in the future to avoid the decrease in accounting earnings and whether this behavior is more pronounced in higher levels of indebtedness or when their managers are paid for performance. The findings revealed that, although companies that recognize more losses conduct more significant reversals in the future, these reversals did not occur in the context of declining earnings and were not significantly influenced by indebtedness and the managers’ pay-performance sensitivity. Considering the scarcity of empirical evidence on this topic in Brazil and the need to observe this phenomenon in different institutional and regulatory environments, it is expected that this study will contribute to stimulating the conducting of other similar studies, as well as to foster discussions on how the possibility of reversing impairment losses affects the quality of accounting information.