بخشی از مقاله انگلیسی
To test these hypotheses, we conduct within-firm inter-temporal change tests for firms before and after analysts began
providing cash flow forecasts and we benchmarkour findings against a control sample. We identify a sample of firm-years for
which I/B/E/S provided both earnings and operating cash flow forecasts (treatment sample) and a propensity-score matched
sample (using factors prior research has shown to be related to analysts’ cash flow forecasts) of firm-years without cash flow
forecasts (control sample). Our analysis reveals a significant decline in the magnitude of positive and absolute performance-
adjusted abnormal accruals, and a better mapping of accruals into cash flows after analysts begin providing cash flow
forecasts compared to the period prior to when those forecasts were first issued. We do not observe a similar increase in
accrual quality for the control firms. We also find that after the provision of cash flow forecasts, firms place greater emphasis
on some forms of real transaction management and downward earnings guidance in an attempt to beat analysts’ earnings
expectations. Despite these efforts, we find that firms are less likely to meet earnings targets after analysts begin issuing cash
flow forecasts relative to before analysts’ provision of cash flow forecasts. We do not observe a similar decline in the tendency
to meet or beat earnings expectations for the control firms. Collectively, our propensity score matching procedure, inter-
temporal change analyses using a difference-in-differences design, and findings that relate changes in income-increasing
accruals to changes in real transaction management and earnings guidance allow us to draw inferences about the direction of
causation, which help mitigate endogenous self-selection concerns that plague purely cross-sectional research designs. Our
results provide evidence that the provision of cash flow forecasts increases the transparency of accrual manipulations and
acts as a deterrent to opportunistic earnings management through accruals, thereby enhancing accrual quality