TY  - SER
AU  - Henselmann, Klaus.
TI  - Irregularities in accounting numbers and earnings management- a novel approach based on SEC XBRL filings
PY  - 2015///
KW  - Digit analysis
KW  - Benford's law
KW  - Earnings management
KW  - Earnings benchmark
N1  - Accountancy
N2  - The SEC XBRL mandate enables the gathering of accounting numbers to be fully automatic in a database-like manner that provides vast opportunities for financial analysis. Using this functionality, this study proposes a simple analytical prescreening measure that uses abnormal digit distributions at the firm-year level to identify firms suspected of having managed earnings. On average, we find that the constructed measure indicates a greater amount of irregularities in the reported accounting numbers of firms with higher incentives to engage in earnings management. The suggested XBRL-enhanced digit analysis approach may provide the SEC and investors a simple measure to flag financial reports carrying a higher probability of human interaction
ER  -