Research Article
The Effect of National Pension Investment on Managers' Earnings Management and Dividend Policy
Chosun University
Chonnam National University
Published: January 2016 · Vol. 45, No. 2 · pp. 537-556
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2016.45.2.537
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Abstract
This study examines whether National Pension Fund(hereafter, NPF) that has gradually become a significant role in the ownership structure of firms as a block-holder influences on the controlling earnings management and whether managers carry out earnings management for paying dividends to NPF. Earnings management is defined as discretionary accruals(hereafter, DA) estimated by Kothari et al.(2005) which reflect to the company's performance. The proxy of dividends(hereafter, DIV) are payout ratios and lacks of expected dividend(hereafter, LACK) which are the gap between expected dividend by random walk and pre-managed earings by Dainel et al.(2008). The NPF are classified as two criteria, shareholding of the NPF and the only 1 dummy variable where a firm is owned by 5% exceeding NPF. During the period in 2000-2013, we select 7,523 firm-year samples from KRX, and the results of empirical analysis are as follows. First, the more the share proportions of the NPF, the lower DA within the significant level. This results show that the NPF is recognized as an influential investor like foreign investors, and NPF play the role in controlling the earnings management as a supervisor against manager’s opportunistic behavior. Additionally, there can be a reason resulted from the investment for the companies with good cash flow rather than reporting earnings. Second, the interaction variables of the NPF and DIV show the positive effect on discretionary accruals significantly. In the different dimension from the NPF’ role as the supervisor, the manager may have a motivation to manage earnings for avoiding dividend cut. This is the reason why managers try to meet the expectations of capital market for stable dividend or worry about the pensions’ withdrawal from the companies. Third, the interaction variables of the NPF and LACK has significantly positive effect on the DA. This shows that earnings upward management can be accelerated in such a situation of deficiency of expected dividend. This research can be regarded as a meaningfulness of an attempt of linkages in three factors which are the pensions, dividend and earnings management.
