The Balance Sheet as an Earnings Management Constraint
研究资产负债表对盈余管理的约束作用，发现净资产高估程度越大的公司，报告较大正盈余惊喜或较小负盈余惊喜的可能性越低。
The balance sheet accumulates the effects of previous accounting choices, so the level of net assets partly reflects the extent of previous earnings management. We predict that managers' ability to optimistically bias earnings decreases with the extent to which the balance sheet overstates net assets relative to a neutral application of GAAP. To test this prediction, we examine the likelihood of reporting various earnings surprises for 3,649 firms during 1993–1999. Consistent with our prediction, we find that the likelihood of reporting larger positive or smaller negative earnings surprises decreases with our proxy for overstated net asset values.