Ending at the Wrong Time: The Financial Reporting Consequences of a Uniform Fiscal Year-End
研究中国统一财政年度末规则下，业务周期与报告周期不匹配的公司，其绝对异常应计利润更高，且主要由无意估计误差而非有意盈余操纵驱动。
ABSTRACT There is an ongoing debate over uniformity versus flexibility in accounting regulation. This study examines the financial reporting consequences of a rigid accounting rule in China under which the fiscal year-end is uniform for all companies. Using extensive interviews together with large-sample archival analyses, we find that “mismatched” firms—those whose mandated financial reporting cycles are not aligned with their business cycles—exhibit higher levels of absolute abnormal accruals than their nonmismatched counterparts. Further analyses suggest that the negative association between mismatching and financial reporting quality is mainly driven by unintentional estimation errors rather than intentional earnings manipulation. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M41; M48; K22.