Real Earnings Management and Financial Reporting Readability

Some researchers suggest that managers use complex and lengthy disclosure, some investors and stakeholders use the information that keep secret the bad news or the bad performance of the company simply is not specified in the reports. In other words, when manager Proceed to earnings management, they try to provide reports with less readability so that it is difficult to determine their behavior in earnings management. This paper examines the impact of real earnings management on financial reporting readability. In this regard, for measuring readability of two Flesch-Dayani and the Document-Length index, and for measuring real earnings management, three abnormal levels of operational cash flow, production and discretionary expenses have been used. The research hypotheses were tested by using a sample of 57 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange between 2005 and 2016 using a multivariate regression model based on the panel data technique. The focus of this research is on the readability of the board's activity report. The results of this research show that real earnings management has a significant effect on the financial reporting readability of companies, which means that companies publish their annual reports in that year with less readability in each fiscal year that they are managing profits.