The role of earnings quality in estimating credit risk

The purpose of this research is to compare the four indicators of earnings quality that use only accounting data to determine the quality of profit and determine their impact on the degree of credit risk of listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange. For this purpose, 156 companies were gathered between 2008 and 2017. In this connection, 20 financial indicators were used to determine the risk of credit and then its ranking by data envelopment analysis method. The relationship between the indices with the credit rating of each company was also tested and confirmed. Also, four indicators of earnings quality including sustainability and predictability features, profit / cash relationship, accruals, and, finally, earnings response coefficient and adjusted earnings response coefficient are used. First, the relationship of the 20 financial ratios applied with the credit rating determined by the data envelopment analysis method was verified in the form of a regression model tested and validated by the model. Then, the relationship between the four indicators of earnings quality with the credit rating of each company was tested. The results show that companies with lower credit risk have higher earnings quality. Also, with a decrease in the quality of profit indicators, their credit risk will also increase. From this research it can be concluded that there is a significant relationship between credit risk of listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange and their main indicators of earnings quality. In this research, credit rating is the amount of credit risk that is calculated and ranked by data envelopment analysis method.