This study explores empirically whether managers manipulate reported earnings
through the timing of sales of long-lived assets and investments by taking advantage of
the acquisition-cost principle underlying the accounting valuation of assets. Several
empirical implications of the earnings-smoothing and debt-equity hypotheses in the
context of asset sales were examined. The findings are consistent with the timing of
asset sales by managers so that the recognized accounting income from these sales
smooths intertemporal earnings changes and mitigates accounting-based restrictions in
debt covenants.