Because managers may have incentives to manage accruals/earnings upwards and
downwards, consistent with previous research (e.g. Becker et al. 1998), we use the absolute
value of discretionary accruals to measure earnings management. Discretionary accruals
are estimated using the cross-sectional modified Jones model (Dechow et al. 1995).12 Using
such an approach, actual total accruals are compared with forecasted total accruals from
an accrual prediction model. The differences between actual total accruals and predicted
accruals are assumed to represent discretionary accruals, or earnings management. Similar
to the accrual measure in Bharath et al. (2007) and Hribar and Collins (2002), actual total