Summary results for the full sample and the two subsamples formed on the basis of
the sign of SEPS, are reported in table 5. For the full sample, the estimate for the
coefficient of the change in annual income exclusive of income from asset sales
(6EPS,), at, is negative and significant (at the 1 percent level for one-tailed tests), and
the estimate for the coefficient of the debt-to-equity ratio (DETEQ,), Oz, is positive and
significant (at the 1 percent level for one-tailed tests). The results also show that the test
that the earnings-smoothing and the debt-equity effects are jointly zero can be rejected
with a high level of confidence.