Refinancing pressure and earnings management: Evidence from changes in short-term debt and discretionary accruals

In this paper, we investigate whether refinancing pressure leads managers to manipulate earnings. Our tests examine the relation between changes in short-term debt and discretionary accruals. We find that firms have higher discretionary accruals during periods of increasing short-term debt. We also find that this relationship is stronger for firms that ultimately obtain new loan financing. Finally, we show that the presence of investment grade debt attenuates the relationship between discretionary accruals and refinancing pressure.