Beyond the Darkness of Earnings Management
How Do Top Italian and US Companies React to the Global Crisis?

Area 13 – Scienze economiche e statistiche

The field of Earnings Management is widely debated in the world of business as well as in international literature. It consists in the process of altering data of Income Statement and Balance Sheet, which maydeeply modify the company’s real situation. This book traces a key lecture in interpreting the reaction of the largest listed companies operating in USA and Italy with the aim of understanding whether the global economic crisis started in 2007 has caused an increase or a decrease in earnings management policies. After making a review of the most famous cases of companies’ manipulations (Enron, Worldcom and Parmalat) and providing a deep overview of the most popular models of earnings management detection, an application of the Beneish model on US and Italian listed companies during the global crisis period is provided in order to make a comparison between the two examined countries. The title Beyond the Darkness of Earnings Management conveys to readers the ability to look beyond the darkness and uncertainty of the economic and financial manipulations, and provides a key lecture for analysing the US and Italian context during the economic crisis.

SINTESI