Influência dos Ciclos Políticos no Gerenciamento de Resultados das Cooperativas Agropecuárias do Paraná

Abstract

This research aims to identify the presence of earnings management in accounting statements of agricultural cooperatives in Paraná, with electoral purposes for the reappointment of an administrator to the same position in the next term. The research sample is composed of 19 agricultural cooperatives in the state of Paraná, in which the necessary financial statements were collected from 2008 to 2020. Management, as well as the control variables leverage, company size, ROE (performance) and tangibility. The model used to measure Earnings Management was the Modified Jones (1995). Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, correlation matrix and ordinary least squares regressions. The analysis of the correlation matrix showed evidence to refute the research hypotheses, since the p-value did not demonstrate significance between the elections and earnings management, being later confirmed with the least squares regression, in which it did not detect a relationship between the discretionary accruals and elections in cooperatives. As for the control variables, it was found that leverage and size did not present statistical significance and, therefore, it cannot be inferred that these variables are related to earnings management. When observing the trend of these variables, it was verified that they follow the expected theoretical assumption, coinciding with the signs found in previous researches that use publicly traded companies. However, when performing the regressions annually, the leverage variable presented several periods with significance, therefore, it can be inferred that the variable may be one of the factors that affect the performance of cooperatives and may have contributed to the significance of the ROE variable. The ROE and tangibility variables were shown to be significant at the 5% level and followed the expected sign, which indicates a relationship with earnings management. These findings demonstrate that cooperatives with higher performance and less tangibility make more use of earnings management practice, since performance is linked to remuneration, as for tangibility, because the cooperatives in the sample are large, they demand greater investment in machinery and equipment, due to the processing of the grains and animals received.