Earnings management and corporate bond issuance: evidence from Vietnam

The research paper analyses earnings management behavior around corporate bond issuance and its impact on bond pricing in Vietnam - a typical emerging market. Using a sample of corporate bond issuers, we document higher levels of both accrual-based and real earnings management in the bond issuing year compared with the two pre-issuance years. Further analysis shows that pre-issuance accrual-based earnings management and cash-flow-based real earnings management are followed by higher bond coupon rates, suggesting that bond investors demand compensation for perceived earnings manipulation. By highlighting the pricing consequences of accrual-based and real earnings management, this study provides new evidence on how accounting behavior influences debt markets, contributes to the global literature of corporate finance, earnings management and information asymmetry, with implications for emerging markets context.