Accruals Quality and Debt Maturity Structure

摘要

In this paper we use panel data and GMM estimation to examine the effect of accounting quality on debt maturity structure in a bank-based financial system and show that, even after controlling for unobservable heterogeneity, endogeneity, variables reflecting operating volatility and the cost of debt, firms with poor accounting quality face a shorter debt term than firms with higher accounting quality. This association between accounting quality and debt maturity is consistent with accounting quality as a means of reducing information asymmetry problems and improving the monitoring of managers.