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Accounting Conservatism Or Earnings Management: A Study Of The Allowance For Doubtful Accounts, Timothy G. Bryan

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This paper empirically examines the relationship between conservatism and earnings management in chemical and allied products manufacturers via an analysis of the allowance for doubtful accounts and bad debt expense. Data used in the study included total accounts receivable, the total allowance for uncollectible accounts, total assets, and other firm-level data from the COMPUSTAT database of North American firms for companies with the standardized industry code (SIC) of 28 which represents chemical and allied products manufacturers. Chemical and allied products manufacturers were deemed an ideal target for the study because the industry typically has large balances in accounts receivable and …