Author(s): Alaa A. Al Saedi
This study investigates the relationship between earning management practices and the returns on shares, in view of the fact that accountants can change the figures in financial statements through earning management practices. The research identifies the extent of this phenomenon among Qatari industrial listed companies and the relationship with the shares’ returns of these companies. It does so by using the modified Jones model for the calculation of total accruals, and discretionary and non-discretionary accruals, using financial data from a sample of seven Qatari industrial companies over a period of nine years from 2009 to 2017. By using a panel data method to test the relationship between earning management practices and returns of shares, the study reaches several conclusions, the most important of which is that industrial companies listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange do not exercise earning management practices in general, and there is no relationship between the extent of earning management practices and the returns on the shares.