Accounting and Other Control Methods of Profit Management
This study tests the hypotheses of different methods of legal profit management that companies in Russia use to level profits. Materials and methods. Research analysis to test the hypotheses was performed using the method of econometric modeling on a sample of 184 public companies traded on the Russian stock exchange RTS/MICEX from 2009 to 2013. Results. This study presents the results of empirical studies on whether and how Russian companies use accounting and non-accounting practices of profit management to level their financial results. The main result of the study is that Russian companies are likely to use both accounting and non-accounting methods to level earnings, and the method of choice depends on the size of the company’s debt. The greater is the level of debt, the less likely are companies to use nonaccounting methods of profit management and thus are more inclined to use the accounting tools.