This paper examines the implications of using the absolute value of discretionary accruals when testing for earnings management. First, we analytically develop the mean and variance of the distribution of absolute discretionary accruals, and show that the expected value is an increasing function...

Schiff and Hoffman (1996) found evidence that nonfinancial measures explain more of the variance in evaluations that focus on individual retail department managers while financial measures explain more variance in evaluations of the overall department. These findings are consistent with...