Goodwill impairment: evidências da estratégia do gerenciamento de resultados contábeis nas empresas brasileiras

Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate whether managers use the discretion of registering goodwill impairment to practice EM, especially via income smoothing and small loss avoidance. To do so, the research uses quarterly data from Brazilian companies registered at the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) from the first quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2019. The data on goodwill impairment expenses were hand-collected from the firms’ financial statements, and the other data were collected from Economatica. For the analyses, the research uses of the EM measures from (Leuz et al., 2003). Then, the analysis proceeds to a second step aiming to identify the characteristics of the companies associated with the decision to register losses due to the impairment of goodwill. To do so, a logit model similar to Giner and Pardo (2015) is used. The results show there is evidence that firms use the discretion in registering goodwill impairment expenses to avoid disclosing losses, but there is no evidence regarding earnings smoothing. Next, the logistic regression shows that companies with higher goodwill values, less profitable, and with lower expected loss values, tend to recognize impairment more frequently. Finally, it is possible to conclude that there is some evidence that managers carry out EM via impairment of goodwill in Brazil, especially via small loss avoidance.