An analysis of the impact of working capital accruals on corporate earnings in Turkey

Within the scope of earnings management, this study aims to determine and assess the impact of factors demonstrating the effect of changes in working capital accruals upon the increases or decreases in the return levels of firms. To this end, covering the period between 01.01.1996-31.12.2002, it includes in its scope 119 firms per year publicly-traded in the ISE (Istanbul Stock Exchange) National-100 index and analyzes their financial statement data both separately for each year and for the entire period in question. The firms in the scope of the analysis were analyzed under three separate groups, which are those with only increases in their earnings level, those with only decreases in their earnings level, and those with either increase or decrease in their earnings level. As the main conclusion of the study, it could be suggested that coefficients with the highest effect on corporate returns are RwnAni and RwpAni, while Rwp, Rwn and Size are those with the lowest effect.