Information quality and firm age

This study aims to approach the impact of firms’ age in regard to their financial information quality within a sample of 612.899 non-financial Portuguese and Spanish companies referring to the time period expanding from 2007 to 2012. The main focus is in contrasting startup firms (determined as those established after 2007) and mature firms (determined as those established before 2007), in respect to differences as to their respective levels of discretionary accruals prevailing throughout their distributions. This is achieved through the estimation of the Dechow-Dichev Model, and, ultimately and subsequently, in their due information quality. Furthermore, two Versions of the Model are estimated, considering different forms of external financing (loans and liabilities). It appears that accruals-based earnings management does differ whether startup firms or mature firms are considered, with higher levels of discretionary accruals prevailing within startups, although mature firms ultimately seem to provide for lower levels of information quality, being these findings congruent with the notion that mature firms rely on a much larger pool of resources and are able to manage their accounts more effectively if they choose to do so