盈余管理是一个与投资者保护和会计准则制定紧密相关的重要问题,它已经成为会计乃至经济领域的重要研究课题。盈余管理的方法包括真实盈余管理和应计盈余管理两种,目前学术界的研究主要关注的是盈余管理的经济后果与监管方面的问题。但管理者就如何在两种盈余管理方法中进行权衡选择这一问题未做深入讨论。本文基于成本收益理论,以沪深两市上市公司作为样本进行实证检验,研究管理者如何选择盈余管理方法。研究发现真实盈余管理的成本和应计盈余管理的水平正相关。同样,应计盈余管理的成本与真实盈余管理的水平也是正相关,说明管理者会考虑两种方法的成本孰低进行选择。本文还发现管理者会根据当年已实现的真实盈余管理的结果,调整其应计盈余管理的水平,即两种盈余管理方法之间有替代关系。通过分析管理者选择盈余管理方法的过程,提出通过增加盈余管理成本以及结合企业的具体情况,针对不同时期企业盈余管理的方法程度存在的差异,采取不同监管措施的建议。 Earnings management is an important issue closely related to the protection of investors and the development of accounting standards. It has become an important research topic in accounting and even economic fields. Earnings management methods include real earnings management and accrued earnings management two, the current academic research is mainly concerned with the economic consequences of earnings management and regulatory issues. But managers did not discuss in depth how to weigh trade-offs between the two approaches to earnings management. Based on the theory of cost-benefit, this paper tests the listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock market as the sample to study how managers choose the earnings management method. The study found that the cost of true earnings management is positively correlated with the level of accrued earnings management. Similarly, the accrued earnings management costs and the level of real earnings management is also a positive correlation, indicating that managers will consider the lower cost of the two methods to choose. The paper also finds that managers will adjust their level of accrued earnings management according to the actual earnings management that has been realized in the year, that is, there is an alternative relationship between the two methods of earnings management. By analyzing the process of managers choosing earnings management methods, this paper puts forward some suggestions on adopting different regulatory measures by increasing the cost of earnings management and combining the specific conditions of enterprises, and according to the differences in the methods of corporate earnings management in different periods.