本研究以世新大學所編制之台灣人信心指數作為主要衡量投資人情緒之替代變數，探討2004年至2012年台灣上市櫃公司之盈餘管理行為與投資人情緒之關係，並以摩根富林明所編制之投資人信心調查作進一步穩定性測試。本研究假定當管理當局較在意公司股票價格時，較有可能會在投資人情緒樂觀時進行盈餘管理行為。實證結果發現，當投資人情緒樂觀時，公司預期外之負盈餘確實會對股價造成負面影響，此外投資人情緒與裁決性應計項目存在正向關係，代表管理當局有誘因會在投資人情緒樂觀時，利用盈餘管理行為使公司避免呈現負盈餘。本研究進一步利用公司治理變數評估公司之代理成本，實證結果發現，當總經理同時兼任董事長或是董事會之獨立性較低時，投資人情緒與盈餘管理之間的關聯性愈高，因此公司治理機制在投資人情緒樂觀時，可以有效降低公司盈餘管理之行為。;In this study we examine how the earnings management behavior of Taiwanese companies is related to investor sentiment. We posit that managers who care much about stock prices may be more likely to manage earnings when sentiment is high. We first document that investors indeed react more negatively to disappointing earnings when sentiment is higher. We then show that there is a positive association between investor sentiment and discretionary accrual, indicating firms engage in earnings management behavior in order to avoid reporting disappointing earnings. Using corporate governance variables to estimate the agency cost associated with a firm, we find the association between earnings management and sentiment is higher for the firms of which CEO is also chairman and for the firms with lower board independence. Therefore, corporate governance mechanisms are effective in reducing opportunistic earnings management in the face of high sentiment.
