Detecting financial statements fraud: Evidence from listed companies in China

Financial statement fraud is the deliberate misrepresentation of a company’s financial statements. Financial statement fraud has been a global concern since it not only harms the investors and creditors but also undermine the public confidence of the capital market. Based on the fact that a common incentive for companies to manipulate financial statement is a decline in the company’s financial prospects, this paper applies the mixture hazard early warning model to identify the key impacting financial characteristics in detecting the financial statement fraud for listed companies in China. We find that in the construction industry the warning sign of suspcious business practices is a falling return on assets, while in the real estate industry the financial red flag is an increase in the inventory level. The estimation results indicate that the financial characteristics may have different implications in different industries in detecting financial statement fraud. This research has shed light on setting specific financial characteristics for fraud monitoring and detecting by the regulators.