The persistence of accounting accruals components: an empirical study of some algerian companies

الملخص EN

This paper aims to explore and measure the persistence of accounting accruals components comparing with the operating cash flows.

The study was based on Sloan (1996) and used a panel data of 20 Algerian companies during 2007-2018.

The results suggest that the non-discretionary accounting accruals and operating cash flows of the Algerian companies are persistent, while the discretionary accruals are not persistent.

The results indicate also that the non-discretionary accounting accruals and operating cash flows present the same level of persistence.

Therefore, the low persistence of accruals comparing with cash flows in the literature may be due to discretionary accruals as a result of earnings management practices.