Impact of financial leverage on accounting conservatism application: the case of Vietnam

This research is conducted to investigate the impact level of financial leverage on the application of accounting conservatism principles of listed firms in Vietnam. Data were collected from audited financial statements of listed firms in the period from 2009 to 2018. The study employs fixed effect model (FEM), random effect model (REM), and generalized least squares (GLS). We measure accounting conservatism based on the models of (Ball and Shivakumar, 2005) and (Givoly and Hayn, 2000). The results show that financial leverage has a positive effect on accounting conservatism. In addition, we also examine a number of control variables such as corporate governance, state ownership, foreign ownership and firm size influencing accounting conservatism, but the results were not consistent between the two models. The findings are a useful basis to help listed firms determine the capital structure of the business reasonably, thereby help listed firms consider when applying accounting conservatism in particular and the accounting principles in general.