Investigating the difference in the quality of audit and profit management in bankrupt and healthy companies: matched groups method using machine learning

Investigating the characteristics of bankrupt companies, including profit management and audit quality, is of great importance in investigating the opportunism of management and the reasons for bankruptcy. For this purpose, this research investigates the difference in profit management and audit quality in these two groups by separating the companies into two groups, bankrupt and healthy, with the help of the technique of matched groups using machine learning tools. By examining 237 companies admitted to the Tehran Stock Exchange during the period of 2010 to 2019, it has been determined that there is a significant difference between profit management and audit quality in two groups of bankrupt and healthy companies. The results show that the clustering of companies based on financial ratios increases the power of predicting important corporate events such as bankruptcy. The main purpose of the current research is to investigate the quality of audit and profit management in bankrupt and healthy companies using the technique of matched groups. The results of this research can help to improve bankruptcy prediction models.