Based on a model developed in prior studies (e.g. Ogneva et al. 2007), we first use US data to predict the likelihood that a firm has material internal control weaknesses (ICW). We then show, using this model, that firms in the pre-SOX era, in UK and in Australia with a higher predicted...

When we examine all firms in the sample we find that short-term debt is positively associated with earnings management consistent with some prior studies and the debt hypothesis. However, when we focus on high creditworthy (investment grade) firms we find a negative relation between short-term...