We relate impression and earnings management to the field of ethnostatistics, the study of how statistics are produced and managed. By further linking impression management and agency theory, we show that earnings management may exacerbate agency problems. We hypothesize that earnings-increasing...

PurposeWe investigate whether shareholders are convinced by earnings management. We also explore how board gender diversity (the presence of female directors on the board) may influence the extent to which shareholders are convinced by earnings management. Design/MethodologyWe estimate the stock...

We examine whether they engage in income-increasing accruals manipulation (AM) or real activities earnings management (RM) to affect the future rating changes when firm managers have private information about the upcoming credit rating change. Using the large sample of U.S. data over the period...

Using firm-level union membership data for the period of 2002–2016, we show that firms with higher union membership are more likely to engage in real earnings management than accrual-based earnings management, with abnormal production as the dominant form of real earnings management. We...