We analyse to what extent the accrual anomaly is related to the choice of the accounting system as well as firm-level heterogeneity in corporate governance mechanisms. Using a unique dataset of listed German firms over the period 1995 to 2005 we first corroborate former results indicating that...

While it is generally maintained that earnings management can occur to inform as well as to mislead, evidence that earnings management informs has been scarce, and evidence that credibility increases with signal costliness inexistent. We provide evidence that firms use discretion over financial...

We examine the potential confounding effects that awarding outside directors stock options may have on the quality of financial disclosure. By aligning their interests with those of shareholders, directors should be more inclined to monitor and disclose relevant information to investors....

Despite decades of research on how, why, and when companies manage earnings, there is a paucity of evidence about the geographic location of earnings management within multinational firms. In this study, we examine where companies manage earnings using a sample of 2,067 U.S. multinational firms...

The present research attempts to investigate the relationship between agency problems that rise due to the free cash flow with long term profitability and income management; and also the effects of the structure of ownership on income management. The criterion used for measuring long-term...

This paper suggests that the financial crisis, which made itself felt at end of 2008, gave company pension funds in the Netherlands cause to manage the funding ratio, in order to prevent it from dropping below the level of the required minimum funding ratio. On the other hand, industry-wide...

This paper investigates the underexplored issue of whether and how firms manage their earnings when tax rates increase. We hypothesize and find that firms generally choose to manage their taxable income upward in a book-tax non-conforming manner rather than in a book-tax conforming manner before...

This article develops further results on earnings management and the cost of capital, which complement Strobl (Journal of Accounting Research, forth.). Within a simplified version of the model, I illustrate the existing linkage between earning management activities and firms' cost of capital,...

Our study explores the concept of independence and its interdependence with accounting outcomes. Drawing on agency and non-agency theoretical foundations, we examine whether audit committee independence and the network centrality of a firm's board members and au-ditor are positively associated...

This paper proposes that psychological factors can change a manager's beliefs about earnings management when they choose to engage in it. I show that, under certain circumstances, engaging in a small amount of earnings management alters a manager's beliefs about the appropriateness of the act,...