Using a sample covering practically all dividend-paying small and medium-sized private companies in Finland during 2006–2010, we document that earnings management in these companies is driven by two concurrent forces: the willingness to pay (tax-exempt) dividends and avoiding unnecessary...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether auditor gender has an impact on the magnitude of corporate earnings management in small and medium-sized private Finnish firms. Our results concerning gender differences in audit practices are twofold. First, when we regress the absolute...