Studying a sample of Japanese firms, we examine whether foreign investors exert a significant influence on earnings management through manipulation of real activities. We find that foreign investors play an independent role in restraining real earnings management, as captured by abnormal cash...

Cohen et al. (2008) document that firms switched from accrual-based earnings management (AEM) to real earnings management (REM) within three years after passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002. A remaining question is how so many firms could have made the transition from one accounting...