This study documents that big bath accounting following CEO turnovers is pervasive worldwide and shows that the extent to which CEOs engage in big bath accounting is associated with the degree of discretion they have available in their respective countries. Our analysis is based on a new...

Examining a set of firms from 46 countries, we explore whether busy independent directors, CEOs and audit committees effectively monitor corporate financial reporting. We find that firms with a higher proportion of busy independent directors or busy CEOs more extensively manage their earnings....