Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore whether principles-based vs rules-based accounting standards have an effect on measures of financial reporting quality and earnings management strategies. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a firm-year-specific variable that captures...

In this study, we investigate how country-level long-term orientation affects managers' willingness to engage in earnings management and choice of earnings management strategy. Using a comprehensive dataset of 47 countries for the period from 2003 to 2015, we find that firms in longterm oriented...

This study investigates the association between private company auditing and intertemporal income shifting. Using a large reduction in the Finnish corporate tax rate as a strong incentive for income shifting and financial statement data coupled with proprietary information from the tax...

Prior literature considers a change in the national corporate income tax (CIT) rate as a strong firm incentive to manage earnings. This article examines the link between two recent CIT reforms in Sweden and earnings management with a large dataset of private firms. The effects of tax rate cuts...

The aim of this article is to investigate if small firms react to a national corporate tax rate reduction by managing their taxable income. In contrast to previous studies, we also analyze whether outsourcing of accounting tasks affects the magnitude of the reaction. Based on a sample of Finnish...

This study analyzes real earnings management among privately held versus publicly listed firms. Our first finding is that public firms engage in more earnings management through operating activities. When a clear incentive to manage earnings in a specific direction is present we continue to find...

In this study, we investigate cost behavior of companies in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries before corporate tax rate cuts become effective. We consider such events to generate strong incentives for intertemporal cost shifting. We analyze the time...