EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Corporate Boards, Audit Committees, and Earnings Management: Pre‐ and Post‐SOX Evidence

Aloke Ghosh, Antonio Marra and Doocheol Moon

Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 2010, vol. 37, issue 9‐10, 1145-1176

Abstract: Abstract: Primarily motivated by the claims that the recent regulatory initiatives empowering boards and audit committees restrain earnings management, we examine whether board characteristics (composition, size, and structure) and audit committee characteristics (composition, size, activity, expertise, ownership, and tenure) are associated with earnings management before and after Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX). Using absolute performance‐adjusted discretionary accruals, special items, and deferred tax expense as alternative constructs for earnings management, we find that earnings management does not vary with board composition and structure, or with audit committee composition, expertise, and ownership. In contrast, board size and audit committee size, activity, and tenure are associated with earnings management. More important, the strength of this association is considerably weaker for the post‐SOX years compared to the pre‐SOX years. Finally, we find no evidence to suggest that the overall level of earnings management declined following SOX.

Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (52)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2010.02218.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:37:y:2010:i:9-10:p:1145-1176

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0306-686X

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Finance & Accounting is currently edited by P. F. Pope, A. W. Stark and M. Walker

More articles in Journal of Business Finance & Accounting from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:37:y:2010:i:9-10:p:1145-1176