Is there a trade-off between accrual-based and real earnings management activities in the presence of (fe) male auditors?

Prior research suggests that the presence of high-quality auditors (i.e. proxied by audit firm characteristics) constrains accrual-based earnings management, but it inadvertently leads to higher real activities manipulation. We investigate whether such trade-off exists between accrual-based and real...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Owusu, Andrews (Author) ; Zalata, Alaa Mansour (Author) ; Omoteso, Kamil (Author) ; Elamer, Ahmed A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2022
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2022, Volume: 175, Issue: 4, Pages: 815-836
Further subjects:B Abnormal accruals
B Aufsatz in Zeitschrift
B Auditor gender
B Real activities
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Prior research suggests that the presence of high-quality auditors (i.e. proxied by audit firm characteristics) constrains accrual-based earnings management, but it inadvertently leads to higher real activities manipulation. We investigate whether such trade-off exists between accrual-based and real earnings management activities in the presence of female or male auditors. We use a sample of UK firms for the period 2009 to 2016 and find that firms audited by female auditors do not resort to a higher-level real activities manipulation when their ability to engage in accruals management is constrained. Overall, our results suggest that the benefits of hiring female auditors (i.e. less accrual-based earnings management) are overwhelmingly higher than the costs they might bring to the client firms (i.e. higher real activities manipulation).
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04672-5