This study hypothesizes and tests whether the degrees to which managers exercise earnings discretion relates to their value system (i.e., culture) as well as the institutional features (i.e., legal environment) of their country. We find that uncertainty avoidance and individualism dimensions of...

We examine how labor-friendly institutional features, i.e., laborism, relate to corporate investment efficiency in labor in a sample that represents 33 countries during 1996 to 2012. We consider various dimensions of laborism such as the presence of left-leaning government, rigidity of employee...

This study examines the role of codes of ethics in reducing the extent to which managers act opportunistically in reporting earnings. Corporate codes of ethics, by clarifying the boundaries of ethical corporate behaviors and making relevant social norms more salient, have the potential to deter...

We study whether a particular aspect of language structure, the future-time reference (FTR) of a language, explains variation in corporate earnings management behaviors around the world. Based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (Whorf 1956), we predict that grammatically referencing the future, which...

This study hypothesizes and tests whether the degrees to which managers exercise earnings discretion relates to their value system (i.e., culture) as well as the institutional features (i.e., legal environment) of their country. We find that uncertainty avoidance and individualism dimensions of...