This paper examines the effect of earnings management on financial leverage and how this relation is influenced by institutional environments by employing a large panel of 25,798 firms across 37 countries spanning the years 1989 to 2009. We find that firms with high earnings management...

We examine the impact of political uncertainty on firms' payout policy. Using a large international sample across 35 countries over the period from year 1990 to 2008, we find that past dividend payers are more likely to terminate dividends and that non-payers are less likely to initiate...