Corporate governance and earning management: Evidence from 200 Malaysian listed firms from the period of 2007 to 2011

Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness of some corporate governance variables to monitor management behavior with the respect to their incentives to manage earnings. A set of 200 Malaysian listed firms for the year 2007 to 2011 in Bursa Malaysia have been investigated to analyze the relationship between corporate governance and earnings management. The corporate governance variables examined are CEO duality (when the chairman and the CEO is the same person), the proportion of independent non-executive directors and board size. We find discretionary accruals as a proxy for earnings management is negatively related to the board size and ROA, but positively related to the existence of CEO-Chairman duality, size of the firms, and operating cash flow. However, the results do not show a significant association between the proportion of independent non-executive directors on the board and earnings management.