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Federal judge ideology and real earnings management

Author

Listed:
  • Elmawazini, Khaled
  • Galariotis, Emilios
  • Hossain, Ashrafee T.
  • Rjiba, Hatem

Abstract

We examine the impact of liberal judge ideology, as an exogenous proxy for litigation risk, on real earning management. Our main findings suggest that U.S. firms headquartered in circuits that are more likely to be dominated by liberal judges engage in less real earnings management. Our findings are robust to considerations of alternate measures of our main variables and after the exclusion of litigious industries and circuits that are traditionally more liberal. We also show that the negative association between liberal court and REM is more pronounced for firms with more financial constraints, firms with a higher level of institutional shareholding, when CEOs have higher incentives to engage in opportunistic real activity management, and when CEOs have higher managerial ability.

Suggested Citation

  • Elmawazini, Khaled & Galariotis, Emilios & Hossain, Ashrafee T. & Rjiba, Hatem, 2024. "Federal judge ideology and real earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:92:y:2024:i:c:s1057521924000425
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103110
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Real earnings management; Litigation risk; Judge ideology; Monitoring; Corporate governance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law

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