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The Effect of Religion on Accounting Conservatism

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  • Lijun Ma
  • Min Zhang
  • Jingyu Gao
  • Tingting Ye

Abstract

This paper investigates whether religiosity, a key informal institutional factor, strongly influences a firm’s adoption of accounting conservatism. Using a sample from the U.S. stock market, we find that firms located in geographic areas with higher levels of religiosity tend to exhibit greater accounting conservatism. Further tests show that this effect is through the channel of engaging managers in activities that emphasize firms’ long-term growth, concern stakeholder interests, and avoid the risk of litigation. Moreover, we demonstrate that it is the religious environment in an area rather than the personal religious belief of a CEO that drives our baseline results. Finally, a supplementary test suggests that religiosity increases not only the conditional (ex post) conservatism of firms but their unconditional (ex ante) conservatism as well.

Suggested Citation

  • Lijun Ma & Min Zhang & Jingyu Gao & Tingting Ye, 2020. "The Effect of Religion on Accounting Conservatism," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 383-407, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:29:y:2020:i:2:p:383-407
    DOI: 10.1080/09638180.2019.1600421
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    Cited by:

    1. Rawan Atwa & Safaa Alsmadi & Buthiena Kharabsheh & Ruwaidah Haddad, 2023. "Do CEO Attributes Spur Conservatism?," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Ahsan Habib & Mabel D' Costa & Ahmed Khamis Al‐Hadi, 2023. "Consequences of local social norms: A review of the literature in accounting, finance, and corporate governance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 3-45, March.
    3. Andrei Filip & Gerald J. Lobo & Luc Paugam, 2021. "Managerial discretion to delay the recognition of goodwill impairment: The role of enforcement," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 36-69, January.
    4. Lu Qiao & Emmanuel Adegbite & Tam Huy Nguyen, 2024. "CFO overconfidence and conditional accounting conservatism," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 1-37, January.
    5. Thomas R. Berry-Stölzle & Jianren Xu, 2022. "Local religious beliefs and insurance companies’ risk-taking behaviour," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 47(2), pages 242-278, April.
    6. Khedmati, Mehdi & Aminu Sualihu, Mohammed & Yawson, Alfred, 2021. "Does religiosity matter for corporate labor investment decisions?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).
    7. Murat Ocak & Bekir Emre Kurtulmuş & Emrah Arıoğlu, 2024. "Do Individual Auditors from More Religious Hometowns Enhance Audit Quality? Evidence from an Islamic Country," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(2), pages 439-481, March.
    8. Cecília Carmo & Cristiana Ribeiro, 2022. "Mandatory Non-Financial Information Disclosure under European Directive 95/2014/EU: Evidence from Portuguese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-23, April.

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