Board of directors and earnings manipulation: evidence from regulatory change

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect board directors’ related clauses such as independence, female director, CEO Duality and expertise director included in Code Corporate Governance 2017 (CCG-2017) on earnings management with pre- post-CCG-2017 analysis. This study has used sample 323 non-financial listed firms Pakistan Stock Exchange from 2015 2019. Data were manually collected companies’ annual reports, two proxies have used: one discretionary accruals other real activity manipulation. results show that compared pre-period CCG-2017 post-period inclusion increased significantly. Moreover, independence financially expert directors are negatively accruals, while there a positive relationship which also same for findings no independence/outside recommended reforms introduced by regulator. we recommend regulator needs augment authentic independent/outside (concentrated ownership context) Pakistan. adds its part corporate governance literature focusing attributes regulatory manipulation, lacking general an emerging economy particular.