Does Corporate Governance Affect Earnings Management? Evidence from Vietnam

This study investigates how corporate governance characteristics affect earnings management of firms in Vietnam. In particular, we examine whether firm’s use of discretionary accruals is influenced by board size, state ownership and foreign ownership. Our empirical analysis is based on a relatively large sample of 570 non-financial Vietnamese listed firms from 2010 to 2014. We find that larger board size is effective to mitigate earnings management. In addition, shareholdings by state and foreign investors discourage the opportunistic behavior of management. We also observe that board size literally weakens the constructive effect of foreign ownership on earnings management. Our results are robust to alternative estimation methods and variable specifications.