Corporate environmental disclosure and earning management

Abstract

Corporate environmental disclosure (hereafter abbreviated as CED) has developed rapidly into an important component of earning management (hereafter abbreviated as EM). Meanwhile, many parties are apprehensive of environmental issues. This study examined the relationship between CED and EM. The main focus was on 238 public listed companies, in three different industries, namely construction, technology and trading industries. The study was conducted from 2008 to 2014. CED had a positive and significant effect on the EM at 1% level of significance. This research presented two important impacts to the policy makers. Firstly, policy makers have a trade-off between choosing to act responsibly towards the environment or face EM. Second, policy makers have to relook the issue of environmental disclosure as a voluntary disclosure.