Do the burst of financial crisis and European Union membership impact Earnings Management. Evidence from emerging Eastern European countries

Abstract

The paper studies earnings management in developing European countries. We investigated if membership in the European Union and the recent global financial crisis affected the decisions of managers in Eastern European countries to engage in earnings management. By analyzing a sample of 4,627 firms from four developing Eastern European countries (the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia) over the period of 2002-2009, our findings suggest there was a decrease in earnings management over the period leading up to the accession of these countries to the European Union. Additionally, we found that there was an increase in earnings management after the burst of the financial crisis. The results contribute to the debate in the accounting literature regarding the variations in earnings management related to the changes in environmental factors influencing companies. These results have several implications for standard setters and regulators; in particular, companies’ incentives are strongly influenced by the general conditions and circumstance of their home countries. Additionally, the study explores the still unexplored developing markets of Eastern European countries.