Turbulent Periods, Earnings Management and the Role of Auditors

Abstract

The present study attempts to test the impact of audit, non-­audit fees, auditor tenure, auditor size, and financial distress on earnings management during turbulent periods for the five largest Eurozone countries. The motivation of the current study is to provide fresh evidence on these relationships during global financial crisis and sovereign debt crisis. We use the generalized methods of moments and ordinary least squares method for a sample of listed firms across the five largest Eurozone countries. We found that auditor tenure and auditor size carry no significant effect on earnings management during the financial crisis and sovereign debt crisis period as compared to the pre-crisis period for both cases. However, audit, non-audit fees and financial distress affect earnings management during the Eurozone crises periods. The results imply that stricter accounting regulation is needed during turbulent periods and investors should be careful with their investments.