Earnings management in Australia under new ASX corporate governance guidelines

The current Australian corporate reporting and governance environment provides a setting in which effective monitoring of management should occur. It is widely viewed that such monitoring is necessary to counter managements incentives to smooth earnings. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the new Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) corporate governance guidelines in this regard, by examining the association between earnings management and corporate governance mechanisms related to the board of directors and the audit committee. Information on these mechanisms is reported by many firms in compliance with guidelines issued by the ASX in 2003. Based on a sample of 186 listed Australian firms in 2005, as hypothesized, the role separation between the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Chair of the Board is found to be significantly related to a lower level of earnings management. However, it is surprising to find that lower remuneration of non-executive directors, by fixed payment and by equity ownership, is significantly associated with a lower level of earnings management, rather than a higher level as predicted by agency theory. By comparison to the results of an earlier Australian study, it is noted that the new ASX corporate governance guidelines have not significantly affected the relation between corporate governance and earnings management in 2005.40 page(s