caa a22 4500 60548368X CHVBK 20210128100432.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20151001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10551-014-2290-9 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10551-014-2290-9 Does Religion Mitigate Earnings Management? Evidence from China [Elektronische Daten] [Xingqiang Du, Wei Jian, Shaojuan Lai, Yingjie Du, Hongmei Pei] Using a sample of 11,357 firm-year observations from the Chinese stock market for the period of 2001-2011, we investigate whether and how religion can mitigate earnings management. Specifically, based on geographic-proximity-based religion variables, we provide strong and robust evidence to show that religion is significantly negatively associated with the extent of earnings management, suggesting that religion can serve as a set of social norms to mitigate corporate unethical behavior such as earnings management. Our findings also revealthat the negative association between religion and earnings management is less pronounced for firms with closer distance to the regulatory centers than for their counterparts, implying the substitutive effects between religion and the distance to regulators (the proxy for regulatory intensity) on mitigating earnings management. The above results are robust to different measures of earnings management, various religion variables, and a variety of sensitivity tests. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2014 Religion nationallicence Earnings management nationallicence The distance to regulators nationallicence Geographic proximity nationallicence The percentage of state shareholding nationallicence Regulatory intensity nationallicence Du Xingqiang Accounting Department, School of Management, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, Fujian, China aut Jian Wei Xiamen National Accounting Institute, Island-Coast Express, 361005, Xiamen, Fujian, China aut Lai Shaojuan School of Management, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, Fujian, China aut Du Yingjie School of Management, Shanghai University, 200444, Shanghai, China aut Pei Hongmei School of Management, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, Fujian, China aut Journal of Business Ethics Springer Netherlands 131/3(2015-10-01), 699-749 0167-4544 131:3<699 2015 131 10551 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2290-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2290-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Du Xingqiang Accounting Department, School of Management, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, Fujian, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Jian Wei Xiamen National Accounting Institute, Island-Coast Express, 361005, Xiamen, Fujian, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Lai Shaojuan School of Management, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, Fujian, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Du Yingjie School of Management, Shanghai University, 200444, Shanghai, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Pei Hongmei School of Management, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, Fujian, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Business Ethics Springer Netherlands 131/3(2015-10-01), 699-749 0167-4544 131:3<699 2015 131 10551