caa a22 4500 605486395 CHVBK 20210128100445.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20151201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10551-014-2310-9 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10551-014-2310-9 Religiosity and Earnings Management: International Evidence from the Banking Industry [Elektronische Daten] [Kiridaran Kanagaretnam, Gerald Lobo, Chong Wang] Using an international sample of banks, we study how differences in religiosity across countries affect earnings management. Given that religiosity is a major source of morality and ethical behavior, it may reduce excessive risk taking and act as deterrence for earnings manipulations. Therefore, we predict lower earnings management in societies that have higher religiosity. Consistent with expectations, our cross-country analysis indicates that religiosity is negatively related to income-increasing earnings management for loss-avoidance and just-meeting-or-beating prior year's earnings. We also find that religiosity reduces income-increasing earnings management through abnormal loan loss provisions. In additional tests, we document that religiosity increases the information value of bank earnings, with both earnings persistence and cash flow predictability being enhanced by higher religiosity. For the crisis period analysis (i.e., 2007-2009), our evidence shows that banks in countries with higher religiosity exhibit lower probability of reporting asset deterioration and lower probability of having poor performance. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2014 Religion nationallicence Ethics nationallicence Morality nationallicence Earnings management nationallicence Earnings benchmarks nationallicence Loan loss provisions nationallicence Kanagaretnam Kiridaran Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada aut Lobo Gerald C. T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA aut Wang Chong Von Allmen School of Accountancy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA aut Journal of Business Ethics Springer Netherlands 132/2(2015-12-01), 277-296 0167-4544 132:2<277 2015 132 10551 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2310-9 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/s10551-014-2310-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kanagaretnam Kiridaran Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Lobo Gerald C. T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Wang Chong Von Allmen School of Accountancy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Business Ethics Springer Netherlands 132/2(2015-12-01), 277-296 0167-4544 132:2<277 2015 132 10551