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Freedom of the press and corporate misconduct

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  • Trang Nguyen

Abstract

This study examines how freedom of the press affects corporate misconduct, focusing mainly on earnings management. I find that firms engage more in earnings management when they have a high percentage of sales in countries with restricted media freedom. I find that the influence of foreign partners’ media freedom on earnings management depends on how domestic investors process information about firm export markets and how multinational firms shape their relationship with stakeholders. Additionally, the presence of analysts in foreign countries reduces firms’ incentives to exploit media restriction to manipulate earnings. Finally, I further show that insiders of these firms tend to be involved in opportunistic insider trading, which could indicate corporate misconduct. Overall, these results show that corporate misconduct can be in part explained by a spill‐over effect of the media freedom of export markets.

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  • Trang Nguyen, 2021. "Freedom of the press and corporate misconduct," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(9-10), pages 1668-1710, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:48:y:2021:i:9-10:p:1668-1710
    DOI: 10.1111/jbfa.12532
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    1. Geng Niu & Yang Zhou & Weijie Lu & Hongwu Gan, 2022. "Religiosity and corruption in bank lending," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(9-10), pages 1957-1983, October.
    2. Saeed, Abubakr & Ali, Ashiq & Azaaviele Liedong, Tahiru, 2024. "Parent firm reputational risk and TMT gender diversity of foreign subsidiaries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).

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