Intelligence, Institutions, a Culture of Secrecy and Earnings Management

Abstract

This paper proposes novel insights at the intersection of psychology and corporate governance at the country-level. Research in psychology shows that intelligence and economic development are associated through good institutions. I propose that, although research in corporate governance regularly exhibits a negative correlation of good institutions and earnings management, high cognitive ability is crucial to fulfill the complicated task of managing earnings. Cultural factors regularly relate to managers' value systems and hence might influence their stance on earnings management. Therefore, I control for the mitigating effect of a secretive cultural disposition on the relation between intelligence and earnings management in a multivariate analysis.

Keywords: Intelligence, Institutions, National culture, Earnings management