Explaining the Relationship between Corporate Governance and Earnings Quality in Iran

This paper examines the relationship between corporate governance and quality of reported earnings, using panel data analysis. The sample consists of 117 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) in the period of 1386-1388. Prior studies have used many substitutes for corporate governance, but this research is based on a multi-dimentional and composite approach to measure corporate governance. Also, quality of earnings is measured by seven metods. The empirical results show that the measure of corporate governance is 1) negatively correlated with accrual quality, earnings persistence, and earnings management and conservatism, 2) positively correlated with earnings predictability and earnings timeliness, and 3) and not correlated with value relevance measure of earnings. In other words, the relationship between earnings quality and corporate governance is not of one-dimentional link nature, and it is not easy to accept one of the monitoring and the assurance hypotheses with no respect to the other one. Furthermore, the disaggregation of corporate governance measure into some components reduces the explanatory power of the models. Finally, the relationship between corporate governance and various measures of earnings quality in different industries is not homogenous.