The relationship of agency costs and the disclosure of sustainability reports in earnings management
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982-6486.rco.2025.219205Keywords:
Corporate governance, Disclosure, Quality of accounting informationAbstract
The objective of the study is to verify the moderating effect of agency costs on the relationship between the disclosure of sustainability reports and earnings management practices in public companies listed on B3. To this end, descriptive, documentary research with a quantitative approach was carried out, covering the period from 2015 to 2020, with an unbalanced sample comprising 702 observations. Data were collected through the Economática® platform, corporate websites and reference forms, and analyzed using multiple linear regression, using Stata® software. The findings suggest that the agency cost, measured by asset turnover, had a negative relationship with earnings management practices, while inefficiency in spending intensifies earnings management practices in Brazilian companies. On the other hand, companies that disclose sustainability reports are less prone to earnings management practices, likely leading to an improvement in the quality of accounting information. However, the concomitant presence of the disclosure of sustainability reports and high agency costs lead companies to practice earnings management, reversing the beneficial effect that the disclosure of sustainability reports promotes on the quality of accounting information.
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