Corporate governance quality, firm size and earnings management: empirical study in Indonesia Stock Exchange

Earnings management (EM) is manipulation done by management in preparing financial statement in order to gain management advantages or to increase the firm value. EM can reduce the quality of financial statements because it does not show the real earning periodical. This research aims to identify the effect of good corporate governance (GCG) (institutional ownership, managerial ownership, frequency of board meetings, frequency of audit committee (AC) meetings), firm size, and leverage on the EM. Population comprises the companies in LQ 45 index of Iindonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) for the period 2010–2014. Samples of the research were taken using purposive sampling method, and the variables are tested using multiple linear regression analysis. The results of the research show that partially, only leverage has significant effect on EM, while institutional ownership, managerial ownership, frequency of board meeting, frequency of AC meetings, and firm size have no significant effect on EM, but all of the variables have simultaneously significant effect on EM. Limitations of the research are the only used 6 independent variables and 21 companies as samples of the research.