The relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure and earnings management: is it a complement mechanism or a substitute mechanism?

Prior literature has provided inconclusive results concerning the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) and earnings management (EM). This study examines the relation between CSRD and EM. For this study, 479 annual reports of publicly listed Indonesian companies were selected as the sample. The two-stage least square (2SLS) method was employed to test the relationship between CSRD and EM. Our findings suggest that companies that have high CSRD are less likely to manage earnings. Moreover, our findings suggest that the relationship between CSRD and EM can be viewed as a substitute mechanism. This study contributes to the accounting literature by examining the relationship between CSRD and EM in the setting of an emerging country.