Debates and studies on earnings management: a geographical perspective

Earnings management has received considerable attention in the accounting literature. However some aspects and environments are still unexplored. We present the debates on this subject: real transactions or accounting practices, respecting the rules or crossing the boundaries, efficient or opportunistic earnings management. Based on diligent investigation of more than two hundred papers, we present the evolution of the earnings management concept and present our own definition. Finally, we conduct a literature review on earnings management from a geographical perspective.