The purpose of this study is to inv

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of independent audit
committees in constraining real earnings management, an issue becoming more crucial
in the post-SOX period. Specifically, this study examines whether real earnings
management is affected by five audit committee characteristics including:

(1) accounting financial expertise;
(2) board tenure;
(3) additional directorships;
(4) block shareholdings; and
(5) committee size.