Corporate governance and financial reporting quality during the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper analyzes whether COVID-19 affects the financial reporting quality of companies and whether corporate governance has a mitigating effect. Using data from UK listed companies, we show that the quality of companies’ financial reporting has been lower during the pandemic. Specifically, companies have engaged in more earnings management through real activities during the pandemic. We also find that a larger board helps to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on financial reporting quality, although we find no mitigating effect for board independence and CEO duality. This paper provides additional evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on financial reporting quality using a strong country-level governance setting. It is also the first study to analyze the mitigating effect of corporate governance on financial reporting quality during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study provide useful suggestions to the practice.