This paper examines the effect of governance on the quality of the financial
reporting process by linking governance attributes to the quality of accounting
earnings. The focus on earnings is appropriate since it is a summary performance
measure that is frequently quoted, analyzed and discussed in the literature and in the
financial community. In this paper, the quality of earnings is measured in two ways:
(1) an accounting-based measure of earnings management (the magnitude of
abnormal accruals); and
(2) a market-based measure of earnings informativeness (the return-earnings
association)