Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

11-2025

Abstract

This paper examines the association between chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) prosocial tendency and their firms’ likelihood of accounting manipulation. We measure CEOs’ prosocial tendency based on their involvement with charitable organizations. We find that prosocial CEOs are less likely to engage in accounting manipulation, as proxied by material non-reliance restatements and SEC or DOJ enforcement actions. The effect is more pronounced when CEOs are involved with charities that directly aim to improve the welfare of others and when they face stronger incentives to misreport. These results continue to hold in analyses of changes in CEOs’ prosocial tendency around turnover events. Taken together, our findings suggest that CEOs’ prosocial tendency, a fundamental personal trait, plays a significant role in shaping the quality of accounting information.

Keywords

prosocial behavior, prosocial tendency, accounting manipulation, accounting information quality

Discipline

Accounting

Research Areas

Corporate Reporting and Disclosure

Publication

Contemporary Accounting Research

First Page

1

Last Page

74

ISSN

0823-9150

Identifier

10.2139/ssrn.4304319

Publisher

Wiley

Embargo Period

12-2-2025

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4304319

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