We examine the impact of age similarity between independent directors and the CEO on earnings management. Using changes in independent director composition due to same-aged director deaths and retirements for identification, we find that firms with the presence of independent directors who have the same age with the CEO are more likely to manage earnings. We further find that age similarity between these two parties increases earnings management through lowering the effectiveness of board monitoring. Additionally, this positive impact decreases as the age gap widens, but intensifies if independent directors share other characteristics with the CEO, if independent directors sit on audit or nomination committees, if firms with lower information asymmetry and if CEOs are older. Our results are robust to alternative proxies of earnings management.

我们研究了独立董事与首席执行官之间年龄相似对收入管理的影响。通过使用因同龄董事去世和退休而导致的独立董事组成的变化来识别，我们发现存在与CEO年龄相同的独立董事的公司更有可能管理收入。我们进一步发现，这两家公司之间的年龄相似性通过降低董事会监督的有效性来提高收益管理。此外，随着年龄差距的扩大，这种积极影响会减小，但如果独立董事与首席执行官具有其他特征，如果独立董事担任审计或提名委员会成员，信息不对称程度较低的公司以及首席执行官年龄较大，则会加剧这种积极影响。我们的结果对于盈余管理的其他代理是可靠的。