This study investigates the effect of earnings management and corporate governance on the capital structure decision of firms. We utilized data of non-financial firms from selected sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2008 to 2018. Both fixed and random effect regressions were the methods of analysis employed. Our findings indicate that earnings management is associated with low equity usage and by implication, high leverage levels among firms. Importantly, the presence of corporate governance was found to mitigate the high leverage implication of earnings management. We therefore recommend an improvement in corporate governance practices to minimize the occurrence of earnings management.

中文翻译：

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盈余管理、资本结构和公司治理的作用：来自撒哈拉以南非洲的证据

本研究调查盈余管理和公司治理对公司资本结构决策的影响。我们利用了 2008 年至 2018 年期间来自选定的撒哈拉以南非洲国家的非金融公司的数据。固定和随机效应回归都是采用的分析方法。我们的研究结果表明，盈余管理与股权使用率低以及公司之间的高杠杆水平有关。重要的是，发现公司治理的存在可以减轻盈余管理的高杠杆影响。因此，我们建议改进公司治理实践，以尽量减少盈余管理的发生。