Concern about climate change has increased the pressure on firms to be accountable for social impact and to report on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Focusing on the view that sustainability-oriented firms are likely to consider wider stakeholder interests and pursue high financial reporting integrity, this paper examines the association between carbon assurance and earnings management. Using a sample of firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange, we find voluntary adoption of carbon assurance (level), carbon disclosure and gender diverse boards are negatively associated with earnings management. Additional tests using different components of carbon assurance (percent and verification) confirm our main results. Our results suggest that firms that voluntarily invest in carbon assurance, carbon disclosure and gender diverse boards are less likely to engage in earnings management and thus have higher reporting integrity. This aligns with the view that firms' ethical concerns translate into higher quality reporting.

中文翻译：

---

减缓气候变化：碳保证和报告完整性

对气候变化的担忧增加了公司对社会影响负责并报告环境、社会和治理 (ESG) 绩效的压力。以可持续发展为导向的公司可能会考虑更广泛的利益相关者利益并追求高度的财务报告完整性，本文研究了碳保证与盈余管理之间的关联。使用在纽约证券交易所上市的公司样本，我们发现自愿采用碳保证（级别）、碳披露和性别多元化董事会与盈余管理负相关。使用碳保证的不同组成部分（百分比和验证）的其他测试证实了我们的主要结果。我们的结果表明，自愿投资于碳保障的公司，碳披露和性别多元化的董事会不太可能参与盈余管理，因此报告的完整性更高。这与公司的道德问题转化为更高质量的报告的观点一致。