Empirically Measuring the Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Earnings Management in Listed Banks of the Iraqi Stock Exchange: The Mediating Role of Corporate Governance

The current study is based on previous findings, where corporate governance (CG) significantly increased corporate social responsibility (CSR) to enhance transparency while reducing the tendency of corporate management to engage in earnings management (EM). A sample of 11 Iraqi banks listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2020 was selected. The CG was included in the board size and board independence apart from the variables of Chief Executive Officer (CEOs) gender, majority shareholder ownership, foreign ownership, and institutional ownership. The CSR in-cluded the wage growth rate, bank contribution growth rate for social security, training programmes, subsidies, envi-ronmental protection, and bank compliance with the law. Specifically, EM practices were revealed from the sample. As bank management was not involved in CSR activities, the significant interaction role of CG was not discovered in the relationship between CSR and EM. An insignificant relationship between CG mechanisms (CGMs) and EM was also demonstrated. Summarily, CSR and CG structures were substandard among underdeveloped countries.