Table 1 Summary of variables and their measurement
| Â | Label | Measure | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
Dependent variable | |||
 Earnings Management | |||
  Accrual Earnings Management | AEM | Modified Jones model (1995) (Eq. 1) | DataStream and financial statements |
  Real Earnings Management | REM | ABCFO: Abnormal levels of cash flow from operations (Eq. 5) | DataStream and financial statements |
ABDISCX: Abnormal level from the sum of Selling and Marketing Expenses and General and Administrative Expenses (Eq. 6) | |||
ABPROD: Abnormal level from the sum of cost of goods sold and change in inventory (Eq. 7) RM1 = − Abnormal cash flows from operations + Abnormal production costs (Eq. 8) | |||
RM2 = − Abnormal cash flows from operations − Abnormal discretionary expenditures (Eq. 9) | |||
RM3 = − Abnormal cash flows from operations + Abnormal production costs − Abnormal discretionary expenditures (Eq. 10) | |||
Independent variable | |||
 Board diversity | BRDDIV | The number of female directors scaled by total size of board directors | Annual Disclosure Books By EGX, Ownership structure reports and BOD reports |
Control variables | |||
 Firm size | SIZE | Natural log of the book value of a firm’s total assets at the end of its financial year | DataStream and financial statements |
 Liquidity | LIQ | Ratio of current assets to current liabilities | DataStream and financial statements |
 Performance | ROA | Ratio of net income to total assets at the beginning of the year | DataStream and financial statements |
 Performance | ROE | Net income is scaled by the total equity at the beginning of the year | DataStream and financial statements |
 Capital structure (Gearings) | GEAR | Total debt is scaled by total equity at the end of fiscal year | DataStream and financial statements |
 Leverage | LEV | The book value of total debt scaled by total assets at the end of its financial year | DataStream and financial statements |
 Assets Tangibility | ASSTAN | Ratio of net property plant and equipment scaled by total assets | DataStream and financial statements |
 Operating Cycle | OC | The logarithm of the sum of the inventory and the receivables period | DataStream and financial statements |
 Earnings Management Flexibility | EMFLEX | Total inventories and receivables scaled by total assets | DataStream and financial statements |