Managers with different abilities may make various decisions in economic and financial crisis conditions. Real earnings management, as an important issue, is in the centre of attention for many managers in a crisis condition. In this paper, the role of managerial ability in real earnings management is studied in conditions of economic and financial crisis. This study shows that the managers with higher ability take less usage of real earnings management. The results also indicate that managerial ability, economic and financial crisis have significant and negative effects on real earnings management. This negative effect of managerial ability on real earnings management increases in the conditions of economic crisis. Paying attention to the firms' managerial ability, especially in critical conditions, will lead to more accurate decisions by activist investors.