“…Table 7 provides the results of t -tests comparing the mean and median level of each earnings quality measure for the strong and weak CG portfolios. The results show that earnings smoothness is more in firms with worse governance (Cornett et al , 2008; Wang, 2014; Yasser and Mamun, 2015; Wan Mohammad et al , 2016; Elghuweel et al , 2017; Al-Haddad and Whittington, 2019); earnings predictability is more in firms with better governance (Cho and Rui, 2009; Prencipe and Bar-Yosef, 2011; Ahmed and Ismail, 2013; Mollah et al , 2019); firms with better governance have higher earnings persistence (Calegari and Maretno, 2005; García Lara et al , 2010; Asogwa et al , 2020; Agustina et al , 2021); firms with worse governance have higher value relevance (Omokhudu and Amake, 2018); earnings timeliness is more in firms with better governance (Broedel Lopes and Walker, 2008; Ebimobowei and Yadirichukwu, 2013; Lim et al , 2014; Mathuva et al , 2019; Syofyan et al , 2021); and firms with better governance have higher levels of earnings conservatism (Xia and Zhu, 2009; García Lara et al , 2010; Lim, 2011; Leventis et al , 2013; Huang et al , 2014; Sharma and Kaur, 2021). Except the value relevance measure, these results support our hypotheses.…”