This study examines the relationship between earnings management and characteristics of corporate governance mechanism for a sample of Jordanian non-financial firms during the period 2006-2009. Earnings management is measured by discretionary accruals using Jones models. The characteristics examined are the existence of independence members within the board of directors, the size of the board of directors, the role duality (CEO/chairman), the percentage of insider ownership. In addition, two controlled variables have been employed in this study: size of the company and financial leverage.

The results of this study reveal that the size of board of directors is the only variable that has a significant relation with earnings management. The findings of this study have important policy implications since they support encouraging applying corporate governance principles in order to control the behaviors of the board of directors which may lead to distortion in reported financial annual reports. As a result, the reliability and transparency of reported financial statements may be enhanced.