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This study aims to investigate whether and how the executive military experience influences accrual-based earnings management and real earnings management.

Based on a sample of 4,392 listed firms in China between 2006 and 2022, this study examines the theoretical hypotheses by performing multiple regressions with fixed effects and a battery of robustness tests.

With a focus on executives’ decisions on the choice between two earning management methods, this paper find military executives reduce accrual-based earnings management but increase real earnings management. The mechanism of risk-aversion is verified in the post hoc analysis.

Most studies argue that military experience, which represents a strong sense of duty and self-discipline, can help to reduce corporate unethical behaviors. The study extends the existing literature on executives’ military experience by identifying risk-aversion rather than ethical values as the potential mechanism through which executives’ military experience affects earnings management.