It is argued that managers took advantage of Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and remote auditing and used earnings management (EM) practices extensively. Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic created new unsearched crisis-related incentives. This study, therefore, tests whether Covid-19 created a new incentive for managers to manipulate earnings. It also examines the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and board independence and EM during Covid-19. A data set of 384 firm-year observations from 2018 to 2021 of non-financial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) was investigated. Results indicate that Jordanian firms engaged in EM during Covid-19 considerably more than when compared to pre-Covid-19, suggesting that Covid-19 created a new incentive for managers to manipulate earnings. Furthermore, Jordanian firms used income-increasing EM much more when compared to income-decreasing EM. However, when taking Covid-19 into account, no significant association was found between board independence and EM. In addition, the ability of CSR to constrain EM decreased. This adds to the current debate in the literature that even well-established monitoring mechanisms like board independence and CSR are unable to constrain EM practices in a unique business environment caused by Covid-19.

The literature argues that the quality of a firm’s financial reporting is reflected in the extent of its sustainability disclosure (SD). This study therefore examines the link between CEO characteristics (i.e., age, financial experience, duality leadership structure) and privileges (i.e., compensation and ownership) and the extent of SD. It also examines whether board independence has a vital impact on this association. A panel data set of 329 firm-year observations of firms listed on the Amman stock Exchange (ASE) between 2022 and 2023 is investigated. While the results show that a CEO’s age and compensation positively and significantly affect the magnitude of a firm’s SD, the CEO’s financial experience, duality and ownership do not have a significant link to SD. Moreover, when board independence moderates the association between CEO characteristics and privileges and the extent of SD, the only variable that has a positive and significant effect on the extent of sustainability information is the CEO’s age. The findings are expected to be beneficial to firms’ decision makers regarding the selection of CEOs, as well as in deciding their compensation schemes. It also adds new evidence to the current debate in the literature on this issue, especially from a developing capital market like Jordan.