Earnings management and tax avoidance research: a 30-year retrospective analysis

Scientific research on earnings management (EM) and tax avoidance has been on the ascendency within the past three decades. We examine the evolution of EM and tax avoidance research, map the state of knowledge, and provide an analysis of the trend and gaps in the literature. A total of 1095 extant studies from 1992 to 2022 sourced from the Scopus database were analyzed using bibliometric techniques. We find a significant growth in the number of publications on EM and tax avoidance research within the past two decades championed largely by researchers from Asia and America. Our network analysis shows greater collaboration among researchers from developed countries that are geographically close but not those in developing countries. Our analysis highlights influential authors, most cited articles, prominent publication outlets and countries advancing knowledge in the field. We highlight from our analysis potential avenues for future researchers.