Page 1 of 36 Earnings management surrounding M&A: role of economic development and investor protection Mohammad A Karim * Assistant Professor of Finance Division of Finance and Economics Marshall University College of Business CH 259 Huntington, WV 25755, USA Phone: 304-840-5894, Email: karimm@marshall.edu Sayan Sarkar Assistant Professor of Accounting College of Business University of Mary Washington Fredericksburg, VA, USA Email: ssarkar@umw.edu Shaorong Zhang Associate Professor of Finance Division of Finance and Economics Marshall University One John Marshall Dr, Corbly Hall 215 Huntington, WV 25755, USA Phone: 304-696-2605 Email: zhangs@marshall.edu JEL classification: G14, G15, G34. Keywords: Mergers & Acquisitions, Earnings Management, Investor Protection. * Corresponding author: Mohammad Karim and Shaorong Zhang are at Marshall University, WV and Sayan Sarkar is at the University of Mary Washington, VA. We thank Giorgio Gotti and Shofiqur Rahman for their valuable comments and support. This article was partially funded by Summer Research Grant, College of Business, Marshall University, WV. We retain responsibility for any remaining errors.