*2.4. Board Activity*

The board activity is measured by the board meeting frequency and is often considered an indicator of the effort put in by the directors. It is generally believed that an active board is more effective in monitoring the management (Ronen and Yaari 2008). Lipton and Lorsch (1992) stress that a widely shared problem among directors is too little time to carry out their duties, pointing out that more frequent board meetings will make directors more willing to perform their duties in line with shareholders' interests. The literature on board activity and earnings management consists of contradictory conclusions. Vafeas (1999) and Xie et al. (2003) find that more frequent board meetings lower the degree of earnings management, while other studies show either a positive relation between board meeting frequency and earnings management (Daghsni et al. 2016) or no relation between them at all (Ahmed 2007). Based on the contradictory literature, the fifth hypothesis is:
