SMU School of Accountancy Associate Dean (Research) and Professor of Accounting Cheng Qiang and Professor of Accounting Chen Xia published a report in October 2014 titled: “Does increased board independence reduce earnings management? Evidence from recent regulatory reforms”. After studying a sample of 1,587 firms with the board data from BoardEx for the period 2000–2005, the authors explored whether an increase in board independence in response to this reform is associated with a decrease in earnings management. Moreover, in light of the potential ineffectiveness of monitoring by outside directors due to the lack of information, the authors ascertained whether the impact of the increase in board independence on earnings management varied with the cost of information acquisition.