TY - BOOK AU - Di Giacomo,Alexandre AU - Prinz,Enrico TI - Do CEOs Manipulate R&D Expenses to Increase their Bonus? French Evidence PY - 2029///. N1 - 88 N2 - Do top executives engage in the manipulation of real activities to boost their short-term compensation? By combining hand-collected compensation data with firm-level information, we analyze the link between adjustments in research and development (R&D) expenses and bonus plans of French CEOs, focusing on the CEO’s bonus position. Utilizing panel data, we observe a negative relationship between bonus achievement levels and changes in R&D expenses. Notably, companies whose CEOs fail to meet their target bonus show lower growth in R&D expenses and are more likely to reduce such expenses. Adjustments in R&D expenses further rely on bonus criteria and occur more frequently when performance indicators underlying the bonus depend more heavily on pre-depreciation and amortization measures, which are impacted by R&D expenses. Our findings, remaining significant after robustness checks, corroborate prior research indicating that top executives manipulate earnings-based bonus plans to inflate their short-term compensation. JEL Classification: G34, M12 UR - https://shs.cairn.info/revue-finance-2024-0-page-I39?lang=en&redirect-ssocas=7080 ER -