Earnings Management and Stock Liquidity

Author(s):  
Hakan Özkaya

This chapter tests whether the earnings management practices in Turkey are considered informative or opportunistic by outside investors by examining its effect on stock liquidity. Earnings management is measured by discretionary accruals calculated by two different competing methods. Stock liquidity is also proxied by two different measures: the illiquidity measure of Amihud and the turnover ratio. Amihud's illiquidity measure indicates firms' daily price responses associated with the trading volume and the turnover ratio indicates how many times a stock changes its owner in a year. Relevant control variables are also included in the models. A positive association between earnings management and stock liquidity implies informative earnings management and vice versa. Earnings management is found to be positively associated with stock market liquidity. Results favor the informative earnings management view for Turkish firms and are robust to alternative specifications of earnings management and stock liquidity measures.

Author(s):  
Gabriel Augusto de Carvalho ◽  
João Eduardo Ribeiro ◽  
Laíse Ferraz Correia

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze whether the introduction of market makers as specialized intermediaries in the trading of stocks listed on the Brazilian stock exchange is a useful procedure for increasing the market liquidity of these assets. Methodology: The Chow structural break test was performed in the time series of the liquidity proxies, average spread, turnover ratio, and financial volume on a sample of 55 stocks. We chose to consider data in the window of 260 days before and after the start of the market maker's activity, because it represents the approximate number of trading sessions in a year, and to avoid erroneous conclusions due to the volatility of the Brazilian stock market. Results: The results showed with a 99% confidence level that after the introduction of market makers, (i) 67% of the stocks analyzed had abrupt and statistically significant changes in the average spread; (ii) 47% in the turnover ratio; and (iii) 60% had changes in the volume transactions. At the confidence level of 95%, (i) 76% of the stocks analyzed showed abrupt changes in the average spread; (ii) 65% had changes in turnover; (iii) and 69% had changes in the trading volume. Using a lower confidence level of 90%, the results revealed 85% of the stocks had abrupt and statistically significant changes in the average spread, 78% in the turnover ratio, and 73% in the trading volume. Contributions of the Study: This paper provides strong evidence on the performance of market makers and the influence they have on the market liquidity of stocks traded on the Brazilian stock exchange. We found that contracting market makers increase market liquidity and contribute significantly to the assets’ transactions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad A. Toumeh ◽  

The current research aims at providing evidence concerning the influence of surplus free cash flow (SFCF) and stock market segmentations (SMS) on income-increasing earnings management practices in Jordan. The results, based on a sample of all non-financial companies that were listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) from 2013 to 2017, confirm the research hypotheses. The Huber-White’s sandwich standard errors for randomeffects regression was used as the primary statistical tool for this study. The findings revealed a significant and positive association between SFCF and income-boosting discretionary accruals (DAC). As well, the results found that SMS was significantly and positively associated with the positive DAC. This research adds value to scholarship by investigating the impact of SMS variable on earnings management. To the best available knowledge, this relationship has not been examined either in Jordan or elsewhere in the world. Further, this is the first empirical attempt to investigate the effect of SFCF on earnings management in Jordan, which provides meaningful information for companies seeking to understand and reduce agency problems within the Jordanian context. KEYWORDS: Earnings management; DAC; surplus free cash flow; SFCF; stock market segmentations; SMS; agency theory; institutional theory; Jordan.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Temitope Olamide Fagbemi ◽  
Olubunmi Florence Osemene ◽  
Oyinlade Agbaje

Sometimes the rivalry between shareholders and management is an indication of the level of entrenchment within the corporate environment. Managers are believed to routinely manipulate earnings in order to mislead shareholders about their company's actual economic outlook or performance. As a result, the study investigated the impact of managerial entrenchment, firm characteristics and earnings management of conglomerate companies in Nigeria. Employing the ex-post facto research design, the data was gathered from secondary source of the 6 listed conglomerate companies for the 11-year period running (2008-2018). The study used discretionary accruals a proxy for earnings management and to calculate discretionary accruals, the study used modified Jones model. The result showed that management entrenchment and firm characteristics have Impact on multinational firms ' earnings management in Nigeria. Specifically, from the conglomerate’s entrenchment proxies, CEO’s tenure has a positive and significant impact on earnings management (coff. =1.062821, p-value =0.0367) and management entrenchment as measured by CEO’s shareholding has a negative and insignificant effect on earnings management (coff. =-6252391, p-value = 0.4090) while firm size, profitability and leverage indicated a significant and positive impact on earnings management (coff, = 0.124587, p-value = 0.0000; coff. = 0.006647, p-value = 0.0431 and coff. = 0.032065, p-value = 0.0000). The study therefore recommended among others that management should reduce the debt in their capital structure in order to improve their companies’ value and their capital structure should be majorly financed by equity rather than debt and reduce CEOs tenure to minimise earnings management practices.


2020 ◽  
pp. 097215092093406
Author(s):  
Ahmad A. Toumeh ◽  
Sofri Yahya ◽  
Azlan Amran

Management engages in earnings manipulation for different reasons. This article argues that low-growth firms with high free cash flow will opt for income-increasing earnings management in order to obscure the low profits derived from their investments in negative net present value (NPV) projects. On the other hand, we argue that the listed companies might be interested in being listed in the first market due to its privileges and to preserve the competitiveness, through managing their earnings upwardly, so that they can satisfy the condition of achieving a particular earnings limit. This article should advance the body of earnings management literature in the Jordanian context by examining the effect of the moderating role of an independent audit committee (IAC) in the association between surplus free cash flow (SFCF) and income-increasing discretionary accruals (DAC). Further, this is the initial empirical attempt to investigate the moderation effect of IAC between stock market segmentations (SMS) and positive DAC. The results of this current study offer original and beneficial information for the Jordanian government and other countries with a similar institutional environment because the study promotes the application of applying IAC as an efficient tool to constrain management behaviour towards manipulation of the accruals. On top of that, this research offers information concerning the prevailing situation of earnings management practices and corporate governance in Jordan, in which shareholders, local and international investors, policymakers, regulators and academic researchers are interested. Finally, panel data analyses and various statistical techniques are employed to derive conclusions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 511-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eftychia Kapoutsou ◽  
Christos Tzovas ◽  
Constantinos Chalevas

The aim of this study is to examine the question of earnings management and, specifically, how this relates to taxation. In order to determine whether there is a correlation between earnings management and taxation, we investigate the discretionary accruals aspect of total accruals, i.e. the portion of profits which can be affected by management accounting choices, as calculated by the Jones (1991) model and the modified Jones model (Dechow et. al, 1995). Furthermore, we examine to what degree a correlation may exist between discretionary accruals and tax income (consisting of current and deferred tax). Our empirical findings demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between the levels of discretionary accruals and of total, current and deferred tax. This suggests that tax in general may be employed as a means to facilitate earnings management. The findings of this study suggest that IFRS provisions regarding taxation provide firms with a scope to get involved in earning management practices


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (02) ◽  
pp. 02-21
Author(s):  
Ly Tran Thi Hai

This study investigates the impact of monetary policy on liquidity of Vietnam’s stock market from September 2007 to November 2014. Time series of liquidity are determined by monthly liquidity data for 643 enterprises in the surveyed period. Two variables of the monetary policy, including growth in money supply and interbank rate, are employed in VAR model along with four different measures of market liquidity. The results show that unexpected variance in the two monetary policy variables has no significant impact on the market liquidity, which, in turn, may be improved by the positive shocks of market returns, inflation, and growth in industrial production. Market variance does produce certain effects, but discrepancies occur in the signs of various liquidity measures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 1028-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sijia Zhang ◽  
Andros Gregoriou

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine stock market reactions and liquidity effects following the first bank loan announcement of zero-leverage firms. Design/methodology/approach The authors use an event studies methodology in both a univariate and multivariate framework. The authors also use regression analysis. Findings Using a sample of 96 zero-leverage firms listed on the FTSE 350 index over the time period of 2000–2015, the authors find evidence of a significant and permanent stock price increase as a result of the initial debt announcement. The loan announcement results in a sustained increase in trading volume and liquidity. This improvement continues to persist once the authors control for stock price and trading volume effects in both the short and long run. Furthermore, the authors examine the spread decomposition around the same period, and discover the adverse selection of the bid–ask spread is significantly related to the initial bank loan announcement. Research limitations/implications The results can be attributed to the information cost/liquidity hypothesis, suggesting that investors demand a lower premium for trading stocks with more available information. Originality/value This is the first paper to look at multiple industries, more than one loan and information asymmetry effects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Szymon Stereńczak

The effect of stock liquidity on stock returns is well documented in the developed capital markets, while similar studies on emerging markets are still scarce and their results ambiguous. This paper aims to analyze the state-dependent variance of liquidity premium in the Polish stock market. The Polish capital market may serve as a benchmark for other emerging markets in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, hence the results of this research should be of great interest for investors and policy makers in Poland and other post-communist European countries. In the empirical, study a unique empirical methodology has been applied, which guarantees the uniqueness of the results obtained. The results obtained suggest that on the Polish stock market exists stock liquidity premium, which is statistically significant, but constitutes only a small fraction of returns. It also does not increase during periods of bearish market, what results from the lengthening of average holding period when market liquidity decreases.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamdan Amer Al-Jaifi

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether ownership concentration and earnings management affect the stock market liquidity of Malaysian firms. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a sample of 2,020 yearly firm observations in Bursa Malaysia over the period 2009-2012. The ordinary least square regression is used to examine the relationships. The study undertakes a sensitivity test by regressing the main study variables by using different measurements. Another robustness test is then used, where a regression based on the change in variables and a one-year lag of the independent variables are used. Furthermore, to alleviate the concern of possible endogeneity, the simultaneity and reverse causality are checked using the lag of the dependent variable, fixed effect regression, two-stage least squares using the instrumental variables and the generalized method of moments using instrumental variables analysis. Findings The study finds that firms with a high level of ownership concentration have discrepancies in information between informed and uninformed traders, which impair the stock market liquidity. In addition, this study finds that firms with high earnings management experience greater liquidity. A possible explanation for this is that firms might manage earnings to convey private information to enhance the information content of the earnings. Overall, the evidence suggests that manipulating earnings signals information informatively, particularly in a country with a higher level of ownership concentration and a higher likelihood of expropriating minority shareholders. Originality/value This study enriches the limited empirical research devoted to the impact of earnings management and ownership concentration on stock market liquidity especially in the context of emerging economies. The findings of this study are robust to alternative liquidity measurements, to alternative estimation methods, and to endogeneity bias.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-314
Author(s):  
Rodolfo Rodrigues ◽  
Clayton Melo ◽  
Edilson Paulo

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