What is Opportunistic Earnings Management

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.