The relationship between stock liquidity and real earnings management with the moderating role of institutional ownership

Managers in different companies may turn to earnings management in order to increase the amount of bonus received, to show the good status of the company and to maintain their managerial position. Earnings management in different companies done by two methods of accrual and actual earnings management, and in this research, real earnings management, which is less paid attention to in research, investigated. One of the factors that, according to theoretical principles, may affect the amount of real earnings management is the liquidity of stocks. Therefore, in this research, the relationship of stock liquidity with two criteria, Amihud and Amivest, investigated with real earnings management. The statistical population of this research is the companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange during the period 2016 to 2022 and the data of this research includes 1029 company-years. Multivariate regressions and panel data method used to test the hypotheses. The result of this research showed that stock liquidity has a significant effect on the amount of real earnings management in companies and institutional ownership moderates this relationship.