Market misvaluation and earnings management. Evidence from Italian financial market

Classical and behavioural finance theory overview. Classical finance theory. Market Inefficiencies. Behavioural Finance Theory. Investors’ Sentiment. Stock market overvaluation and undervaluation. Earnings management. Earnings management definition. The relationship between earnings and stock market. The relation between earnings management and stock market incentives. Detecting Earnings Management. The agency theory of overvalued equity and earnings management. Empirical evidences supporting the Jensen’s agency cost of overvalued equity and earnings management. Hypothesis Development. The Italian Insider System. The Italian institutional contest. Earnings management in Italy. Sample, Data and Variables’ Description. Sample description and data gathering. Variables’ description. Dependent variable: Change in Current Accruals and Change in Discretionary Accruals. Independent variable: Change in Market to Book Ratio. Control Variables. Model Specification and Descriptive Statistics. Model Specification. Descriptive statistics. Primary test – Changes in Total Accruals as a Dependent Variable. Robustness checks. Alternative sample composition. Alternative model specification.