Income Smoothing and Overvaluation

Purpose: This research evaluates two views of the effect of income smoothing on stock overvaluation. There is a view that income smoothing impairs the usefulness of profit information by distorting the economic substance of a company. While another view is income smoothing can serve as a means of conveying classified information within a company. With the two views, it is unclear to predict income smoothing's relevance to overvaluation of stocks. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the relationship between income smoothing and stock overvaluation in the capital market. Design/methodology/approach: The study conducted on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets from 2011 to 2020, and measured income smoothing using the methods suggested by Leuz et al. (2003), Park et al. (2011), and Tucker and Zarowin (2006). For stock overvaluation, the method of Rhodes-Kropf et al. (2005) used. Findings: This study provided empirical evidence that there is a negative relation of income smoothing with stock overvaluation, which may be interpret that income smoothing may lower stock overvaluation. In other words, priv-ileged information delivered by the manager through income smoothing may alleviate the overvaluation of stocks caused by excessive stock price relative to its intrinsic value. This result was more observable as the greater majority shareholder ownership interest, the greater the foreign investors share, and for companies listed on the KOSDAQ. Research limitations/implications: This study makes contribution to the literature by supplying other evidence on the effect of income smoothing on capital market and supplies meaningful guidance to capital market stakeholders. Originality/value: This study is valuable not only because it expands earlier research on income smoothing and stock overvaluation, but also because it empirically confirms the usefulness of income smoothing in the capital market.