The main objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ownership structure and earnings quality, proxied by earnings management and informativeness. This study focuses on a sample of 117 French companies belonging to the SBF 250 index during the period 2003-2011. For our analysis, we use the panel data econometrics and, more specifically, the method of Panel Corrected Standard Errors. The results of linear regressions show that managerial ownership has a positive impact on the earnings management and reveal that ownership concentration and institutional ownership have a positive impact on the earnings informativeness. In addition, the results of this study show the existence of non-linear relationship only for ownership concentration and institutional ownership.

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