Global Engagement and Returns Volatility

This paper finds that a greater reliance on foreign market sales increases the volatility of firms’ stock returns, using high‐frequency data for publicly listed Japanese manufacturing firms over the period 2000–10. The two margins of global engagement we consider, namely, exports and sales via foreign affiliates (horizontal foreign direct investment), have both a positive and economically significant effect on firm‐level volatility. We find, however, that increasing the intensity of sales through foreign affiliates has a stronger effect on volatility than a similar change in export intensity. We also uncover evidence consistent with the notion that firms’ need to use external finance to cover the substantial costs involved in reaching foreign consumers can be an important channel through which firms’ participation in international markets increases their exposure to economic uncertainty.     

Disclosure quality,price efficiency,and expected returns

Using a composite disclosure quality measure, we examine the effect of disclosure quality on price delay and the effect of price delay determined by disclosure quality on expected returns in the Taiwan stock market. We find that higher disclosure quality can reduce stock price delay through more investor attention and higher stock liquidity after we control for accounting quality variables and consider the endogeneity issue. Furthermore, we show that disclosure quality reduces expected stock returns through the price efficiency channel associated with both investor attention and stock liquidity. Our results indicate that increasing a firm’s standardized information rating by one standard deviation can reduce its expected stock return by 0.63% annually. Taken together, our evidence suggests that regulatory activities enforced to improve public firms’ disclosure quality in the Taiwan stock market can make the stock market more efficient and therefore lower investors’ required return for stocks.     

Do investments in intangible customer assets affect firm value?

This paper develops a simple model of investment by service firms in intangible customer assets, and tests whether the model identifies some critical drivers of firms’ stock returns. Similar to firms with significant research and development (R&D) expenditures, we argue that firms in fast-growing service industries with few tangible assets can increase firm value by investing in customer acquisition and service (A&S) expenditure. Using a unique hand-collected data set, we show that per-customer changes in firms’ revenues, customer acquisition costs, and customer service costs help to explain their abnormal stock returns.     

The role of the seller’s stock performance in the market reaction to divestiture announcements

Divestitures have the potential to create shareholder value. However, the extent of the market reaction should depend on the likelihood of finding more valuable uses for the divested assets or the ability on the part of the seller to eliminate negative synergies. We hypothesize that strong performers have less scope to achieve substantial improvements compared to poorly performing firms. Using the seller’s stock return in excess of the market return in the 1-year and 2-year periods preceding the divestiture announcement to expose the divesting firm’s inefficient use of its assets, we show that the market reaction to divestiture announcements is significantly higher for underperforming firms. The difference in abnormal returns can be as high as 4 %. In contrast, none of the accounting-based variables that have been used in previous studies are found to be significantly related to the announcement returns. These results suggest that the firm’s stock performance is a more useful indicator of the wealth effect associated with divestitures.     

Short-term institutions’ information advantage and overvaluation

Prior literature has documented that institutions which trade more frequently are better able to forecast future returns and have an informational advantage. This study examines a proximate explanation for the differences in performance based on institutions’ investment horizon – short-term institutions are better informed because they are better able to identify overvalued stocks that are short-sale constrained and overvalued in the context of Miller’s (1977) overvaluation hypothesis. Analysis is conducted on 6330 unique firms from 1996 to 2014 using the calendar-time portfolio approach where abnormal returns are estimated from the Fama-French-Carhart four-factor regression model. The results provide evidence that stocks which are extremely overvalued due to short-sale constraints have the greatest decline in short-term institutional ownership, consistent with the notion that short-term institutions are able to correctly assess the components for stock overvaluation.     

Impact of Environmental Performance on Firm Value for Sustainable Investment: Evidence from Large US Firms

This research examines the impact of environmental performance on firm value, applying the event study methodology to Newsweek’s ‘Green Rankings’ announcement of 2012 for large US firms. Specifically, it analyzes the impact of the absolute green score and green rank of firms on their performance in the stock market. We found that investors perceive the announcement as positive news, leading to significant positive standardized cumulative abnormal returns (SCARs). After controlling for industry‐ and firm‐specific effects, we observed that firms with repeated green rankings for enhancing environmental performance showed significantly higher SCARs than those with either reduced or unchanged environmental performance. In addition, the environmental impact score measuring environmental damage from a firm's operational activities was found to be the most influential factor in improving the firm's value. Our findings are beneficial to managers in allocating resources to different types of environmental initiative, and provide valuable insight for sustainable environmental investment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

The impact of the logistics service standardization on firm value: Evidence from China

In 2014, the Standardization Administration of China launched its first pilot project of the logistics service standardization (LSS). We examine whether the staggered adoption of the LSS creates value for shareholders using a difference-in-difference research design. The findings suggest that firms located in LSS cities have higher firm value in terms of Tobin’s Q and stock returns than those of non-LSS cities. In further analysis, we find that the LSS enhances firm value by improving corporate operational efficiency. However, the LSS increases large firms’ market share at the expense of small firms. Overall, our findings advance the literature of logistics system reform and show that such reform creates value for shareholders.     

Should we worry about the decline of the public corporation? A brief survey of the economics and external effects of the stock market

In recent years, the number of listed companies has been declining in many countries across the world. This paper provides a selective survey of the literature on the real economic effects of the stock market to assess the potential effects of this decline and determine whether it is likely to continue. The leading economic role of the stock market’s primary market, in which firms raise capital by issuing new shares, is to help growing firms secure financing. We discuss providing and certifying information, coordinating investors, and easing the redeployment of capital as the means through which capital allocation can be efficiently achieved. The main economic roles of the stock market’s secondary market, the trade in existing shares, is to provide liquidity to shareholders, to aid in price discovery and to provide diversification opportunities. Positive external effects from an active stock market may arise for consumers, labor and private firms due to increased corporate investment, more socially responsible business strategies and a more positive business climate. Negative external effects on capital allocation and productivity can arise from short-termism, market mispricing, and increased cross-ownership. Local stock markets can spur innovation and foreign direct investment (FDI) and reduce the risk of early cross-border acquisitions. Given the myriad of useful economic functions the stock market performs, a future entirely absent of public companies is difficult to imagine and the decline is therefore likely at some point to come to an end. Whether we need to worry about the decline depends on the relative importance of the positive and negative external effects, a topic we feel warrants more research.     

Abnormal research and development investments and stock returns

We investigate the relation between abnormal research and development (R&D) investments change and expected stock returns. We provide evidence that firms that abnormally increase their R&D investments (RDI) earn higher returns in comparison to the market portfolio. Specifically, our findings document an economically significant annual positive abnormal RDI returns that ranges from 3.2% to 11.5%. These findings are robust to well-established risk factors in the literature and suggest that the abnormal increases in RDI impacts stock returns.     

Brokers’ financial network and stock return

Brokerage firms are usually not only known for trading stocks for their retail clients in return for commission fee but also known for being information distributors of their clients’ investment recommenders. However, only a few studies have examined investors’ trading behaviors within a brokerage firm. This study proposes a financial network model in modeling the information diffusion process of investors within brokerage firms and investigates the potential effect of interconnectedness among brokerage firms on stock returns. We find that the centrality of brokerage firms has strong explanatory power to stock returns even if we control for the Fama–French pricing factors and other characteristics of stock.     

Cross-sectional quantile regression for estimating conditional VaR of returns during periods of high volatility

Evaluating value at risk (VaR) for a firm’s returns during periods of financial turmoil is a challenging task because of the high volatility in the market. We propose estimating conditional VaR and expected shortfall (ES) for a given firm’s returns using quantile regression with cross-sectional (CSQR) data about other firms operating in the same market. An evaluation using US market data between 2000 and 2020 shows that our approach has certain advantages over a CAViaR model. Identification of low-risk firms and a reduction in computing times are additional advantages of the new method described.     

The peer-firm effect on firm’s investment decisions

This study investigates the effect of peer firms on firm investment strategies. We test the peer group effect hypothesis along differing levels of financially constrained firms as well as differing degrees of industry competition. Using idiosyncratic equity returns as the instrument variable, we use 2-stage least squares regression to identify the influence of peer firms’ investment decisions on a firm’s own investment policies. Our analyses empirically confirm that there is a peer group effect in making firm investment decisions. More financially constrained firms show greater dependency on peers’ investment decisions. Tests of peer sensitivity to the increase in industrial competition, however, displayed a U-shaped quadratic curve, which shows that firms have the lowest peer group effect in medium-competition markets. We claim that imitative behavior in investment is presumably weak in the mid-competition market because firms are yet to be distinguished in this market.     

CAPM模型在上海股票市场的有效性检验

根据资本资产定价模型(CAPM),从上海A股市场随机抽取100支股票,计算它们的收益率,选择上证综合指数为市场组合的市场指数,并利用双层回归分析方法对2007年1月1日至2011年12月31日这段时间的100支股票进行实证检验。虽然很多国外研究表明,CAPM模型在一定程度上能够解释市场收益,并在资产估价、资本预算、投资风险分析方面已经得到了广泛应用,同时也有利于投资者构建最优的证券投资组合,但本文实证研究结果发现,CAPM模型并不适合中国的股票市场,股票预期收益率和系统风险之间不仅不存在正相关的关系,而且也不存在线性关系,除了系统风险外,非系统风险在解释股票收益上也具有一定的作用。     

Supply chain integration and shareholder value: Evidence from consortium based industry exchanges

Recent trade and academic literature point to the importance of supply chain integration among partners as a key determinant of value creation. This paper analyzes the shareholder value effects of setting up industry exchanges, a prominent mechanism used to achieve supply chain integration. Shareholder value effects are estimated by measuring the stock market reaction (abnormal returns) associated with announcements to form or join industry exchanges. We find that abnormal returns from participation in industry exchanges are positive but only marginally significant in the whole sample of 144 firms in 18 exchanges formed during 2000–2001. In the sub-sample of 88 exchange founders who were part of the original announcements to form the exchange, the abnormal market reaction is about 1% and significant. We also find that firms with greater bargaining power and higher process efficiency benefit more from participation in industry exchanges.     

Corporate governance and firm performance relationship: Implications for risk‐adjusted return behavior

We examine the impact of corporate governance on firm performance and stock return behavior using panel data for Indian listed firms for 2006 to 2015. Our results suggest that corporate governance improves firm performance. However, corporate governance information fails to provide excess risk‐adjusted returns to investors, as governance information is well assimilated in prevailing stock prices. In addition to extending the scant literature focused on emerging markets, our findings will prove useful to investors, fund managers, and rating agencies in making investment decisions and regulators in assessing the impact of governance norms.     

Mandated Recognition of Employee Stock Option Expense – The Case of Canada

On December 18, 2003 the Accounting Standards Board of Canada announced that all firms registered in Canada would be required to expense stock options‐based compensation effective January 1, 2004. While a few firms had voluntarily opted to expense stock options prior to this date, the vast majority of firms had not. This study investigates the market reaction to this announcement by listed firms in the Toronto Stock Exchange that continued to disclose option expense rather than report it in the financial statement. We find no average market reaction by our sample firms affected by this mandate around the announcement date, but a significantly negative market reaction during the 5‐day window around the issuance date of the exposure draft. However, in cross‐sectional tests around the mandated expense announcement date, we find a significant negative relationship between the cumulative abnormal returns and the Black–Scholes value (and number) of options outstanding and of options granted the previous year. These results suggest that the magnitude of the market reaction to the mandated expense announcement is related to the firm's usage of options. Our results provide further evidence that stock prices may not fully impound information disclosed in footnotes.     

The financial investment decision of non-financial firms in China

This paper constructs a portfolio model to analyze the determinants of the financial investment decision of non-financial firms in China. Unlike the literature assuming that financial investments are riskless, our model allows risks in both fixed and financial investments. We show that this extension provides an analytically similar but economically different model from the literature. In particular, it is relative risk and risk-adjusted return gap, not pure risk and simple return gap that enter into firms’ financial investment decision model. Using firm-level panel data of 1902 firms listed in Chinese stock market over the period from 2006 to 2016 with semi-annual frequency, we find that the ratio of fixed investment risk over total risk dominates financial investment decisions of non-financial firms. However, rates of risk-adjusted return gap between financial and fixed investments play no role in Chinese firms’ financial investment decisions, which is in stark contrast to the results using a model assuming riskless financial investments. The baseline findings are robust to alternative measures of financialization and investment risk and different firm sizes, ownership structures and time periods.     

Co-determination of capital structure and stock returns—A LISREL approach: An empirical test of Taiwan stock markets

Titman and Wessels (1988) utilize a structural-equations model (LISREL) to find out the latent determinants of capital structure. Maddala and Nimalendran (1996) indicate that the problematic model specification causes the poor results in Titman and Wessels’ research. Chang, Lee, & Lee (2009) apply a Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model to re-examine the same issue as Titman and Wessels did but found more convincing results. We extend Titman and Wessels’ research from using a single-equation approach to a multi-equations approach. In addition to the determinants of firms’ capital structure, those of stock returns are determined simultaneously. Literature indicates that a firm's capital structure may affect its stock returns (Bhandari, 1988), and the reverse is true too (Baker and Wurgler, 2002, Lucas and McDonald, 1990, Welch, 2004). Hence, a firm's determinants of its capital structure and those of its stock returns should be decided simultaneously, rather than independently. By solving the simultaneous equations, we examine the empirical relationship between the two endogenous variables: capital structure and stock returns and find out their common determinants as well. Our results show that stock returns, expected growth, uniqueness, asset structure, profitability, and industry classification are the main factors of capital structure, while the primary determinants of stock returns are leverage, expected growth, profitability, value and liquidity. The level of debt ratios and stock returns are mutually determined by the aforementioned factors and themselves.     

On the differential market reaction to dividend initiations

The finance literature documents substantial positive stock price reaction to dividend initiations. Most dividend initiation studies focus on the average positive reaction; however, 40 percent of the firms that initiate dividends experience negative abnormal returns at announcement. This paper focuses on the apparent heterogeneity in the stock price reaction to dividend initiation. I find that the observed negative market reaction reflects the market’s economic assessment of the impact of the event on these firms, and that it is not caused by anticipation or confounding events. The result is also supported by the fact that the market reaction to dividend initiation for these firms is negatively related to initial dividend yield. Both the positive and negative observed reactions are consistent with conventional arguments regarding the information content of dividends, and their role in mitigating agency problems.     

Firm value and investment in R&D

This paper employs Canadian stock market and corporate financial data to test the hypothesis that the market places a positive value on reported research and development spending of firms as an indicator of expected profitability and growth. The empirical results show a positive, statistically significant relationship between R&D spending and market value. The magnitudes of estimated coefficients are consistent with those reported in several published US studies. These results suggest that investment in R&D is a rational allocation of resources, contrary to the undervaluation hypothesis.