Debt enforcement,financial leverage,and product failures: Evidence from China and the United States

Building on capital structure and product market interactions, and the role of debt enforcement in leveraged firms' investments, we examine whether cross-country debt enforcement can produce different associations between financial leverage and product failures. Results show that different debt enforcement systems can generate opposite leverage effects. In countries with weak/nearly ineffective debt enforcement, financial leverage shows an incentive investment effect due to low default costs, and thus highly leveraged firms tend to invest more and are less likely to have product failures. Conversely, in countries with strict/effective debt enforcement, distressed companies tend to have an underinvestment effect and more product failures.     

Whistleblower laws and corporate fraud: Evidence from the United States

We use data from the United States to assess whether whistleblower laws that protect private employees from retaliation have an impact on corporate fraud. Currently, eighteen states have whistleblower laws that offer such protection. Our analysis indicates that, in these states, a higher awareness of whistleblower laws is associated with a lower state-level conviction rate for corporate fraud. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that whistleblower laws that cover private employees have a deterrent effect on corporate fraud, and that awareness of the provisions of whistleblower laws plays a key role in determining their effectiveness as a policy tool.     

Information Diffusion and Overreaction: Evidence from the Chinese Stock Market

This paper empirically examines the relation between overreaction and the speed of information diffusion in the Chinese stock market. Industry-adjusted firm size and residual analyst coverage are used to proxy the speed of information diffusion. We document strong evidence that the profitability of a monthly contrarian strategy decreases with industry-adjusted firm size or residual analyst coverage. Moreover, the profitability of contrarian strategies survives for a longer horizon for stocks with slower information diffusion than for those with faster information diffusion. This result holds true even if risk, bid-ask spread, lead-lag effect, inventory costs, and limits to arbitrage are properly accounted for. Our findings suggest that information environment and information diffusion determine the extent of overreaction.     

Overreaction and Insider Trading: Evidence from Growth and Value Portfolios

Insider transactions are not random across growth and value stocks. We find that insider buying climbs as stocks change from growth to value categories. Insider buying also is greater after low stock returns, and lower after high stock returns. These findings are consistent with a version of overreaction which says that prices of value stocks tend to lie below fundamental values, and prices of growth stocks tend to lie above fundamental values.     

Consumption tax competition among governments: Evidence from the United States

The paper contributes to a small but growing literature that estimates tax reaction functions of governments competing with other governments. We analyze consumption tax competition between US states, employing a panel of state-level data for 1977–2003. More specifically, we study the impact of a state’s spatial characteristics (i.e., its size, geographic position, and border length) on the strategic interaction with its neighbors. For this purpose, we calculate for each state an average effective consumption tax rate, which covers both sales and excise taxes. In addition, we pay attention to dynamics by including lagged dependent variables in the tax reaction function. We find overwhelming evidence for strategic interaction among state governments, but only partial support for the effect of spatial characteristics on tax setting. Tax competition seems to have lessened in the 1990s compared to the early 1980s.     

Facial Structure and Achievement Drive: Evidence from Financial Analysts

We use a large pictorial sample of Chinese financial analysts to test the association between facial width‐to‐height ratio (fWHR) and performance in men. Financial analysts offer an ideal setting for our investigation because we can objectively track individual analysts’ behaviors and performance. We find that high‐fWHR analysts are more likely to conduct corporate site visits and they exhibit better performance. The positive fWHR–performance association survives a battery of robustness checks and the association is more pronounced for analysts with lower status, for firms with higher uncertainty, and for analysts facing more intense competition. Our results suggest that the dominant trait predicted by fWHR is achievement drive.     

Bankruptcy and Institutions: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Korea and the United States

Using a simple z-score bankruptcy model, this article explores the relationship between bankruptcy threshold and institutions. The z-score threshold for bankruptcy is found to be higher in countries with stronger institutions. To test this claim, a cross-section data set of 86 Korean firms and 60 US firms from 1991 to 2001, extracted from a panel data set, is used. The empirical finding that the z-score bankruptcy threshold in the United States (which has better quality of institutions than does Korea) is higher than that in Korea is consistent with the prediction of the model. Additionally, having examined bankruptcy laws of the two countries, it is found that filing a petition for bankruptcy is easier and debtors rights are better protected in the United States than in Korea, which suggests that the bankruptcy laws of Korea and the United States may be partially responsible for the difference in the z-score threshold for bankruptcy.     

Earnings quality and short selling: Evidence from real earnings management in the United States

Prior research provides evidence consistent with managers using real earnings management (REM) to increase earnings. This study examines whether short sellers exploit the overvaluation of firms employing REM. I find that firms with more REM have higher subsequent short interest. The positive relation between REM and short interest is more pronounced in settings where the costs associated with accrual‐based earnings management are high, such as when a firm has low accounting flexibility or faces greater scrutiny from a high quality auditor. I also find some evidence that short sellers respond to REM more than to other fundamental signals of firm overvaluation. My inferences are robust to the use of propensity score matching. Collectively, my evidence suggests that short sellers not only trade on REM information, but they also trade as if they understand the substitutive nature of alternative earnings management methods. This study provides additional insight into the important role that short sellers play in monitoring managerial operating decisions and overall earnings quality.     

Formal and Informal Regulation of Industrial Pollution: Comparative Evidence from Indonesia and the United States

Economic theory and recent empirical work suggest that whenformal regulation of pollution is absent or less than 100 percenteffective, affected communities are often able to negotiateabatement from plants in their vicinity through "informal regulation."Using a model of equilibrium pollution, this article confirmsthe existence of significant informal regulation for unregulatedpollutants in both Indonesia and the United States as well asfor regulated pollutants in the United States. Combining plant-leveldata with community data in both countries, regressions revealthat even after controlling for traditional economic variablessuch as output levels and input prices as well as for plantcharacteristics such as industrial sector and age, the per capitaincome of affected communities significantly affects pollutionintensities. Higher-income communities win significantly loweremissions in both countries and for both unregulated and regulatedpollutants in the United States, presumably because income affectsboth preferences for environmental quality and the ability tobring pressure on polluting factories.     

ADRs,Analysts, and Accuracy: Does Cross Listing in the United States Improve a Firm's Information Environment and Increase Market Value?

This paper investigates the relation between cross listing in the United States and the information environment of non‐U.S. firms. We find that firms that cross list on U.S. exchanges have greater analyst coverage and increased forecast accuracy than firms that are not cross listed. A time‐series analysis shows that a change in analyst coverage and forecast accuracy occurs around cross listing. We also document that firms that have more analyst coverage and higher forecast accuracy have higher valuations. Furthermore, the change in firm value around cross listing is correlated with changes in analyst following and forecast accuracy, suggesting that cross listing enhances firm value through its effect on the firm's information environment. Our findings support the hypothesis that cross‐listed firms have better information environments, which are associated with higher market valuations.     

Online Search Frequency,Retail Investor Overreaction,and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns: Evidence from the Chinese Stock Market

I find a strong negative relation between online search frequency and future returns on the Chinese stock market. I suggest that this effect captures retail investor overreaction to unexpected signals, because online search frequency reflects the efforts made by investors to obtain firm-specific knowledge. The effect is particularly strong in stocks with high information uncertainty (high analyst dispersion, big past earnings surprises, low analyst coverage, and large trading volume), whose intrinsic values are difficult or costly for investors to estimate. Online search frequency as a direct indicator of retail investors’ reaction to signals also sheds light on the idiosyncratic volatility (IVOL) puzzle. I find that this puzzle is more pronounced in high-search-frequency subsamples and disappears in low-search-frequency subsamples. Further evidence shows that high search frequency strengthens the negative IVOL effect in stocks with positive signals but weakens this effect in stocks with negative signals. I suggest that the IVOL puzzle in the Chinese market can be partially explained as a reversal following overreaction to positive signals by retail investors.     

Bank Leverage and Monetary Policy's Risk‐Taking Channel: Evidence from the United States

We present evidence of a risk‐taking channel of monetary policy for the U.S. banking system. We use confidential data on banks’ internal ratings on loans to businesses over the period 1997 to 2011 from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Terms of Business Lending. We find that ex ante risk‐taking by banks (measured by the risk rating of new loans) is negatively associated with increases in short‐term interest rates. This relationship is more pronounced in regions that are less in sync with the nationwide business cycle, and less pronounced for banks with relatively low capital or during periods of financial distress.     

On the Directional Accuracy of United States Housing Starts Forecasts: Evidence from Survey Data

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - I use data from both the Survey of Professional Forecasters and the Livingston Survey to study the directional accuracy of United States housing...     

Gender and beauty in the financial analyst profession: evidence from the United States and China

Review of Accounting Studies - We examine how gender and beauty affect the likelihood of being voted as an All-Star in the financial analyst profession in both the United States and China. We find...     

The impact of monetary policy shocks on stock prices: Evidence from Canada and the United States

Using structural VAR models with short-run restrictions appropriate for Canada and the United States, we empirically examine whether trade and financial market openness matter for the impact on and transmission to stock prices of monetary policy shocks. We find that, in Canada, the immediate response of stock prices to a domestic contractionary monetary policy shock is small and the dynamic response is brief, whereas in the United States, the immediate response of stock prices to a similar shock is relatively large and the dynamic response is relatively prolonged. We find that these differences are largely driven by differences in financial market openness and hence different dynamic responses of monetary policy shocks between the two countries that we model in this paper.     

政治关系、制度环境与股票价格的信息含量——来自我国民营上市公司股价同步性的经验证据

以2004～2007年间所有的民营A股上市公司为样本,本文对政治关系与股票价格的信息含量(以公司的股价同步性衡量)之间的关系进行了实证检验。检验结果发现,与没有政治关系的公司相比,有政治关系的公司的股票价格同步性显著较高。并且,政治关系与股票价格同步性之间的正相关关系只在市场化程度较低、政府干预较多以及法制水平较差的地区存在。进一步区分政治关系的类型发现,代表委员类政治关系显著提高了公司的股价同步性,而政府官员类政治关系对股价同步性的影响则不显著。     

Market Sentiment and Investor Overreaction: Evidence from New York Listed Asian Country Exchange Traded Funds

This article investigates Asian Country Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) price deviation with underlying due to market sentiment. By implementing a dynamic contrarian trading strategy and a buy-and-hold strategy, this article finds that significant abnormal excess trading profit can be generated by capitalizing on the overnight price reversion. The excess return generated by the dynamic strategy over buy-and-hold separates the influence of market sentiment to ETF price deviation from fundamental movements. By studying the relations between variations of the excess returns and market sentiment, the article finds that the ETF price deviation is highly influenced by market sentiment and the effect exacerbates during financial crisis and distress.     

Further Evidence On Investor Overreaction and Stock Market Seasonality

In a previous paper, we found systematic price reversals for stocks that experience extreme long-term gains or losses: Past losers significantly outperform past winners. We interpreted this finding as consistent with the behavioral hypothesis of investor overreaction. In this follow-up paper, additional evidence is reported that supports the overreaction hypothesis and that is inconsistent with two alternative hypotheses based on firm size and differences in risk, as measured by CAPM-betas. The seasonal pattern of returns is also examined. Excess returns in January are related to both short-term and long-term past performance, as well as to the previous year market return.     

Discussion of ADRs,Analysts, and Accuracy: Does Cross‐Listing in the United States Improve a Firm's Information Environment and Increase Market Value?

Lang, Lins, and Miller [2002] investigate the relation between cross‐listing in the United States and information intermediation by analysts. The results suggest that cross‐listing in the United States increases analyst following and forecast accuracy and that both variables are associated with Tobin's Q. These findings are interesting and advance the cross‐listing literature in several ways. This discussion raises two issues. First, I highlight that the sources of cross‐listing effects are not obvious and are difficult to disentangle. To illustrate this point, I replicate the analysis using cross‐listed Canadian firms, for which mandated disclosures are held constant. Thus, if disclosure effects are important for documented cross‐listing effects, I expect to find no relation in the Canadian sample. The findings for forecast accuracy are consistent with this hypothesis. However, analyst following continues to be significantly higher for cross‐listed Canadian firms. These findings suggest that the sources of cross‐listing effects differ for analyst coverage and forecast accuracy. Second, I discuss the link between analyst variables, firm value, and cost of capital. As they are only tenuously related, I draw attention to some unresolved questions and areas for future research.     

Overreaction to stock market news and misevaluation of stock prices by unsophisticated investors: Evidence from the option market

This paper examines investors' option activity on value and growth stocks before earnings announcements. The main finding is that unsophisticated investors enter option positions that load up on growth stocks relative to value stocks in the days leading up to earnings announcements. This occurs despite the fact that at earnings announcements value stocks outperform growth stocks by a wide margin. The paper's results provide evidence that unsophisticated option market investors (1) overreact to past news on underlying stocks and (2) mistakenly believe that mispriced stocks will move even further away from fundamentals at impending scheduled news releases.