Productivity growth and stock returns: firm- and aggregate-level analyses

A firm’s stock return is affected not only by its own productivity growth rate, but also by other firms’ productivity growth rates. We show that this spillover effect is significant and time-varying, and underlies a fallacy of composition observed in late 20th century U.S. data: stock returns and productivity growth are correlated positively in firm-level data but negatively in aggregate data. This seeming fallacy of composition reflects Schumpeterian creative destruction: a few technology winners’ stocks rise with their rising productivity while many technology losers’ stocks fall with their declining productivity. Thus, most individual firms’ stock returns correlate negatively with aggregate productivity growth. This implies that technological innovation need not be a blessing for all firms and as a result, for investors holding the market. Our findings also provide a firm-level technology innovation-based explanation of prior findings that the market return correlates negatively with aggregate earnings.     

Do Reverse Stock Splits Benefit Long-term Shareholders?

This paper examines the market response of the reverse stock splits by using the effective date to trace the abnormal returns after reverse splits over the period of 1981 to 2010:3. The findings show that the short-term behavior of the abnormal returns on the effective date is negative and highly significant for all firms. The abnormal returns on the effective month are negative and highly significant. As expected, the cumulative abnormal returns are negative and significant at 10?% level over the period of +1 to +12?months. However, the cumulative abnormal returns from month +13 to month +36 are significantly positive. Our findings also support that institutional investors show confidence by increasing mean holdings of reverse splits of large capital stocks.     

From Returns to Tweets and Back: An Investigation of the Stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average

A sizeable percentage of investors are using social media to obtain information about companies (Cogent Research [2008]). As a consequence, social media content about firms may have an impact on stock prices (Hachman [2011]). Various studies utilize social media content to forecast stock market-related factors such as returns, volatility, or trading volume. The objective of this article is to investigate whether a bidirectional intraday relationship between stock returns and volatility and tweets exists. The study analyzed 150,180 minute-by-minute stock price and tweet data for the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average over a random 13-day interval from June 2 to June 18, 2014 using a BEKK-MVGARCH methodology. Findings indicate that 87% of stock returns are influenced by lagged innovations of the tweets data, but there is little evidence to support that the direction is reciprocal, with only 7% of tweets being influenced by lagged innovations of the stock returns. Results further show that the lagged innovations from 40 percent of stock returns affect the current conditional volatility of the tweets, while 73 percent of tweets affect the current conditional volatility of stock returns. Moreover, there is strong evidence to suggest that the volatility originating from the returns to the tweets persists for 33 percent of stocks; the volatility originating from the tweets to the returns persists for 73 percent of stocks. Last, 53 percent of stocks exhibit both immediate and persistent impacts from returns to tweets, while 90 percent of stocks exhibit both immediate and persistent impacts from tweets to returns. These results may help traders achieve superior returns by buying and selling individual stocks or options. Also, asset and mutual fund managers may benefit by developing a social media strategy.     

流动性与资产定价:基于我国股市资产换手率与预期收益的实证研究

流动性与资产定价是目前金融研究的热点之一 (O’Hara,2 0 0 3 )。本文通过检验交易频率零假设和交易成本备择假设 ,深入分析我国股市流动性与资产定价的理论与经验关系 ,发现 :我国股市存在显著的流动性溢价 ,换手率低、交易成本高且流动性小的资产具有较高的预期收益 ;产生流动性溢价的原因是交易成本而不是交易频率 ;与国外股市相似 ,小企业收益率高于大企业 ,价值股收益率高于成长股。因此 ,我国股市并非令人无法捉摸 ,流动性、规模和价值效应都是资产定价的因素     

A lottery-preference-based explanation of realized kurtosis puzzle in Chinese stock market

High kurtosis corresponds to fat tails on both sides and under risk-aversion assumption investors’ dislike of left-tail loss outweighs their preference for right-tail gain. Therefore, high kurtosis characteristic of stock should predict high expected returns. However, the high-frequency-data-based empirical results on Chinese stock market are just the opposite, which we refer to as the ‘realized kurtosis puzzle’. Using the double sorts and firm-level cross-sectional regression methods, we further demonstrate investors’ preference for lottery-like stocks or lottery preference is key to solve the puzzle. Our further empirical research verifies stocks with higher retail investors’ shareholding proportion and unavailable for short show stronger ‘realized kurtosis puzzle’. In addition, the puzzle is particularly significant in high lottery preference periods while less apparent in low lottery preference times.     

Do Institutional and Individual Investors Differ in Their Preference for Financial Skewness?

Employing a unique sample of individual and institutional investors, we conduct experiments to determine investors’ preference for (or indifference to) financial skewness. We present investors with a series of stocks with varying levels of skewness. Using Instant Response Devices, we then collect investors’ choices to hold or sell each stock. Among stocks with equal expected returns, we find strong evidence that the sample investors use a prospect theory utility function rather than a mean-variance expected utility function to decide to sell or hold stocks. In the loss domain, we find that investors are ambivalent about the choice between positively and negatively skewed stocks. However, in the gain domain, we find that both individual and institutional investors prefer negatively skewed stocks—a contrast from previous research suggesting that individuals (and not institutional investors) prefer positive skewness. We also find evidence suggesting that reference points are important in financial decision making.     

Noise traders and smart money: Evidence from online searches

Traditional finance theory considers that the impact of noise traders' attention on asset prices is offset by attention from smart investors. This paper uses online search data to study the influence of noise traders and smart investors on stock returns and volatility. Adopting an original approach, we construct a proxy for smart investor attention based on investors' online search behavior provided by Wikipedia Page Traffic. We combine this new measure with a standard measure of noise traders' attention as proxied by Google Search Volume Index. We show for a sample of 87 French firms over the period 2008–2018 that only noise traders' attention influences stock returns. Noise traders' attention increases volatility by creating an extra risk that is priced into the market. Conversely, smart investors' attention decreases volatility because their presence stabilizes stock prices by reducing uncertainty. Our empirical results support a behavioral explanation of stock prices.     

Does Probability Weighting Drive Lottery Preferences?

Abstract

We propose a test of the theory of skewness preferences. The probability weighting feature that is the basis of their theory relies on investors overweighting the probability of extreme, positive returns. The resulting investor preferences for positive skewness in return distributions will lead to excess demand, contemporaneous price premiums, and negative expected returns. We use the well-documented 52-week high bias as a method to truncate investors’ weighted probability of expected right-tail events. We find evidence supporting the theoretical framework of Barberis and Huang as the negative return premiums associated with positive skewness is driven almost entirely by stocks that are farther away from the their 52-week high. No negative premiums related to skewness are detected when stock prices are close to the 52-week high.     

"What Goes Up Must Come Down"-How Charts Influence Decisions to Buy and Sell Stocks

Five experiments examine how charts depicting past stock prices influence investing decisions. We expected investors to use extreme past prices depicted in charts as comparison standards to which expectations about future prices are assimilated. Investors should thus expect stocks depicted in a chart with a salient high to perform better than stocks depicted in a chart with a salient low. And as a consequence, investors should be more likely to buy and less likely to sell stocks depicted in a chart with a salient high than a low. Results of five experiments support this reasoning. Whether investors are private or professional and whether background information about the stock was limited or abundant, expectations about future prices assimilated to extreme past prices. Consequently, investors buy more and sell less when the critical chart is characterized by a salient high than a low. The implications of these findings for the core role comparison processes play in investing decisions are discussed.     

The relation between asset growth and the cross-section of stock returns: Evidence from the Chinese stock market

This study examines the effect of firm investment on stock returns by using data on the Chinese stock market. We find that stocks with higher investment experience lower future returns and there is an obvious investment effect in the Chinese stock market. The investment effect is stronger for firms that have higher cash flows, lower debt or for state-owned firms. We further explore the relation between investment and returns over the 3 years around portfolio formation. The results show that the high investment firms earn higher returns than low investment firms before portfolio formation; however the high investment firms earn lower returns than low investment firms after portfolio formation, such evidence is supportive of investor's overreaction explanation. Additionally, the stock returns don't necessarily decrease after investment, and the stock returns don't significantly positively correlate with firm profitability or book-to-market, so the result don't support risk-based explanation. Overall, both our portfolio sort and two-stage cross-sectional regression analysis show that behavioral finance theories are better than risk-based theories in explaining the investment anomaly. Evidence from the Chinese stock market provides a useful perspective to understand the debate on the investment anomaly.     

异质信念与盈余惯性——基于中国股票市场的实证分析

以2003-2005年沪深两市上市公司为样本,以意外成交量作为异质信念的代理变量.通过检验异质信念与盈余惯性的关系,发现盈余公告后续的长期收益随着投资者对年报信息意见分歧的增大而严格减小.这一研究支持了Miller (1977)假说;同时也表明在投资者对盈余信息存在异质信念的情形下,中国股市禁止卖空的制度性缺陷将悲观投资者拒之门外,而乐观投资者推动股价高估,导致股票和市场都存在较大的投机性泡沫.     

Do good governance provisions shelter investors from contagion?Evidence from the Russian crisis1

This paper studies how the Russian crisis of 1998 affected listed firms in transition economies. The data cover 394 companies that were listed before the Russian crisis, and include financial, industry, ownership and stock market information. Results show that in the short term (within one month of the crisis) good governance did not shelter investors from contagion. On the contrary, stock returns during the crisis period were lower for the largest and most liquid stocks and markets in the region irrespective of their direct exposure to Russia. The paper also documents that in the longer term (one year after the crisis) recovery was faster in firms without direct trade exposure to Russia, as well as in firms with better firm‐level governance as proxied by the presence of a foreign blockholder. The paper presents evidence that both firm‐ and country‐level characteristics are important in overcoming the effects of a crisis. Firm‐specific characteristics, however, play a bigger role for companies operating in countries with weaker corporate governance.     

Dynamic relationships between crude oil prices and socially responsible investing in Brazil: evidence for linear and non-linear causality

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in socially responsible investing (SRI), reflecting investors’ growing awareness of social, environmental, ethical and corporate governance issues. At the same time, the effect of oil price shocks on stock price returns has become a prominent issue due to surges in energy prices. Using the Brazilian corporate sustainability index (ISE) as a benchmark for socially responsible investments in the Brazilian stock market, the present study extends the understandings on the impact of oil prices on stock price behaviour, focusing on a new class of assets: those from socially responsible firms. To this end, apart from conventional linear causality approaches, we apply a nonparametric test by Diks and Panchenko (DP) on daily data spanning from January 2008 to December 2015 to test for non-linear causality, before and after controlling for conditional heteroscedasticity. Our findings show that, in spite of their efforts to become more socially responsible, firms that have adhered to the ISE in recent years are influenced by crude oil spot prices, especially the WTI crude. In line with previous studies, we also provide consistent evidence that the Brazilian stock market, as a whole, is associated with the international crude oil market.     

Should emerging market investors buy commodities?

One reason that investors hold commodities is to receive diversification benefits. However, while an extensive set of existing studies demonstrate diversification benefits when investors hold international stocks or bonds, they are generally silent on the implications of holding commodities. Using an asset pricing framework, we investigate the benefits to investors from holding commodities, both individually and in portfolios. Generally, commodity and stock markets are integrated, although there are time-varying benefits to investors that are subject to sample period selection and investment horizon. We show that Asian investors receive positive risk adjusted returns in gold and rice markets but not in any of the other commodity markets investigated. The risk adjusted returns are time-varying: during the Asian financial crisis risk adjusted returns were negative – a penalty for investing in commodities – whereas during the global financial crisis the reverse was true and investors earned positive excess returns. The time-varying nature of the benefits that arise from diversification in commodities and their breakdown during periods of crisis, highlight the problems that investors may face when using commodities for long-term investment in addition to traditional holdings of stocks and bonds.     

Herding on lottery-type stocks: evidence from the Chinese stock market

Previous studies have provided evidence that investors have gambling propensity in the stock market and exhibit a preference for lottery-type stocks. In this study, we use high total skewness and high maximum daily return (MAX) to measure lottery-type stocks and examine whether investors do exhibit distinct herding pattern in these stock types. Empirical results show that investors display stronger herding among lottery-type stocks, thereby indicating that such stocks induce correlated behaviour with the investors. In addition, we find that stocks with the highest skewness exhibit stronger herding under upmarkets, whereas stocks with the lowest skewness display stronger herding under downmarkets. Regarding the highest MAX portfolio, no significant herding asymmetry is seen between upmarket and downmarket. The results reported in this article demonstrate that comovement in stock returns may be partly attributed to the nonstandard preferences of investors in the stock market.     

个人投资者交易行为研究——来自台湾股市的证据

本文基于台湾股市数据,主要研究个人投资者的交易行为。参照Kaniel et al.(2008)构建了个人投资者交易不平衡性指标─净交易,以反映投资者股票交易的强度。采用这种交易不平衡性指标来构建投资组合研究个人投资者的交易行为。首先研究个人投资者交易和股票的收益之间的动态关系从而分析投资者的交易策略,然后研究个人投资者净交易的收益预测能力从而分析个人投资者交易的信息含量。本文研究发现:台湾股票市场的个人投资者采用负反馈的交易策略,并且个人投资者在交易中表现出很强的处置效应;个人投资者在交易中的信息含量不足;个人投资者交易中的盈利主要来自两个方面:过度反应和价格冲击。文章最后给出政策建议。     

Return patterns of South Korean stocks following large price shocks

This study tests the market efficiency of the South Korean stock market by examining returns on stocks of the constituents of the KOSPI 50 from 2000 to 2014 following large 1-month price decreases and increases. An exponential GARCH (EGARCH) event study framework is used to analyse the stock returns. The results show that large price shocks, positive and negative, are likely to be followed by positive market returns. Moreover, the results show an increase in the beta of stocks in the years following a large price shock. The overall results therefore support the Uncertain Information Hypothesis. However, beginning in 2008, return patterns more closely reflect those hypothesised by the Efficient Market Hypothesis, possibly due to increased participation by international investors. The observed returns following large price increases and decreases can be partially explained by changes in the Korean won to US dollar exchange rate and the trading behaviour of foreign investors.     

机构投资者会主动管理媒体报道吗？

文章实证检验了机构投资者是否存在通过管理媒体报道来获取超额收益的行为。研究发现：（1）媒体报道对股票价格的影响符合“注意力驱动效应”,即媒体报道数量与股票超额收益显著正相关;（2）机构投资者会利用媒体报道的这一效应来获取股票超额收益,即机构投资者存在利用媒体来制造信息噪音以引导市场热点的短期炒作行为,进而验证了“主动媒体管理”假说;（3）机构投资者的媒体管理行为会提高其所持有股票未来大幅下跌的可能性,即带来更大的股价崩盘风险。文章将机构投资者行为和媒体报道进行了有机结合,拓展了相关领域的研究文献,而且研究结论为进一步规范机构投资者行为和媒体报道提供了经验证据。     

The effect of the liberalization of the Chinese stock market on returns

We examine the short-term effects of the liberalization of the Chinese stock market on returns. We find a positive and significant abnormal return associated with the announcement of the liberalization of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Exploiting features of the reform, we are able to compare stocks directly and indirectly affected by the liberalization. We find that all stock prices reflect this announcement premium equally, suggesting that the premium does not reflect an increase in expected liquidity. We further find that observed liquidity, as measured by volume and price impact, did not increase following the liberalization. We conclude that the observed premium reflects a diversification benefit for Chinese investors.     

Incomplete Information, Trading Costs and Cross‐autocorrelations in Stock Returns

This paper provides an economic rationale for the cross‐autocorrelation patterns in stock returns in the context of a microstructure model in which investors have incomplete information. The paper shows that in a market in which investors are informed about only a sub‐set of stocks, the emergence of lead‐lag, cross‐autocorrelations is a function of the cost of trading in other stocks based on information about the sub‐set of stocks. If cross‐trading costs are high, informed investors will trade only in the sub‐set of stocks they are informed about; if cross‐trading costs are moderate, informed investors will randomize between trading and not trading in other stocks; and if cross‐trading costs are low, they will trade in all stocks. When informed investors trade only in a sub‐set of stocks, prices of stocks with more informed trading will adjust to common factor information faster than the prices of stocks with less informed trading giving rise to asymmetric lead‐lag cross‐autocorrelations. When informed investors trade in all stocks, asymmetric lead‐lag cross‐autocorrelations will disappear as a result of their cross‐market arbitrage trading. These results provide a number of testable implications for lead‐lag cross‐autocorrelation patterns. The data is consistent with the empirical predictions .
(J.E.L.G12, G14).