THE ABSENCE OF THE BOOK‐TO‐MARKET EFFECT IN THE TAIWAN STOCK MARKET: A DECOMPOSITION APPROACH

This paper examines the absence of the book‐to‐market equity (BM) effect in the Taiwan stock market, applying the BM decomposition proposed by Daniel and Titman (2006 ). First, we do not observe a significantly negative correlation between future stock return and intangible return on research‐and‐development‐intensive firms in Taiwan, which is inconsistent with the US evidence documented by Daniel and Titman. Second, undervaluation of research‐and‐development‐intensive firms possibly leads to the absence of the BM effect. Those firms, most of which have low BM, perform well not only in the past, but also in the future, thereby obscuring the BM effect.     

R&D, risks and overreaction in a market with the absence of the book-to-market effect

Prior studies document that the book-to-market (BM) effect is absent in the Taiwan stock market. Using Taiwanese data covering from 1991 to 2006, we show that, after controlling for the size effect and the Fama and French's (1993) risk factors, the BM effect only exists for those firms with low R&D intensity essentially because these stocks suffer less from investors’ underreaction to R&D investment. The BM effect arises primarily from fundamental reversals acting as a proxy for investors’ overreaction.     

High-speed rail and inventory reduction: firm-level evidence from China

Using a balanced panel of manufacturing firms from China between 2007 and 2013, we estimate that being connected to a high-speed rail (HSR) system leads to 9.5% reduction in local firms’ input inventory spending. The effect is stronger for downstream industries and private enterprises. A back-of-envelope calculation suggests that each dollar of HSR investment reduces input inventory stock by 12 cents, which is significantly larger than the effects found in previous studies based on highway or road investment. Declines in transportation and communication cost, as well as agglomeration effect, are identified as plausible mechanisms. Our findings reveal a micro channel through which improved transport infrastructure brings about economic gains, and contribute to the cost-benefit assessment of HSR investment.     

Do political connections decrease the accuracy of stock analysts' recommendations in the Chinese stock market?

This paper studies the association between the accuracy of analysts' recommendations and political connections in the Chinese stock market. As most brokerage firms in China are state-owned, it raises concerns about conflicts of interest among their employed analysts issuing recommendations for Chinese state-owned enterprises. Based on 8469 analysts' recommendations with different ratings for both state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises from 74 brokerage firms, we document that analysts' recommendations are less accurate for Chinese state-owned enterprises, which supports the hypothesis that conflicts of interest create recommendation biases. Political connections encourage analysts to be more optimistic on SOEs and even to generate misleading “Buy” and “Hold” recommendations. Our results demonstrate the existence of an optimism bias among politically connected analysts on state-owned enterprises in China.     

融资融券与企业产品市场竞争

本文探究融资融券对上市公司产品市场竞争行为的影响。通过理论分析与实证检验,本文发现融资融券政策的实施促进了标的企业产品市场竞争行为,但是由此带来的潜在的过度竞争问题可能导致企业整体绩效有所下降。本文还发现融资融券的政策效果主要集中于融资交易强度较高、或股价信息敏感度较低的公司。本文的研究结果表明,我国融资和融券交易发展的不对称性放大了资本市场对公司正面信息的奖励效应,可能促使公司在产品市场过度竞争,降低了整体绩效,而个股股价信息敏感度的提高有助于缓解上述问题。     

Externalities of economic sanctions on performance of intra-industry non-sanctioned firms: Evidence from Zimbabwe

This paper investigates the effect of targeted economic sanctions by the United States and the European Union on the performance of intra-industry non-sanctioned firms. Using data of non-sanctioned firms listed on the Zimbabwe stock exchange during the period 2009–2018, our regression results show that non-sanctioned firms in the same industry as sanctioned firms perform better than ordinary non-sanctioned firms, signalling the positive competitive effect. A mediating test suggests that sanctions increase the market share of non-sanctioned firms in the same industry as sanctioned firms and subsequently increase their performance.     

Does the market care about investor protection practices in China?

This study develops a scorecard with which to measure the investor protection practices of major listed firms in China during 2007–2010. We use time-series data to examine the relationship between the change in firm investor protection practices and market performance. Our results show that firms exhibiting improvements in investor protection practices manifest a subsequent increase in buy-and-hold abnormal returns. The results further indicate that the changes in the sub-index have different effects on a firm’s future performance. Shareholder rights to be rewarded seem to have the most significant and positive effect on a firm’s future performance for both local and international investors. Moreover, international investors pay attention to their rights to information. Our results provide evidence in support of the notion that the market does care about firm’s investor protection practices. The findings are robust to other measures of firm performance.     

Does the stock market affect investment by Chinese firms? Some new evidence

During the 1990s, the Chinese government increasingly relied on the stock market as the major tool for state‐owned enterprise (SOE) reform and for the allocation of investment resources. This paper investigates the impact of stock market development in China on firm‐level capital investment by using a panel data set constructed by the author of all Chinese listed firms for the period 1992 to 1999. The results show that stock market valuation, as measured by Tobin’s q, has a highly independent, significant and positive influence on listed firms’ investment decisions, particularly during the stock market boom from 1996 to 1999. Given the sizable real effects of the stock market, deviations of stock prices from fundamentals can have substantially negative consequences. As a result, this study suggests that sensible regulation of the Chinese stock market is needed in order to enhance the efficiency of stock prices and facilitate an effective channeling of investment funds.     

Stock market response to environmental policies: Evidence from heavily polluting firms in China

Pollution problems have recently become prominent in China, which has not only amplified public concerns on environmental protection but has also pushed the Chinese government to enforce more stringent environmental regulation. In this paper, we investigate the stock market response to the release of new environmental policies in China from the perspective of investor attention. By using the event study methodology, we assess the impact of 10 environmental policies issued by the central government over the period of 2014–2017. We find consistent evidence that the announcement of new environmental policies hurts the stock returns of heavily polluting firms in the short term. Meanwhile, compared to environmental regulations, environmental laws result in more adverse market reactions due to stricter policy enforcement. More importantly, investor attention to the environment issues, as measured by the Baidu Index, plays an essential role in predicting the stock market response, as we find a higher Baidu Index leads to lower stock returns for heavily polluting firms. Heterogeneity analyses further reveal the negative impact of environmental policies on market value is contingent on firm characteristics such as size, ownership structure, profitability and industry.     

Market risk disclosures,corporate governance structure and political connections: evidence from GCC firms

This paper investigates the joint effect of political connections, in the form of the royal family member on board, and corporate governance on the market risk disclosures of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) financial firms from 2007 to 2011. Previous research suggest that politically connected firms reduce the level of transparency in the GCC. However, we find that better corporate governance improves transparency and can be used as an effective tool in curbing the potentially adverse impact of politically connected board members on firms’ transparency. Our results have important implications for policy makers and can be generalized to other emerging markets.     

MARKET REACTIONS TO THE PASSAGE OF THE FINANCIAL HOLDING COMPANY ACT IN TAIWAN

Abstract. We examine how financial institutions react to various events surrounding the passage of Taiwan's Financial Holding Company Act in June 2001. Empirical results indicate that the financial system experiences significant abnormal returns along the legislative process. Smaller firms have significantly higher abnormal returns, thus lending no support for the hypothesis that larger firms benefit more from the Act. Further analysis shows that the significance of market value is replaced by a significant securities industry effect, thereby consistent with the observation that Taiwan's securities firms are generally smaller in market values and are potential target firms for financial holding companies.     

股权激励与财务重述——基于中国A股市场上市公司的经验证据

本文以2005—2007年中国A股市场实施股权激励的上市公司及其配对样本为研究对象,采用Logistic回归法,考察了股权激励与财务重述的相关关系。研究发现,实施股权激励的公司发生财务重述的可能性要显著高于未实施股权激励的公司;相比基于业绩的股权激励模式,实施基于股价的股权激励模式的公司发生财务重述的可能性更高。研究结论支持了有股权激励尤其有基于股价的股权激励模式的上市公司经营者可能有短期盈余操纵行为的观点。     

Do Market‐based Indicators Anticipate Rating Agencies? Evidence for International Banks

This paper analyses the ability of credit default swap (CDS) spreads, bond spreads and stock prices to anticipate the decisions of the main rating agencies, regarding the largest international banks. Conditional on negative rating events, all the three indicators show significant abnormal changes before both announcements of review and actual credit rating changes, but rating actions still seem to convey new information to the market. Results for positive rating events are less clear‐cut with the market indicators generally showing abnormal behaviours only in conjunction with the events. As for the predictive power of the financial indicators examined, the CDS market is particularly useful for negative events and stock prices for positive events. However, all indicators also send many false signals and are to be interpreted with care.     

EFFICIENCY OF THE TAIWAN STOCK MARKET*

This study uses two popular technical trading rules to assess whether the gradual liberalization of Taiwan's securities markets has improved the efficiency of its stock market. The results show that the two rules have considerable predictive power for 1983–1990, they become less predictive for 1991–1997, and they cannot predict the market for 1998–2005. These results indicate that the efficiency of Taiwan stock market has been greatly enhanced by the liberalization measures implemented over the last 20 years.     

International Transmission of the 2007–2009 Financial Crisis: Evidence from Japan

We investigate the international transmission of the 2007–2009 financial crisis to Japanese firms by examining both stock returns and changes in operating performance during the crisis. Our results indicate that Japanese firms were affected by the crisis mainly through the trade channel in both stock returns and changes in operating performance. We also find that the liquidity channel played a role in the fall of stock returns in response to the crisis and in the changes in return on assets during the first year of the crisis. We obtain weak evidence for the credit crunch channel and no evidence to support the trade finance channel.     

Stock market-driven investment: new evidence on information,financing and agency effects

This study provides a theoretical model and empirical analysis to jointly examine the information, financing and agency effects, the three channels through which the stock market can actively influence corporate investment decisions and firm performance. First, stock market affects corporate investments, and such impact varies with different market valuation measures, types of investments and firm characteristics. Second, stock market valuation affects investments through the channel of corporate financing, supporting the financing hypothesis. Third, stock market-driven investments have differential impacts on the future operating performance of firms. Investments driven by market valuation of firm-specific information have a positive effect on future performance. In contrast, investments driven by market-wide sentiment have a negative effect on future performance. Fourth, consistent with the information hypothesis, market-driven investments are value-enhancing for firms with better external monitoring by analysts and institutional investors. Lastly, consistent with the agency hypothesis, market-driven investments are value-destroying when firms lack external monitoring, proper managerial incentives and independent board of directors.     

R&D, risks and overreaction in a market with the absence of the book-to-market effect

Prior studies document that the book-to-market (BM) effect is absent in the Taiwan stock market. Using Taiwanese data covering from 1991 to 2006, we show that, after controlling for the size effect and the Fama and French's (1993) risk factors, the BM effect only exists for those firms with low R&D intensity essentially because these stocks suffer less from investors’ underreaction to R&D investment. The BM effect arises primarily from fundamental reversals acting as a proxy for investors’ overreaction.     

Bank of Canada communication, media coverage, and financial market reactions

We examine how Bank of Canada communications and media reporting on them impacts Canadian bond and stock market returns. Official communications exert a relatively larger influence on the bond market, whereas media coverage is more relevant for the stock market.     

Stock exchange mergers and return co-movement: A flexible dynamic component correlations model

The creation of a common cross-border stock trading platform is found, by use of a Flexible Dynamic Component Correlations (FDCC) model, to have increased long-run trends in conditional correlations between foreign and domestic stock market returns.     

Knowledge,Competence, And Regional Development

This study examines the impact that locational spillovers have on firm performance. On the basis of a uniquely created data set consisting of high-technology start-ups publicly listed in Germany, this paper tests the proposition of locational spillovers positively affecting firm performance, as measured by abnormally high profits on the stock market. The results provide evidence that geographic proximity and university spillovers are complementary determinants of firm performance. Although neither geographic proximity nor academic research spillovers alone can explain firm performance, a combination of both factors results in significant higher stock market performance. The results also show that academic spillovers are heterogeneous in their impact, depending on the type. In particular, spillovers from social sciences have a different impact on firm performance than do spillovers from natural sciences.