Venture capital investors and foreign listing choices of Chinese companies

We investigate the listing choice of Chinese VC-backed companies between a domestic market and foreign stock markets. Using a comprehensive sample of 2249 IPOs of Chinese companies that went public during the 1994–2013 period, we find that companies backed by Chinese domestic VCs are significantly less likely to list abroad while those backed by foreign VCs or co-invested by foreign and domestic VCs are significantly more likely to do so. We further find that the introduction of a domestic stock market for high-tech start-ups (the ChiNext Board) significantly reduces the likelihood to list abroad. However, the effect of VC participation largely disappears after the introduction of the ChiNext Board, in that the companies backed by foreign or co-invested VCs are more likely to list domestically. Moreover, we find that VC-backed IPOs have larger issuance sizes, but we find no impact on IPO underpricing of these Chinese companies. These results on IPO outcome hold for both the full sample and a matched sample using propensity score matching.     

Size, value and liquidity. Do They Really Matter on an Emerging Stock Market?

The paper extends the evidence on factors determining stock prices on emerging markets by focusing on the most advanced stock market in Central and Eastern Europe, the Polish market. Besides market, size and value factors, we investigate whether liquidity is a priced risk factor, addressing the hypothesis of its particular relevance in emerging markets. Our results support existing evidence for developed markets regarding market, size, and value factors. Contrary to the expectation that liquidity is a priced factor on emerging markets, we do not find evidence supporting this hypothesis. Analyzing specific market characteristics, we consider possible explanations behind these findings.     

Stock liquidity and ownership structure during and after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis: Empirical evidence from an emerging market

This paper examines the impact of ownership structure, whether state owned, foreign owned or institutionally owned, on Vietnamese stock market liquidity in different market conditions. We find that state ownership is associated with lower liquidity after the 2008 financial crisis. Institutional ownership shows a weak influence on liquidity in the post-crisis period. During the financial crisis, however, liquidity declines could not be attributed to ownership structure. Our results imply that foreign investors have not yet played a significant role in driving stock market liquidity in Vietnam, which is counter to findings in the existing literature concerning liquidity in more developed markets. Our results are consistent across conventional liquidity measures and a composite liquidity measure.     

Liquidity and macroeconomic management in emerging markets

Emerging markets have received considerable attention for foreign investment and international diversification due to the possibility of higher earnings and a low level of integration with global equity markets. These high returns often need to be balanced by the high liquidity costs of trading in illiquid emerging markets. Several studies have shown that central bank and government policies are significant determinants of market liquidity. We investigate the influence of monetary and fiscal policy variables on the market and firm level liquidity of eight emerging stock markets of Asia. Using four different (il)liquidity measures and nine macroeconomic variables, we find that changes in the money supply, government expenditure and private borrowing significantly affect stock market liquidity. Illiquidity is also strongly affected by the bank rate, short-term interest rate and government borrowing. We demonstrate that ‘crowding out’ and ‘cost of funds’ effects exist in these markets. Other major findings are that some markets are more sensitive to local macroeconomic news than world factors, the impact on size based portfolios largely depends on the instruments used by the central banks and government, the liquidity of the manufacturing sector is affected by changes in any policy variables, financial institutions are only influenced by monetary policy variables, and the service sector is least affected.     

Exchange risk premia and firm characteristics

This paper examines the presence and the determinants of exchange risk premia in stock returns using firm level data from South Korea. We conduct empirical asset pricing tests based on cross-sectional data sorted by firm characteristics such as firm size, liquidity, foreign ownership, and industry. Using alternative model specifications and exchange rate measures, our results support the hypothesis of a significant unconditional exchange risk premium in the Korean stock market at firm and industry levels. More specifically, we find that the exchange risk premium is directly related to firm liquidity and inversely related to firm size and foreign ownership.     

Is there an illiquidity premium in frontier markets?

We perform a comprehensive examination of the role of stock-level liquidity in the cross-section of frontier market stock returns. Using several popular liquidity measures and a battery of asset pricing tests, we investigate the illiquidity premium in 22 countries for the years 1991–2019. Contrary to typical relationships in developed and emerging markets, we find no evidence of illiquidity premium in frontier equities. Our findings support the hypothesis that for countries not fully integrated with the global economy, the diversification benefits offset the illiquidity, which, in turn, proves less important.     

Flight-to-liquidity: Evidence from China's stock market

In an order-driven and strictly regulated stock market, illiquidity risks' effects on asset pricing should be highlighted, particularly in such extreme market conditions as those in China. This paper utilizes panel data from China's stock market in an attempt to answer whether the illiquidity risk in various dimensions—including price impacts, the transaction speed, trading volume, transaction costs, and asymmetric information—can explain stock returns. We find that almost all dimensions of stock illiquidity are positively associated with excess stock returns. More importantly, smaller, less-liquid stocks suffer more liquidity costs, providing a strong evidence for “flight-to-liquidity.” Additionally, the transaction costs and asymmetric information, denoted by bid-ask spreads, robustly account for these illiquidity effects on stock pricing and differ from the findings in the U.S. market. We also find that the “flight-to-liquidity” can partially explain the idiosyncratic volatility puzzle, investors' gambling, and herding psychologies. This study provides substantial policy implications in regulation and portfolio management for emerging markets.     

Turnover and return in global stock markets

I study how growth affects liquidity of global stock exchanges and how liquidity determines cross-sectional returns on those stock exchange index portfolios. I measure portfolio liquidity by turnover ratio computed as value of shares traded over the market capitalization. I obtain data from FIBV, an association of global stock exchanges. In a multiple regression model for turnover ratio, I find age, size, type of exchange, competition for order flow, and growth rate to be significant determinants of portfolio liquidity; however, exchange- and time-specific effects are more appropriate for modeling portfolio liquidity. The time effects yield to three distinct regimes, while the exchange-specific effects are surrogates for the legal systems, English common law, and Civil laws of the countries. I estimate the parameters of a multiple regression model in a two-stage GLS framework in which index return is a function of turnover. The GLS method is preferable since a turnover ratio may have a non-stationary, random component. The significant determinants of index return are turnover and volatility, although some of the volatility effect may be a spillover from a January effect. Investors expect higher return from high turnover markets. However, the positive turnover expected return relation is true only in emerging markets; in developed markets expected return is a function of volatility. This result confirms existing empirical evidence that high turnover stock portfolios generate superior returns and further the sources and pricing of risk in emerging and developed markets are different.     

Liquidity shocks,commodity financialization,and market comovements

We explore whether and how liquidity factors influence risk transfers between commodity and stock markets using a composite liquidity index and five different types of liquidity measures. We find that liquidity shocks, including both funding liquidity and market liquidity, are positively associated with comovements between commodity and stock markets after 2000, although the relationship is insignificant before 2000. The structural change indicates that financialization creates a role for adverse liquidity shocks to increase cross-market correlations. Further evidence shows that the effect of liquidity on cross-market correlations is state-dependent and intensifies when liquidity conditions deteriorate and asset returns sustain substantial declines. Our findings are not explained by business cycles.     

China's segmented stock market: An application of the conditional international capital asset pricing model

China's segmented stock market provides an opportunity to study conditional international asset pricing from multiple viewpoints—domestic and foreign. We use the multivariate GARCH-M framework of De Santis and Gérard [De Santis, G., and Gérard, B., 1998. How big is the premium for currency risk? Journal of Financial Economics 49, pp. 375–412.], but add conditional local specific risk and find global, local, and currency risk to be priced and time-varying in Chinese markets, suggesting mild segmentation for developing country markets. The time-varying price of currency risk indicates that the strict currency restrictions in China do not sufficiently reduce currency risk to stabilize the price of currency risk. We also find that the price of local risk in the Chinese A stock market is non-time-varying relative to the developed market, but time-varying relative to the emerging market. This finding implies that the Chinese A stock market is more comparable to a developed market than an emerging market. However, results on Chinese B shares show the opposite relationship: from a foreign investor's perspective, Chinese B shares are better categorized as being emerging than developed. This is further supported by an Engle–Granger cointegration test.     

Trade and exposure of Eastern European multinationals

We find that about 19% of our sample of 149 Eastern European multinationals’ stock returns experienced economically significant exposure effects to the U.S. dollar for the period January 2000 to December 2004. The average exposure of the highly net exporting (importing) industry portfolios is positive (negative). Foreign exposure is found to increase with the evolution of net positions in U.S. foreign trade and with the industries’ degree of openness towards U.S. foreign markets. We also find that foreign exposure decreases with firm size.     

Stock Liquidity and Firm Value: Evidence from a Policy Experiment in India

The Indian securities market regulator intervened in June 2010 with a regulatory amendment in the listing requirement that mandated all the listed firms other than PSUs (government‐owned companies) to have a minimum public shareholding of 25%. The affected firms were given a 3‐year window to comply with the regulation. This study examines the impact of the new regulation on the affected firms’ value. We explore the relationship between improvement in firms’ value and stock liquidity. This regulatory intervention offers a natural experiment to examine direct causality between stock liquidity and firms’ value. The findings of the empirical analysis confirm the existence of a direct causal relationship between stock liquidity and firm value, stemming from an improved operating performance.     

Liquidity and stock returns in emerging equity markets

Using data for 27 emerging equity markets for the period January 1992 through December 1999, we document the behavior of liquidity in emerging markets. We find that stock returns in emerging countries are positively correlated with aggregate market liquidity as measured by turnover ratio, trading value and the turnover–volatility multiple. The results hold in both cross-sectional and time-series analyses, and are quite robust even after we control for world market beta, market capitalization and price-to-book ratio. The positive correlation between stock returns and market liquidity in a time-series analysis is consistent with the findings in developed markets. However, the positive correlation in a cross-sectional analysis appears to be at odds with market microstructure theory that has been empirically supported by studies on developed markets. Our findings regarding the cross-sectional relation between stock returns and liquidity is consistent with the view that emerging equity markets have a lower degree of integration with the global economy.     

Determinants of corporate listings on stock markets in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Ghana

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) economies have established stock markets to encourage the mobilization of domestic funds and attract foreign capital in-flows for corporate investment and growth. But domestic corporate listings on stock markets have been abysmal. This study examines the reasons behind the low patronage of stock markets by domestic firms in SSA using Ghana as a case study. Data for the study was obtained from 110 out of the 200 largest firms in Ghana and included firms which were listed on the stock market and unlisted firms over three time-periods from 2002 to 2009. The findings show that knowledge about stock market dynamics and financial institutions' support encourages listing on the stock market. However, extensive information and disclosure costs requirements, and loss of ownership and control discourage listing on the stock market.     

资本流动性、并购模式选择与并购绩效——择时视角的上市公司并购决策机制与效应研究

流动性有多层次含义,分别是货币市场、股票市场、实体资产等主体特性的重要表征,也是公司并购择时决策的重要影响因素。文章采用2004-2012年中国上市公司股权收购样本,运用多层次流动性变量,以单变量分组差异检验与多变量回归分析相结合的方法,系统研究了多层次流动性对并购决策与并购绩效的影响机制与效应。研究发现不同层次流动性对并购特征与并购绩效产生了差异化影响：流动性差异化影响公司的并购模式决策,从而影响并购绩效;同时流动性也直接影响并购绩效,货币市场流动性以及股票市场流动性对并购绩效产生正向影响,而个股流动性程度对并购绩效产生负向影响。     

Stock Returns,Productivity, and Corruption in Eight European Fast-Emerging Markets

This article addresses the impact of productivity, corruption, and trade openness on the stock returns of 265 industrial companies listed in eight Eastern European fast-emerging markets, over the 2004-2013 period. Through a three-factor model that includes both measures at firm level and macro-level control variables, our findings suggest that country corruption index is negatively correlated with the total annual return of the stocks of the listed industrial companies of our sample. Moreover, the most productive firms are featured by higher stock returns, while leverage seems not to be a key predictor of stock returns. In addition, the article uncovers innovative evidence about trade openness that is negatively correlated with stock returns due to its connection with the recent financial crisis. That is, firms operating in markets that are more open to trade show a higher degree of interconnection with other economies and are more likely to undergo the effects of negative fluctuations from foreign markets during the economic crisis. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Do Foreign Investors Promote Stock Price Efficiency in Emerging Markets?

This paper examines the role of foreign investors in promoting stock price efficiency in emerging stock markets relying on the fact that stock prices in these markets are influenced by both local and global factors. We employ a data sample of Vietnamese‐listed firms on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange over the period from 2006 to 2015. We utilize the panel data estimation analysis. The results show that foreign investors accelerate the incorporation of available information into local stock prices. The finding reinforces the important role of foreign investors in domestic stock markets of emerging economies.     

Liquidity,exchange listing,and common stock performance

The liquidity of securities—the relationship between volume of trading and changes in market price—has won increasing recognition as an element of investment strategy in recent years. Relatively high liquidity is deemed to be a desirable characteristic of a stock, especially for the institutional investor, who typically trades in large volume. Thus, firms can generally be expected to seek means of enhancing the liquidity of their shares. One of the supposed means of accomplishing this is by listing one's stock on a national securities exchange. This paper examines the relationship of common stock liquidity to both exchange listing and price behavior during major up and down movements in the market. Our conceptual and empirical analyses indicate that liquidity is linked to price behavior; and we suggest that the view held by at least some corporate officers—that exchange listing increases liquidity—may be erroneous. More specifically, it appears that when the amount of firm capitalization is taken into account, exchange listing does not result in greater stock liquidity.     

Can Spending Time in the Minors Pay Off? An Examination of the Canadian Junior Public Equity Markets

This paper tests whether the junior public equity markets serve as an effective development market for early‐stage firms compared to private venture capital (VC). Focusing on the Canadian market, we compare the long‐run stock performance of firms that graduate from the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange (TSX‐V) to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) against the performance of VC‐backed firms that have a direct IPO on the TSX. Controlling for various confounders and possible selection biases, we find that TSX‐V graduations significantly outperform VC‐backed IPOs by 28.2 percentage points in the three years following the TSX listing. Our results are consistent with the idea that a TSX‐V listing provides the insiders of early‐stage companies with valuable public‐markets experience.     

Size,value, and momentum in emerging market stock returns

In this paper, we examine value and momentum effects in 18 emerging stock markets. Using stock level data from January 1990 to December 2011, we find strong evidence for the value effect in all emerging markets and the momentum effect for all but Eastern Europe. We investigate size patterns in value and momentum. After forming portfolios sorted on size and book-to-market ratio, as well as size and lagged momentum, we use three well-known factor models to explain the returns for these portfolios based on factors constructed using local, U.S., and aggregate global developed stock markets data. Local factors perform much better, suggesting emerging market segmentation.