A study of the market reaction to CEO change
The purpose of this study is to investigate how market reacts to CEO changes and how it may lead to abnormal stock returns. The research is of retrospective character and is based on publicly available information published by listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange during 2011-2015 taken from a sample of 102 companies. The hypotheses were tested using panel regression with fixed effects for time series and merged effects for cross sections. The results of hypothesis testing showed that there is a negative and significant relationship between CEO change and abnormal stock returns. In other words, it can be argued that at the time of CEO change, stocks are underrated by stockholders, as a result of which the estimated stock return will be lower than expected.