scholarly journals Financial Literacy and Stock Price Informativeness: a Cross-Country Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-72
Author(s):  
Anita Todea

Abstract This paper examines the impact of financial literacy on stock price informativeness in a sample of firms from 20 countries. Using four measures of stock price informativeness, we find a significant relationship between higher financial literacy and higher stock price informativeness. The individual investors’ contribution regarding the incorporation of specific information into stock prices includes private information also and not mere specific information in the general sense. Financial knowledge is the key element that helps individual investors to incorporate specific information into stock prices.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-130
Author(s):  
Anita Todea

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of culture on stock price informativeness in a sample of firms from 23 developed stock markets. We find that the information content of private information in stock prices is higher in more individualistic countries and in low uncertainty-avoiding countries. Moreover, financial openness stimulates the incorporation of private information into individualistic countries and in low uncertainty-avoiding countries.


2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (05) ◽  
pp. 771-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
YAN HAN ◽  
XIN CUI ◽  
ZHIMIN HUANG ◽  
ALLAN ASHLEY

There exists a widely held belief that informed investors manipulate stock prices prior to seasoned equity offerings (SEO). Contrary to this assertion, a model is developed, which demonstrates there is significant evidence that informed investors not to manipulate trading prior to a SEO. Furthermore, there is an arguement that informed investors to trade the stock in the same direction indicated by their private information. In addition, the model is consistent with previous empirical evidence. Previous literature heavily relies on the Gerard and Nanda (1993) model. The model allows for more than one informed investors, whereas Gerard and Nanda de facto allows for only one. This model setting is not only more realistic to the real world, but also dramatically reverses its conclusion that there exists manipulative trading. It also indicated that following Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 10b-21 and Rule 105, whose intention is to curb this manipulation, the SEO discount will change in either direction. Thus previous literature delineating methodology of utilizing the SEO discount change to test for the existence of manipulative trading is not well grounded. The model also predicts that undervalued firms tend to disclose more information in order to improve the stock price informativeness, whereas overvalued firms tend to do the contrary.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiyan Jiang ◽  
Donghua Zhou ◽  
Joseph H. Zhang

SYNOPSIS Against the backdrop of the Chinese Directive 40 (China's Reg FD) issued in 2007 as an attempt to curb insider trading and to level the information playing field, this study investigates whether analysts' private information acquisition influences the extent to which firm-specific information is impounded into stock prices, i.e., stock price synchronicity, and how the restrictions on selective disclosures imposed by Directive 40 have shaped the relationship between analyst information acquisition and synchronicity. Using a pre-Directive 40 sample, we show that synchronicity is negatively related to analysts' private information acquisition, which provides support for the “information advantage” argument of analysts' information production. However, the ability of analysts' private information acquisition in improving firm-specific information incorporated into stock price is mitigated post-Directive 40 due to a restriction on selective disclosures and/or private communication. Moreover, we find that this regulatory impact varies for firms being followed by affiliated analysts versus non-affiliated analysts. JEL Classifications: G14; G15; G17; G18.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-46
Author(s):  
Chong-Meng Chee ◽  
Nazrul Hisyam Bin Ab Razak

Objective - This study investigates whether private information newly incorporated into stock price enhances performance in timing share repurchases. Methodology/Technique - Cost saving gained in share repurchases is used a proxy for performance of market-timing in share repurchases and firm-specific stock return variation is used to gauge stock price informativeness. A sample of 334 U.S. repurchasing firms are tested using panel data regression. Findings - The paper concludes that managers possess better market timing skill by obtaining more cost saving from their share repurchases when private information is reflected in stock price. Stock price informativeness may be the tool for managers to improve their market timing skill to take advantage of the stock market. Furthermore, firms with smaller size and a higher market-to-book ratios, and firms with higher cash-to-assets ratios are found to achieve more cost saving in buying back their shares indicating that these firms are able to time the market in share repurchasing. Novelty – Despite numerous previous studies focusing solely on using share repurchases announcement for computing cumulative abnormal returns in testing managerial market timing, this study contributes to the literature in several ways: (i) providing evidence relating stock price informativeness and performance of market-timing in share repurchases; (ii) developing a better timing measure constructed using actual repurchasing data; (iii) adopting a cost saving measure as the timing measure instead of cumulative abnormal return. Type of Paper - Empirical. Keywords: Managerial Learning Hypothesis; Market Timing; Stock Repurchase; Stock Price Informativeness; Firm-specific Stock Return Variation. JEL Classification: G12, G13, G14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.35609/jfbr.2019.4.1(5)


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andriansyah Andriansyah

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the real effects of primary and secondary equity markets on the post-issue operating performance of initial public offering (IPO) firms. Design/methodology/approach The author utilizes the intended use of proceeds as a proxy variable for the primary market and the investment-to-price sensitivity and the informativeness of stock prices as alternative proxy variables for the secondary market. The compositional data, and non-parametric quantile regressions which are more robust to outliers than standard least square regressions, are employed for Indonesian equity market over the period of 1999-2013. Findings While confirming that firm operating performance can be explained by the firm’s motivation to go public, the author also shows that the operating performance is positively affected by investment-to-price sensitivity and negatively affected by stock price informativeness. The stock prices affect investment decisions by the way that the more liquid a stock is, the more informative its price is, and the more relevant stock prices are in investment decisions. These findings still hold after controlling for ownership structure. Originality/value Departing from the existing literature, the author investigates the role of primary and secondary equity markets for firm performance in an integrated framework because both markets interact closely in reality. The author shows that public listed firms can benefit both from the capital-raising function of the primary market and from the informational role of the stock prices of the secondary market. A measure of stock price informativeness, 1−R2, however, must be understood in the context of thin trading in the sense that the level of liquidity affects the level of stock price informativeness.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 829-857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hua Feng ◽  
Ahsan Habib ◽  
Gao liang Tian

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between aggressive tax planning and stock price synchronicity. Design/methodology/approach Employing the special institutional background of China, this study constructs tax aggressiveness and stock price synchronicity measures for a large sample of Chinese stocks spanning the period 2003–2015. The authors employ OLS regression as the baseline methodology, and a fixed effect model, the Fama–Macbeth method and GMM as sensitivity checks. Matched samples and difference-in-difference analyses are used to control for endogeneity. Findings The authors find a significant and positive association between aggressive tax planning and stock price synchronicity. Because material information about risky tax transactions tends to be hidden in various tax accruals accounts, aggressive tax strategies make financial statements less transparent, thereby, increasing information asymmetry and decreasing stock price informativeness. The authors also find that the firms engaging in aggressive tax planning exhibit relatively high corporate opacity. In addition, the authors find that improvements in the tax enforcement regime, ownership status and high-quality auditors all constrain the adverse effects of tax aggressiveness. Practical implications This study has important practical implications for China’s regulators, who are striving to reduce the tax burden of enterprises. It also helps investors to consider investment decisions more appropriately from a taxation perspective. Originality/value First, this paper contributes to the stock price efficiency literature by identifying the effect of a hitherto unexamined factor, namely, firm-level aggressive tax planning, on the efficiency of stock prices. Second, this study provides further empirical evidence to support the agency view of tax aggressiveness, and the informational interpretation of stock price synchronicity. Third, this study helps us better understand the effects of firm-level tax policy on firm-specific information capitalization in an environment where overall country-level investor protection is relatively weak.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donghua Zhou ◽  
Yujie Zhao ◽  
Philip T Lin ◽  
Bin Li ◽  
Adrian (Waikong) Cheung

We study the relationship between stock price synchronicity and information disclosure of firms listed in the Chinese stock market, using hand-collected data on firms’ official microblogging content in Sina Weibo, a popular microblogging service in China. We find that after controlling for the impact of traditional media, the number of Weibo tweets is related negatively to stock price synchronicity, indicating that stock prices incorporate firm-specific information disclosed in the firm’s official Weibo. Number of microblogging fans can strengthen this negative relationship. Our result is robust to alternative measures of stock price synchronicity, microblogging information disclosure, and to endogeneity issues. JEL Classification: G14, G15


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 209-230
Author(s):  
Adel Almasarwah ◽  
Mohammad Almaharmeh ◽  
Ahmed M. Al Omush ◽  
Adel Sarea

Purpose This study investigates the nature of the association between profit warnings and stock price informativeness in the context of Jordan as an emerging country. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a large panel data set that related to stock price synchronicity and profit warnings percentages on the Amman Stock Exchange for the period spanning 2007–2018. Robust regression was used as a parametric test. This enabled us to obtain stronger results that fall in line with our prediction that a profit warning encourages firm investors to collect and process more firm-specific information than common market information. Findings Our findings show a significant positive effect of profit warnings on the amount of firm-specific information incorporated into stock price, which means that the greater the percentage of profit warnings the more likely that more firm-specific information will be incorporated in stock price synchronicity. In addition, corporate governance characteristics (moderating variables) significantly increase the level of the relationship between profit warnings and stock price synchronicity. Practical implications Our study results could be useful to investors, senior managers, and regulators in Jordanian firms, particularly in relation to decisions about enhancing the quality of financial statements. In addition, our results provide new evidence about the consequences of earnings announcements for information content and the informativeness of stock prices. Our methodology and evaluation of profit warnings may also demonstrate useful evidence for future researchers on profit warnings and stock price informativeness in developing economies, especially given that such evidence is scarce in developing economies. Originality/value This research is the first study of its kind on emerging markets, particularly in the Middle East. Moreover, entering the corporate governance variables as moderating variables to the robust regression was found to be more powerful than other regressions.


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