Corporate financialization and investment efficiency: Evidence from China

This study analyzes the financialization impact on investment efficiency and the mechanism using data from listed nonfinancial companies in China from 2011 to 2020. Results reveal that financialization has a positive effect on investment efficiency. Cross-sectional tests show that corporate financialization can significantly improve the investment efficiency of local state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs, and enterprises in eastern and central China. According to mechanistic analysis, the study also finds that corporate financialization improves investment efficiency by alleviating financing constraints. By suggesting the government unblock financing channels and increase capital liquidity, our findings can guide the financial sector to better serve the real economy.</p

Liquidity risk and the beta premium

As opposed to the “low beta low risk” convention, we show that low beta stocks are illiquid and exposed to high liquidity risk. After adjusting for liquidity risk, low beta stocks no longer outperform high beta stocks. Although investors who “bet against beta” earn a significant beta premium under the Fama–French three- or five-factor models, this strategy fails to generate any significant returns when liquidity risk is accounted for. Our work helps understand the beta premium from a new liquidity-risk perspective, and draws useful implications for both fund and corporate managers

When do investors gamble in the stock market?

Recent studies have uncovered gambling-motivated trading activities in financial markets in which investors seek lottery-type payoffs by using financial assets. Building on prospect theory, this study provides an important complement to prior research and investigates what period that investors make gambling-motivated trading in the stock market. Examining data from the Chinese stock market, investors are revealed to have asymmetric gambling preferences in gain and loss domains. Investors’ gambling motivations are more easily triggered when the market is experiencing a loss. In such periods of time, investors may preferentially opt for lottery-type stocks that offer them a small chance to earn an extreme return at the risk of a likely small loss, simply due to their ‘aversion to a sure loss’

“Smarter information, smarter consumers”? Insights into the housing market

This study explores how information helps housing consumers make informed decisions and discusses potential market outcomes. We analyse the interaction between the disclosure of information on property conditions and the disparity between home sellers' willingness to accept (WTA) and home buyers' willingness to pay (WTP). Three hypotheses are derived and validated through field experimental investigation within the property market. We find that a WTA–WTP disparity exists. The identified policy instrument for information disclosure appears to function as expected. The WTA–WTP disparity is considerably reduced after information disclosure, and market liquidity and efficiency are improved. This study is an important complement to prior research on how information changes the behaviour of consumers in housing markets. Findings can inform central governments about the wider benefits of smart disclosure in the future, as well as the scope, format and structure of information supplied to general housing consumers to promote efficiency

The bias of growth opportunity

The bias of growth opportunity (BGO), measured as the difference between market and fundamental values of a firm's growth opportunity, has an ability to predict future stock returns. In the portfolio sort, downward-biased BGO firms earn higher returns than upward-biased ones, which is unexplained by the common asset pricing models. Cross-sectional regression results also confirm BGO's power in predicting stock returns. To explain the anomaly, we show that the BGO premium is more pronounced when investor sentiment is high or when limits-to-arbitrage is severe, which suggests that the (Formula presented.) is more likely to capture behavioural biases than systematic risk

The bias of growth opportunity

The bias of growth opportunity (BGO), measured as the difference between market and fundamental values of a firm's growth opportunity, has an ability to predict future stock returns. In the portfolio sort, downward-biased BGO firms earn higher returns than upward-biased ones, which is unexplained by the common asset pricing models. Cross-sectional regression results also confirm BGO's power in predicting stock returns. To explain the anomaly, we show that the BGO premium is more pronounced when investor sentiment is high or when limits-to-arbitrage is severe, which suggests that the (Formula presented.) is more likely to capture behavioural biases than systematic risk