Abstract This article examines whether and to what extent private firms learn from the stock market. Using a large panel data set for the UK, I find that private firms’ investment responds positively to the valuation of public firms in the same industry. The sensitivity increases with price informativeness. To further pin down the information channel, I construct a price noise measure based on public firms’ unrelated minor segments and show that it positively affects the investment of private firms in the major-segment industry. The results are consistent with models featuring learning from noisy signals and are not driven by alternative channels in the absence of learning. My findings suggest that the stock market can have real effects on private firms through an information-spillover channel, even when these firms do not list their shares on the stock exchanges.
We study how a firm's accounting accruals affect the heterogeneity of investor beliefs on the firm's value and further affect the firm's future stock returns. We document three findings. First, we find that the level of the heterogeneity in investor beliefs on a firm's value is higher when the firm experiences a larger increase in its accounting accruals. Second, we find that future stock returns following the earnings announcement are lower when the firm's accounting accruals increases the heterogeneity of investor beliefs to a larger degree. Finally, we also find that the effect of the accruals-induced heterogeneous investor beliefs on future stock returns is more pronounced when short-sale constraints are more binding. Overall, our empirical findings suggest that accounting accruals are a key determinant of the heterogeneity of investor beliefs. They also suggest a channel of investor beliefs whereby accruals affect future stock returns by affecting the heterogeneity of investor beliefs.
Journal of Corporate Finance202698, 102967open access
How do banks contribute to the green economy? Using a unique dataset detailing firms' revenue exposure to green business activities, we present new evidence that firms generating revenue from green products and services are associated with lower syndicated loan spreads. We find that the green revenue effects on loan spreads are attributable to firms' prospects tied to climate change-related opportunities and banks' environmental orientation. Foreign banks subject to mandatory environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure regulations reduce the loan spreads to green revenue firms. We also find suggestive evidence that firms with green revenue tend to file more green patents following loan origination. While banks typically perceive green innovation as riskier and demand higher loan spreads, this effect is offset if a firm also generates green revenue. Collectively, our results highlight the pivotal role that banks play in channeling financial resources toward green business practices.
[This paper presents a dynamic equilibrium model of bond markets in which two groups of agents hold heterogeneous expectations about future economic conditions. The heterogeneous expectations cause agents to take on speculative positions against each other and therefore generate endogenous relative wealth fluctuation. The relative wealth fluctuation amplifies asset price volatility and contributes to the time variation in bond premia. Our model shows that a modest amount of heterogeneous expectations can help explain several puzzling phenomena, including the "excessive volatility" of bond yields, the failure of the expectations hypothesis, and the ability of a tent-shaped linear combination of forward rates to predict bond returns.]
This article develops precise connections among two general approaches to building interest rate models: a general equilibrium approach using a pricing kernel and the Heath, Jarrow, and Morton framework based on specifying forward rate volatilities and the market price of risk. The connections exploit the observation that a pricing kernel is uniquely determined by its drift. Through these connections we provide, for any arbitrage-free term structure model, a representative-consumer real production economy supporting that term structure model in equilibrium. We put particular emphasis on models in which interest rates remain positive. By modeling the dynamics of the drift of the pricing kernel, we construct a new family of Markovian-positive interest rate models.
Journal of Financial Intermediation201322(3), 513-527
This paper examines whether securitization has an ex-post effect on residential loan renegotiation. It makes two main contributions to the existing literature. First, this paper evaluates the re-default and self-cure rates of loans using bank-reported loan renegotiation data. Second, it conducts a transition probability study to better understand the re-default and self-cure dynamics by time and previous loan state. I find that previously delinquent portfolio loans are less likely to re-default and more likely to self-cure than comparable securitized loans during the intermediate time frame, but the difference diminishes afterwards. For previously cured loans, portfolio loans and securitized loans have generally similar re-default and self-cure rates over time. This paper emphasizes that it is important to understand the dynamic transition behavior of mortgage loans.
Journal of Financial Economics201199(1), 40-59open access
We examine the impact of the entry of new mutual funds on incumbents using the overlap in their portfolio holdings as a measure of competitive intensity. This simple metric delivers powerful economic results. Incumbents that have a high overlap with entrants subsequently engage in price competition by reducing management fees. Distribution fees, however, rise so that investors do not benefit as much from price competition. Funds with high overlap also experience quantity competition through lower investor flows, have lower alphas, and higher attrition rates. These effects only appear after the late 1990s, at which point there appears to be an endogenous structural shift in the competitive environment. We conclude that the mutual fund market has evolved into one that displays the hallmark features of a competitive market.
We construct a "universe" of over 18,000 fundamental signals from financial statements and use a bootstrap approach to evaluate the impact of data mining on fundamental-based anomalies. We find that many fundamental signals are significant predictors of cross-sectional stock returns even after accounting for data mining. This predictive ability is more pronounced following high-sentiment periods and among stocks with greater limits to arbitrage. Our evidence suggests that fundamental-based anomalies, including those newly discovered in this study, cannot be attributed to random chance, and they are better explained by mispricing. Our approach is general and we also apply it to past return–based anomalies.
[We show that the positive relation between institutional ownership and future stock returns documented in Gompers and Metrick (2001) is driven by shortterm institutions. Furthermore, short-term institutions' trading forecasts future stock returns. This predictability does not reverse in the long run and is stronger for small and growth stocks. Short-term institutions' trading is also positively related to future earnings surprises. By contrast, long-term institutions' trading does not forecast future returns, nor is it related to future earnings news. Our results are consistent with the view that short-term institutions are better informed and they trade actively to exploit their informational advantage.]