This study examines whether sell-side analysts can disseminate information consistent with anomaly prescriptions in China. I adopt 192 trading- and accounting-based anomaly signals to identify undervalued and overvalued stocks. Results show that analysts tend to make more (less) favorable recommendations and earnings forecasts for undervalued (overvalued) stocks. Regarding the information content, analyst recommendations and earnings forecasts are consistent with accounting- rather than trading-based information. Additionally, analyst recommendations and earnings forecasts are consistent with anomalies, especially for firms with a relatively poor information environment. These results indicate that Chinese analysts can mitigate anomaly mispricing and improve market efficiency.

This study examines the spillover effect of constituency statutes along the supply chain. We posit that the enactment of constituency statutes in customer firms’ incorporation states, by removing legal obstacles for customer firms to cater to non-shareholders’ interests, builds suppliers’ trust and cooperation. Consistent with the notion that constituency statutes entice greater trust from suppliers, we find that suppliers make more relationship-specific investments in the supply chain after the enactment of constituency statutes in customers’ states, indicating a greater commitment to the customer. We also show an improvement in customers’ corporate social responsibility performance in the post-constituency-statute period, thus substantiating the claim that the constituency statutes increase customers’ stakeholder orientation. Cross-sectionally, we find the positive effect of constituency statutes on supplier relationship-specific investments is attenuated if the customer and supplier have more repeated interactions in the past, whereas the effect is more pronounced if suppliers produce durable goods. Overall, we provide novel evidence on the spillover of constituency statutes along the supply chain.

The average total compensation of directors in U.S.-listed companies was $342,030 in 2020, 5.06 times the median household income. Directors set their own pay, giving rise to potential self-dealing. We argue and document that in the presence of self-dealing, external mechanisms such as legal standards act as effective means of governance. Following a landmark Delaware court ruling that subjected director pay to a more stringent legal standard, Delaware-incorporated firms reduced director compensation relative to non-Delaware firms and experienced positive and non-transient stock price reactions. Our results indicate that proper governance of director compensation enhances firm value.

This study examines the relative impact of seven factors, including herding, sentiments, and institutional quality, on varying levels of weak form market efficiency across 50 stock markets. The analysis focuses on the profitability of technical analysis trading strategies to address issues with other (statistical) market efficiency measures related to information and transaction costs (Griffin et al., 2010). Proxies for herding, institutional quality, and equity market development consistently emerge as the most significant cross-country determinants of relative market efficiency. In contrast, proxies for fractionalization, chaos, and investor protection play comparatively weaker roles. We also find no clear link between market efficiency and sentiment proxies.

This study explores how Chinese mutual fund managers’ degrees of disagreement (DOD) on stock market returns affect investor capital allocation decisions using a novel text-based measure of expectations in fund disclosures. In the time series, the DOD negatively predicts market returns. Cross-sectional results show that investors correctly perceive the DOD as an overpricing signal and discount fund performance accordingly. Flow-performance sensitivity (FPS) is diminished during high dispersion periods. The effect is stronger for outperforming funds and funds with substantial investments in bubble and high-beta stocks, but weaker for skilled funds. We also discuss the financial sophistication of investors and provide evidence that our results are not contingent upon such sophistication.

We provide for the first time the emerging market variance risk premium (EMVRP) from 2006 to 2023, based on nine emerging stock and option markets—Brazil, China, India, South Korea, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, and Taiwan. The EMVRP significantly predicts international stock returns and currency appreciation rates, especially for horizons longer than six months. This is in sharp contrast with the predictive pattern of the developed market variance risk premium (DMVRP), which is more important over horizons shorter than six months. These findings are consistent with an illustrative model incorporating partial market integration and heterogeneous economic uncertainty.