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Journal of Financial Stability Vol. 5 No. 2 2009

Institutional investors and stock returns volatility: Empirical evidence from a natural experiment

Martin T. Bohl1; Janusz Brzeszczyński2; Bernd Wilfling1

1 University of Münster · 2 Heriot-Watt University

Abstract

In this paper, we provide empirical evidence on the impact of institutional investors on stock market returns dynamics. The Polish pension system reform in 1999 and the associated increase in institutional ownership due to the investment activities of pension funds are used as a unique institutional characteristic. Performing a Markov-switching-GARCH analysis we find empirical evidence that the increase of institutional ownership has temporarily changed the volatility structure of aggregate stock returns. The results are interpretable in favor of a stabilizing effect on index stock returns induced by institutional investors.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfs.2008.02.003
Volume
5
Issue
2
Pages
170-182
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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