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Journal of Finance Vol. 69 No. 5 2014

Does Stock Liquidity Enhance or Impede Firm Innovation?

Vivian W. Fang; Xuan Tian; Sheri Tice1

1 Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales du Nord

Abstract

We aim to tackle the longstanding debate on whether stock liquidity enhances or impedes firm innovation. This topic is of interest because innovation is crucial for firm‐ and national‐level competitiveness and stock liquidity can be altered by financial market regulations. Using a difference‐in‐differences approach that relies on the exogenous variation in liquidity generated by regulatory changes, we find that an increase in liquidity causes a reduction in future innovation. We identify two possible mechanisms through which liquidity impedes innovation: increased exposure to hostile takeovers and higher presence of institutional investors who do not actively gather information or monitor.

DOI
10.1111/jofi.12187
Volume
69
Issue
5
Pages
2085-2125
Language
en
Sources
crossref openalex

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