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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of equity incentive on stock pricing efficiency, as well as the institutional investors’ response to equity incentive and its role in stock pricing efficiency.

Using a sample of 1,842 companies that announce implementing equity incentive schemes during the period 2009-2018, the authors compare the pricing efficiency between the firms with equity incentive and those without equity incentive, and companies that implement equity incentive before and after the implementation of equity incentive by using multiple regression and propensity score matching -DID (difference in difference) method. In addition, the multiple regression model is built to test the response of institutional investors to equity incentive and its role in the efficiency of stock pricing.

The empirical results indicate that a company’s stock price is influenced more by firm-specific information than systematic factors after it announces a stock-based compensation scheme. Institutional investors respond positively to companies that implement equity incentives. Among the companies that have implement equity incentive, the higher the shareholding ratio of institutional investors, the higher the efficiency of stock pricing.

The authors innovatively establish a connection between the implementation of equity incentive and the operation of stock market. The results imply that besides alleviating the agency problem, equity incentives can also improve the efficiency of stock pricing, which provide empirical evidence to support the positive effect of equity incentive.

This study aims to examine what underlies the estimated relation between idiosyncratic volatility and realized return.

Idiosyncratic volatility has a dual effect on stock pricing: it not only affects investors' expected return but also affects the efficiency of stock price in reflecting its value. Therefore, the estimated relation between idiosyncratic volatility and realized return captures its relations with both expected return and the mispricing-related component due to its dual effect on stock pricing. The sign of its relation with the mispricing-related component is indeterminate.

The estimated relation between idiosyncratic volatility and realized return decreases and switches from positive to negative as the estimation sample consists of proportionately more ex ante overvalued observations; it increases and switches from negative to positive as the estimation sample consists of proportionately more ex post overvalued observations. In sum, the relation of idiosyncratic volatility with the mispricing-related component dominates its relation with expected return in its estimated relation with realized return. Moreover, its estimated relation with realized return varies with research design choices and even switches sign due to their effects on its relation with the mispricing-related component.

The novelty of the study is evident in the implication of its findings that one cannot infer the sign of the relation of idiosyncratic volatility with expected return from its estimated relation with realized return.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the information disclosure quantity on the pricing efficiency of stocks.

Using a sample of large and actively traded Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the authors utilize annual reports filed on system for electronic document analysis and retrieval (SEDAR) between 2003 and 2013 to estimate the amount of publicly available information and find that the length and size of annual reports are important determinants of short-horizon return predictability from historical order flows, which is an inverse indicator of market efficiency.

The results show that longer and larger annual reports are associated with reduced information asymmetry, lower cost of immediacy, higher trading activity, and an overall improvement in the efficiency of price discovery. The results are robust to the inclusion of controls for various determinants of short-horizon return predictability, such as trading costs, volatility, informational effects and other firm-specific characteristics.

Collectively, the findings provide empirical support for the benefits of detailed corporate disclosure in Canada.

This is the first study to utilize the short-horizon return predictability approach to evaluate the efficiency of price discovery in relation to the amount of information disclosure.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the effects of stock price synchronicity and herding behavior of qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) on stock price crash risk, especially the mediating effect of herding behavior of QFII on the relation of stock price synchronicity and stock price crash risk.

Taking China’s A-share listed companies from 2005 to 2014 and QFII holding shares data as the research sample, this study calculates herding effect index, sock price synchronicity index and stock price crash risk index, and perform linear regression.

This study concludes that, either herding behavior of QFII or the stock price synchronicity can increase the stock price crash risk. Further study reveals that, the herding behavior of QFII also improves the effect of stock price synchronicity on stock price crash risk. Namely, herding behavior of QFII acts as the mediating role between stock price synchronicity and stock price crash risk.

This study empirically analyzes and verifies the mediating roles of herding behavior of QFII in affecting the relation of sock price synchronicity and stock price crash risk for the first time. The findings of this study contribute to the study of the role of QFII in stabilizing Chinese security market.

It is largely believed that stock pricing is influenced by disclosure of earnings. This motivates the corporate to exercise earnings management practices. This paper aims to analyse and detect the earnings management practices of Indian firms over earnings cycles. The earnings behaviour of the firms has been analysed at three levels of earnings cycles for the pricing effect: complete, incomplete and prospective. In India, the corporate ownership model is promoter-dominated shareholders’model (PDSHM) which highlights the relevance of the study for earnings-management motivation. This paper contributes by examining earnings management of the units at three levels of earnings cycle with regard to stock pricing. Earnings cycles have been decomposed into three components: complete, incomplete and prospective. While earnings management has been studied extensively, virtually all studies have focused on firm-specific effects. This study relates earnings management to the cycle of the earnings for stock-price effect.

The cash-flow model has been used for the computation of accruals (Collins and Hribar, 1999), and D’Angelo model (for calculating discretionary accruals) has been used for detecting earnings management in the present study, being comprehensive in nature and detailed in approach. The results of the “complete earnings cycle”are measured by net income. The results of the “incomplete earnings cycle” are measured by the ratio of gross margin over sales multiplied by inventory. It yields an approximate measure of the unrealized holding gains and losses. The “prospective earnings cycle” stems from the management decision to choose a rate of income growth. Statistical tools have been used for testing the results. These include regression analysis and descriptive statistics like arithmetic mean, median and standard deviation.

An examination of the units shows that firms report more discretionary accruals (DACC) at complete cycle, i.e. when financial markets are more certain about their future prospects which influence their securities’ pricing. It verified that unrealized income and growth prospects have very little role to play in determining returns. The results indicated that each of the components of the earnings cycle has a relevance factor for returns. In complete earnings cycle, DACC had the highest significance on returns than operating cash flows (OCF) and non-discretionary accruals (NDACC). Its determination content is the highest. So, the firms report more negative DACC when financial markets are less certain about their future prospects. Stock-price responses to earnings surprises are moderated when firm-level uncertainty is high, consistent with performance being attributed more to chance rather than performance.

The present study could be confined to only top 12 profit-making corporate enterprises in the private sector in India, leaving all other enterprises due to data non-availability. Of 25 enterprises, there were public sector undertakings too which had to be excluded. The period in the study is of five years (from 2003-2004 to 2007-2008) to highlight earnings management motivation. This period is best suited to identify the effects of global recession on the practice of earnings management in India. Researchers may like to select a different time-period based on their perspective.

It is hoped that the study would improve the understanding of the manner in which the capital markets process the publicly available earnings and its components for global firms. The findings of this study are significant not only for organisations that function in India but also for other companies that are based in economies with relatively mature corporate governance mechanisms. So, the authors’ findings have important policy implications for the Western world, as the sample companies are multinationals and operate globally. Similar efforts in other countries would be rewarding in controlling the management of reported earnings and enhance the reliability and transparency of reported earnings to promote economic efficiency.

Evidence on this issue could bring a new dimension to how the capital markets interpret these reported earnings and its components (cash flows, DACC and NDACC) at different levels of earnings cycles for minority shareholders in particular. Further, the evidence could also provide insights into the economic incentives for discretionary accounting choice and disclosure of the results of these earnings cycles.

It is an original paper which highlights the earnings behaviour and its motivation in Indian corporate enterprises for earnings cycles with regard to stock pricing.

This study focuses on an emerging market, China, and investigates the effects of corporate research and development (R&D) spending and subsidies on stock market reactions to seasoned equity offering (SEO) announcements.

The study uses a sample of SEOs announced over the period of 2003–2018 in the Chinese A-share market. The cumulative abnormal stock returns (CARs) are adopted to measure the stock market response to SEOs. The R&D spending-to-sales ratio (R&D subsidies) in 2 years before SEO announcements is used to measure the pre-SEO R&D spending (R&D subsidies). The instrumental variable (IV) regression method is applied to address the endogeneity problem in the robustness test.

This study demonstrates that firms with high R&D spending suffer stock overpricing and experience a negative market reaction when they announce SEOs, but R&D subsidies alleviate stock overpricing and mitigate the negative relationship between R&D spending and SEO market reactions.

Although the prior studies have demonstrated that information asymmetry, which causes stock overpricing, explains negative stock market reactions to SEOs, it is unclear if a certain factor that causes information asymmetry affects SEO market reactions. This study fills this gap and focuses on R&D spending, demonstrating that R&D spending is negatively related to SEO performance.

In this chapter the author studies the capital market efficiency hypothesis and checks whether the stock price adjustment dynamics is instantaneous, continuous, and linear or not. In particular, the author proposes to analyze the stock price evolution while taking into account the presence of transaction costs, the coexistence of heterogeneous investors, and the interdependence between stock markets. On the one hand, he provides strong evidence to suggest that the efficiency hypothesis is rejected. On the other hand, he proves that the stock index adjustment is rather discontinuous, asymmetrical, and nonlinear. Using threshold cointegration techniques, he proposes a new nonlinear modeling to reproduce the CAC40 adjustment dynamics that not only replicates the French market adjustment dynamics in the presence of market frictions but also captures the interdependence between the French and American stock markets, highlighting the reaction of French shareholders in relation to the changes in the behaviour of American speculators.

This paper aims to provide evidence that market efficiency varies greatly across individual stock, and across market exchanges.

Three approaches, partial adjustment model, Dimson beta model and variance ratio test, are used on a large sample of US stocks.

This paper finds prices are closer to random walk benchmarks (i.e. more efficient) for stocks with better liquidity provision, frequent trading, greater return volatility, higher prices, larger market capitalizations and smaller trade sizes. These findings suggest that liquidity stimulates arbitrage activity, which, in turn, enhances market efficiency. Market efficiency also varies with information environment. The results show that stocks with greater information-based trading exhibit higher level of efficiency. Finally, market structure influences market efficiency. New York Stock Exchange stocks achieve higher level of efficiency than NASDAQ stocks do. The empirical results are robust and not driven by differences in stock attributes between the two markets.

Overall, these results indicate that liquidity provision, stock attributes and market structure exert a significant impact on the realization of market efficiency.

In addition, this paper is also relevant to both stock exchanges facing increased competition and to market regulators.

Prior studies offer little evidence on the speed at which new information is impounded into the price. There is also limited evidence regarding how liquidity provision and market structure affect market efficiency. Using a transformation of the speed of price adjustment and other measurements as proxies for individual stock efficiency, this study may shed further lights on our understanding of market efficiency.

This study aims to systematically review the literature in the fields of liquidity, informational efficiency and default risk. The authors outline the key research streams and provide possible pathways for future research.

The study adopts bibliographic mapping to identify the most influential studies in the research fields of liquidity, informational efficiency and default risk from 1984 to 2021.

The study identifies four key research themes that include efficiency and transparency of markets; corporate yield spreads; market interactions: bonds, stocks and cryptocurrencies; and corporate governance. By assessing publications published from 2018 to 2021, the authors also document seven key emerging research trends: cross markets, managerial learning and corporate governance, state ownership and government subsidies, international evidence, machine learning (FinTech approaches), environmental themes and financial crisis. Drawing on these emerging trends, the authors highlight the opportunities for future research.

Keyword searches have limitations since some studies might be overlooked if they do not match the specified search criteria, even though their relevance to the topic is under investigation. Adopt the R project to expand this review by incorporating more literature from other databases, such as the Scopus database could be a possible solution.

The four key research streams contribute to a comprehensive understanding of liquidity, informational efficiency and default risk. The emerging trends integrate existing knowledge and leave the chance for innovative research to expand the research frontier.

This study fulfills the systematic literature review streams in the fields of liquidity, informational efficiency and default risk, and provides fruitful opportunities for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between aggressive tax planning and stock price synchronicity.

Employing the special institutional background of China, this study constructs tax aggressiveness and stock price synchronicity measures for a large sample of Chinese stocks spanning the period 2003–2015. The authors employ OLS regression as the baseline methodology, and a fixed effect model, the Fama–Macbeth method and GMM as sensitivity checks. Matched samples and difference-in-difference analyses are used to control for endogeneity.

The authors find a significant and positive association between aggressive tax planning and stock price synchronicity. Because material information about risky tax transactions tends to be hidden in various tax accruals accounts, aggressive tax strategies make financial statements less transparent, thereby, increasing information asymmetry and decreasing stock price informativeness. The authors also find that the firms engaging in aggressive tax planning exhibit relatively high corporate opacity. In addition, the authors find that improvements in the tax enforcement regime, ownership status and high-quality auditors all constrain the adverse effects of tax aggressiveness.

This study has important practical implications for China’s regulators, who are striving to reduce the tax burden of enterprises. It also helps investors to consider investment decisions more appropriately from a taxation perspective.

First, this paper contributes to the stock price efficiency literature by identifying the effect of a hitherto unexamined factor, namely, firm-level aggressive tax planning, on the efficiency of stock prices. Second, this study provides further empirical evidence to support the agency view of tax aggressiveness, and the informational interpretation of stock price synchronicity. Third, this study helps us better understand the effects of firm-level tax policy on firm-specific information capitalization in an environment where overall country-level investor protection is relatively weak.