Information Transmission and Investor Reactions
Author | : Jingjing Chen |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 121 |
Release | : 2021 |
ISBN-10 | : 9798538115297 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (97 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: This dissertation consists of two essays that study the effects of information transmission on asset pricing under dynamic settings. My first essay studies the pricing of earnings announcement risk. Earnings announcements present a clear risk to investors and, under rational asset pricing theory, such risk should be consistently priced in stocks. However, I find that stocks with high earnings announcement risk earn significantly higher returns only during months when firms have earnings or M&A announcements. Moreover, the higher returns are realized mostly around the date of announcements. The findings seem to suggest that the risk premium is accrued concurrently when investors adjust stock valuation in response to significant information events. I provide additional evidence to substantiate the conjecture based on the effects of information updates and investor information consumption.My second essay investigates market excess returns around scheduled macroeconomic news announcements. Prior literature documents significantly positive market excess returns implied from CAPM (i.e., the coefficient of market beta) and significantly positive realized market excess returns on scheduled macroeconomic announcement days. In this study, I find that market excess return swings from negative on the day before, to positive on the day of, and negative again on the day after announcements. The average market excess returns, both implied and realized, over the three-day announcement window are insignificant. I show that market excess returns around macroeconomic announcements are primarily driven by a mood swing, i.e., changes of investor appetite toward risk. Specifically, investors become highly risk-averse prior to announcement but are much less so on the announcement day. I also show that uncertainty resolution at best partially accounts for the swing of market excess returns.