When Firms Talk, Do Investors Listen? The Role of Trust in Stock Market Reactions to Corporate Earnings Announcements

72 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2012 Last revised: 13 Jun 2015

See all articles by Mikhail Pevzner

Mikhail Pevzner

University of Baltimore - Merrick School of Business

Fei Xie

University of Delaware - Lerner College of Business and Economics; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Xiangang Xin

City University of Hong Kong

Date Written: June 10, 2015

Abstract

We examine whether the level of trust in a country affects investors’ perception and utilization of information transmitted by firms through financial disclosure. Specifically, we investigate the effect of societal trust on investor reactions to corporate earnings announcements. We test two competing hypotheses: on the one hand, corporate earnings announcements are perceived as more credible by investors in more trusting societies and therefore elicit stronger investor reactions; on the other hand, societal trust mitigates outside investors’ concern of moral hazard and reduces the value of corporate earnings announcements to them, thereby weakening their reactions to these events. We analyze the abnormal trading volume and abnormal stock return variance during the earnings announcement period in a large sample of firm-year observations across 25 countries, and find that both measures of investor reactions to earnings announcements are significantly higher in more trusting countries. We also find that the positive effect of societal trust on investor reactions to earnings news is more pronounced (1) when a country’s investor protection and disclosure requirements are weaker, suggesting that trust acts as a substitute for formal institutions, (2) when a country’s average education level is lower, consistent with less educated people relying more on trust in making economic decisions, and (3) when firm level information asymmetry is higher, supporting the notion that trust plays a more important role in poorer information environments.

Keywords: Culture, Trust, Investor Reaction, Corporate Earnings Announcement, Investor Protection, Disclosure Requirements, Education, Information Asymmetry

JEL Classification: F39, G14, G28, G39, M41

Suggested Citation

Pevzner, Mikhail and Xie, Fei and Xin, Xiangang, When Firms Talk, Do Investors Listen? The Role of Trust in Stock Market Reactions to Corporate Earnings Announcements (June 10, 2015). Journal of Financial Economics, 117(1), 190-223, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2144835 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2144835

Mikhail Pevzner

University of Baltimore - Merrick School of Business ( email )

1420 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21201-5779
United States

Fei Xie (Contact Author)

University of Delaware - Lerner College of Business and Economics ( email )

42 Amstel Ave
Newark, DE 19716
United States
(302) 8313811 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/feisresearch/

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

Xiangang Xin

City University of Hong Kong ( email )

83 Tat Chee Avenue
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Hong Kong

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