Creditor Protection and Stock Price Volatility

37 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2008

See all articles by Galina Hale

Galina Hale

University of California, Santa Cruz

Assaf Razin

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Hui Tong

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Date Written: October 2007

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of creditor protection on the volatility of stock market returns. Our application of the Tobin's q model predicts that credit protection reduces the probability of oscillations between binding and nonbinding states of the credit constraint, which result from liquidity crises and their aftermath. In this way creditor protection regulation reduces the stock market price volatility. We test this prediction by using cross-country panel regressions of the stock return volatility, in 40 countries, over the period from 1984 to 2004. Estimated probabilities of big shocks to liquidity are used as a forecast of a switch from a credit-unconstrained to a credit-constrained regime. We find support for the hypothesis that creditor protection institutions reduce the probability of oscillations between binding and nonbinding states of the credit constraint and thereby help reduce the asset price volatility.

Keywords: collateral, Credit constrained regimes, probability of liquidity crisis

JEL Classification: E44

Suggested Citation

Hale, Galina and Razin, Assaf and Tong, Hui, Creditor Protection and Stock Price Volatility (October 2007). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP6540, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1140067

Galina Hale

University of California, Santa Cruz ( email )

1156 High St
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
United States

Assaf Razin (Contact Author)

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 39040
Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, 69978
Israel
+972 3 640 7303 (Phone)
+972 3 640 9908 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

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Munich, DE-81679
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.CESifo.de

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Hui Tong

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

700 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20431
United States

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