IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/finmgt/v51y2022i1p117-141.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Geographic proximity and price efficiency: Evidence from high‐speed railway connections between firms and financial centers

Author

Listed:
  • Hao Gao
  • Yuanyu Qu
  • Tao Shen

Abstract

We study how geographic proximity to financial centers affects price efficiency. Using high‐speed railway connections between firm cities and their nearest financial centers in China as exogenous shocks, we find stocks of connected firms are more efficiently priced than those of firms that are not connected. Consistent with our hypothesis, ease of travel has a stronger effect on firms that are closer to financial centers, smaller, have less institutional ownership and financial analyst coverage, and are not on the short sales list. Our paper highlights the importance of the geographic proximity of firms to financial centers on financial market efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Hao Gao & Yuanyu Qu & Tao Shen, 2022. "Geographic proximity and price efficiency: Evidence from high‐speed railway connections between firms and financial centers," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 117-141, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:finmgt:v:51:y:2022:i:1:p:117-141
    DOI: 10.1111/fima.12354
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/fima.12354
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/fima.12354?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hans Degryse & Steven Ongena, 2005. "Distance, Lending Relationships, and Competition," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 231-266, February.
    2. Zoran Ivković & Scott Weisbenner, 2005. "Local Does as Local Is: Information Content of the Geography of Individual Investors' Common Stock Investments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 267-306, February.
    3. Harrison Hong & Terence Lim & Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "Bad News Travels Slowly: Size, Analyst Coverage, and the Profitability of Momentum Strategies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 265-295, February.
    4. John Y. Campbell & Jens Hilscher & Jan Szilagyi, 2008. "In Search of Distress Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2899-2939, December.
    5. Bing Han & Dongmin Kong & Shasha Liu, 2018. "Do Analysts Gain an Informational Advantage by Visiting Listed Companies?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(4), pages 1843-1867, December.
    6. Jianping Mei & Jose A. Scheinkman & Wei Xiong, 2009. "Speculative Trading and Stock Prices: Evidence from Chinese A-B Share Premia," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 10(2), pages 225-255, November.
    7. Qiang Cheng & Fei Du & Xin Wang & Yutao Wang, 2016. "Seeing is believing: analysts’ corporate site visits," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1245-1286, December.
    8. Tim Loughran, 2008. "The Impact of Firm Location on Equity Issuance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 37(1), pages 1-21, March.
    9. Xavier Giroud, 2013. "Proximity and Investment: Evidence from Plant-Level Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 861-915.
    10. Wei Xiong & Jialin Yu, 2011. "The Chinese Warrants Bubble," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2723-2753, October.
    11. Eugene Soltes, 2014. "Private Interaction Between Firm Management and Sell‐Side Analysts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 245-272, March.
    12. Shai Bernstein & Xavier Giroud & Richard R. Townsend, 2016. "The Impact of Venture Capital Monitoring," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(4), pages 1591-1622, August.
    13. Qi Chen & Itay Goldstein & Wei Jiang, 2007. "Price Informativeness and Investment Sensitivity to Stock Price," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(3), pages 619-650.
    14. Bae, Kee-Hong & Stulz, René M. & Tan, Hongping, 2008. "Do local analysts know more? A cross-country study of the performance of local analysts and foreign analysts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 581-606, June.
    15. Hendershott, Terrence & Livdan, Dmitry & Schürhoff, Norman, 2015. "Are institutions informed about news?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 249-287.
    16. Gustavo Grullon, 2004. "Advertising, Breadth of Ownership, and Liquidity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 439-461.
    17. Anand, Amber & Gatchev, Vladimir A. & Madureira, Leonardo & Pirinsky, Christo A. & Underwood, Shane, 2011. "Geographic proximity and price discovery: Evidence from NASDAQ," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 193-226, May.
    18. Ekkehart Boehmer & Juan (Julie) Wu, 2013. "Short Selling and the Price Discovery Process," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(2), pages 287-322.
    19. Harald Hau, 2001. "Location Matters: An Examination of Trading Profits," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1959-1983, October.
    20. Bailey, Warren & Cai, Jun & Cheung, Yan Leung & Wang, Fenghua, 2009. "Stock returns, order imbalances, and commonality: Evidence on individual, institutional, and proprietary investors in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 9-19, January.
    21. Shive, Sophie, 2012. "Local investors, price discovery, and market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 145-161.
    22. Lee, Charles M C & Ready, Mark J, 1991. "Inferring Trade Direction from Intraday Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(2), pages 733-746, June.
    23. Wei Xiong & Jialin Yu, 2011. "The Chinese Warrants Bubble," Working Papers 1398, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Econometric Research Program..
    24. Beveridge, Stephen & Nelson, Charles R., 1981. "A new approach to decomposition of economic time series into permanent and transitory components with particular attention to measurement of the `business cycle'," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 151-174.
    25. Chang, Eric C. & Luo, Yan & Ren, Jinjuan, 2014. "Short-selling, margin-trading, and price efficiency: Evidence from the Chinese market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 411-424.
    26. Loughran, Tim & Schultz, Paul, 2005. "Liquidity: Urban versus rural firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 341-374, November.
    27. Liao, Li & Liu, Bibo & Wang, Hao, 2014. "China׳s secondary privatization: Perspectives from the Split-Share Structure Reform," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 500-518.
    28. Chordia, Tarun & Roll, Richard & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2005. "Evidence on the speed of convergence to market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 271-292, May.
    29. Joshua D. Coval & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 1999. "Home Bias at Home: Local Equity Preference in Domestic Portfolios," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2045-2073, December.
    30. Baik, Bok & Kang, Jun-Koo & Kim, Jin-Mo, 2010. "Local institutional investors, information asymmetries, and equity returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 81-106, July.
    31. Joshua D. Coval & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2001. "The Geography of Investment: Informed Trading and Asset Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(4), pages 811-841, August.
    32. Ellis, Jesse & Madureira, Leonardo & Underwood, Shane, 2020. "The Causal Effects of Proximity on Investment: Evidence from Flight Introductions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(6), pages 1978-2004, September.
    33. Christo Pirinsky & Qinghai Wang, 2006. "Does Corporate Headquarters Location Matter for Stock Returns?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1991-2015, August.
    34. Bartram, Söhnke M. & Grinblatt, Mark, 2018. "Agnostic fundamental analysis works," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 125-147.
    35. Hasbrouck, Joel, 1993. "Assessing the Quality of a Security Market: A New Approach to Transaction-Cost Measurement," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(1), pages 191-212.
    36. Peter Koudijs, 2016. "The Boats That Did Not Sail: Asset Price Volatility in a Natural Experiment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(3), pages 1185-1226, June.
    37. Brennan, Michael J. & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1995. "Investment analysis and price formation in securities markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 361-381, July.
    38. Christopher J. Malloy, 2005. "The Geography of Equity Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 719-755, April.
    39. Peter Koudijs, 2015. "Those Who Know Most: Insider Trading in Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(6), pages 1356-1409.
    40. Li Pan & Ya Tang & Jianguo Xu, 2016. "Speculative Trading and Stock Returns," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(5), pages 1835-1865.
    41. Jain, Archana & Jain, Pankaj K. & McInish, Thomas H. & McKenzie, Michael, 2013. "Worldwide reach of short selling regulations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 177-197.
    42. Jun‐Koo Kang & Jin‐Mo Kim, 2008. "The Geography of Block Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2817-2858, December.
    43. Melvyn Teo, 2009. "The Geography of Hedge Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3531-3561, September.
    44. Meng, Qingbin & Li, Xinyu & Chan, Kam C. & Gao, Shenghao, 2020. "Does short selling affect a firm's financial constraints?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    45. Todd A. Gormley & David A. Matsa, 2011. "Growing Out of Trouble? Corporate Responses to Liability Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2781-2821.
    46. Zhi Da & Umit G. Gurun & Bin Li & Mitch Warachka, 2021. "Investment in a Smaller World: The Implications of Air Travel for Investors and Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(1), pages 417-435, January.
    47. Umit G. Gurun & Alexander W. Butler, 2012. "Don't Believe the Hype: Local Media Slant, Local Advertising, and Firm Value," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 561-598, April.
    48. Ekkehart Boehmer & Eric K. Kelley, 2009. "Institutional Investors and the Informational Efficiency of Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3563-3594, September.
    49. Lin, Yatang, 2017. "Travel costs and urban specialization patterns: Evidence from China’s high speed railway system," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 98-123.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huang, Yichu & Fan, Yaoyao, 2022. "Risk along the supply chain: Geographic proximity and corporate risk taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    2. Xiaofeng Quan & Cheng Xiang & Donghui Li & Kelvin Jui Keng Tan, 2023. "To see is to believe: Corporate site visits and mutual fund herding," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 52(4), pages 711-740, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kedia, Simi & Zhou, Xing, 2011. "Local market makers, liquidity and market quality," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 540-567, November.
    2. Li, Mingsheng & Zhao, Xin, 2016. "Neighborhood effect on stock price comovement," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-22.
    3. John, Kose & Knyazeva, Anzhela & Knyazeva, Diana, 2011. "Does geography matter? Firm location and corporate payout policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 533-551, September.
    4. Huang, Xiaoran & Kang, Jun-Koo, 2017. "Geographic concentration of institutions, corporate governance, and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 191-218.
    5. Boubaker, Sabri & Derouiche, Imen & Lasfer, Meziane, 2015. "Geographic location, excess control rights, and cash holdings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 24-37.
    6. Benson, Bradley W. & Chen, Yu & James, Hui L. & Park, Jung Chul, 2020. "So far away from me: Firm location and the managerial ownership effect on firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Kee-Hong Bae & Jin-Mo Kim & Yang Ni, 2013. "Is Firm-specific Return Variation a Measure of Information Efficiency?," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 13(4), pages 407-445, December.
    8. Devos, Erik & Rahman, Shofiqur, 2014. "Location and lease intensity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 20-36.
    9. Jin, Zhi & Yang, Yinan & Zhang, Liguang, 2021. "Geographic proximity and cross-region merger and acquisitions: Evidence from the opening of high-speed rail in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Nerissa C. Brown & Han Stice & Roger M. White, 2015. "Mobile Communication and Local Information Flow: Evidence from Distracted Driving Laws," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 275-329, May.
    11. Kuang, Chun & Liu, Zijie & Zhu, Wenyu, 2021. "Need for speed: High-speed rail and firm performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. Kevan Jensen & Jin-Mo Kim & Han Yi, 2015. "The geography of US auditors: information quality and monitoring costs by local versus non-local auditors," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 513-549, April.
    13. Harris, Oneil, 2018. "The impact of industrial districts on the pricing of IPOs," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 274-285.
    14. Antonio Acconcia & Alfredo Del Monte & Luca Pennacchio & Germana Scepi, 2011. "IPO Underpricing and the Location of Firms," CSEF Working Papers 295, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy, revised 04 Feb 2021.
    15. Knyazeva, Anzhela & Knyazeva, Diana, 2012. "Does being your bank’s neighbor matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1194-1209.
    16. Jennie Bai & Massimo Massa, 2021. "Is Human-Interaction-based Information Substitutable? Evidence from Lockdown," NBER Working Papers 29513, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Boubakri, Narjess & Guedhami, Omrane & Saffar, Walid, 2016. "Geographic location, foreign ownership, and cost of equity capital: Evidence from privatization," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 363-381.
    18. Xiaoran Huang & Zheng Qiao & Lei Zhang, 2021. "The real effects of institutional spatial concentration," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(4), pages 1113-1167, December.
    19. Anand, Amber & Gatchev, Vladimir A. & Madureira, Leonardo & Pirinsky, Christo A. & Underwood, Shane, 2011. "Geographic proximity and price discovery: Evidence from NASDAQ," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 193-226, May.
    20. García, Diego & Norli, Øyvind, 2012. "Geographic dispersion and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(3), pages 547-565.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:finmgt:v:51:y:2022:i:1:p:117-141. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fmaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.