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Booster or stabilizer? Economic policy uncertainty: New firm-specific measurement and impacts on stock price crash risk

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  • Wang, Liang
  • Wang, Qikai
  • Jiang, Fan

Abstract

We employ text-based tools to construct a new measurement of firm-specific economic policy uncertainty (FEPU, hereafter): the share of sentences related to EPU in management discussion and analysis (MD&A, hereafter). Our measure enables us to exploit the wide range of variation in actual and perceived EPU across firms and over time. Linking our FEPU to stock price crash risk shows that FEPU negatively affects stock price crash risk, which still holds after addressing endogeneity problem, and varies across firms’ ownership and asset irreversibility. We extend extant research on impacts of EPU by capturing time-varying firms’ exposures to EPU.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Liang & Wang, Qikai & Jiang, Fan, 2023. "Booster or stabilizer? Economic policy uncertainty: New firm-specific measurement and impacts on stock price crash risk," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:51:y:2023:i:c:s1544612322006389
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103462
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    2. Wang, Liang & Qi, Jiahan & Zhuang, Hongyu, 2023. "Monitoring or Collusion? Multiple Large Shareholders and Corporate ESG Performance: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Yan, Weichen & Cai, Zhipeng & Yang, Aishu, 2023. "Leading the charge: The impact of executives with R&D backgrounds on corporate digital transformation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    4. Wang, Liang, 2023. "Mitigating firm-level political risk in China: The role of multiple large shareholders," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Firm-specific economic policy uncertainty; Stock price crash risk; Asset irreversibility; Agency cost;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

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