The impact of investor protection on stock market volatility

Purpose - This study aims to advance knowledge on the direct impact of the investor’s protection level on the stock market volatility, that is, whether investor’s protection is an important stock market volatility determinant. Design/methodology/approach - A panel data was estimated using a sample of 48 countries, from 2006 to 2018, totalizing 31,808 observations. To measure stock market volatility and the investor protection level, a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model and the World Bank Doing Business investor protection index were used, respectively. Findings - The results evidence that the protection of investors’ rights reduces the stock market volatility. This result indicates that a high level of investor protection, which is the result of a better quality of laws and policies in place that protect investor’s rights, promotes the country as a “safe haven.” Practical implications - The relationship that the authors intend to analyze becomes important, given that investor protection will give outsiders guarantees on the materialization of their investments. This study contributes important knowledge for investors and for the establishment of government policies as a way of attracting investment. Originality/value - Although there have been a few studies addressing this relationship, to the knowledge, none of them directly analyses the influence of investor protection on the stock market volatility.