IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecofin/v78y2025ics1062940825000762.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managerial integrity and stock returns

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Mo
  • Cao, Jiawei
  • Meng, Yifan
  • Gong, Hao

Abstract

This study creates a monthly managerial integrity index (MII) by analyzing managers’ responses in information disclosure during site visits, and assesses its effectiveness in predicting returns. The empirical results indicate that a higher MII significantly predicts a lower Chinese A-share market return in the next month, with in-sample and out-of-sample R2s of 4.0133 % and 4.5714 %, respectively. This conclusion remains consistent after conducting various robustness tests. Additionally, the study reveals that managerial integrity influences stock market returns by boosting trading activity and reducing the liquidity premium.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Mo & Cao, Jiawei & Meng, Yifan & Gong, Hao, 2025. "Managerial integrity and stock returns," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:78:y:2025:i:c:s1062940825000762
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2025.102436
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062940825000762
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.najef.2025.102436?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ivo Welch & Amit Goyal, 2008. "A Comprehensive Look at The Empirical Performance of Equity Premium Prediction," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 1455-1508, July.
    2. Mo Yang & Sishi Yue & Dayong Dong, 2025. "The Value of Integrity: The Impact of Management Integrity on Corporate Financial Distress," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(3), pages 627-640, February.
    3. Pastor, Lubos & Stambaugh, Robert F., 2003. "Liquidity Risk and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 642-685, June.
    4. Christopher J. Neely & David E. Rapach & Jun Tu & Guofu Zhou, 2014. "Forecasting the Equity Risk Premium: The Role of Technical Indicators," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(7), pages 1772-1791, July.
    5. Bo Liu & Jerry Cao & Sofia Johan & Tiecheng Leng, 2019. "The real effect of liquidity provision on entrepreneurial financing: evidence from a natural experiment in China," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(6), pages 568-593, April.
    6. Li, Yan & Liang, Chao & Huynh, Toan Luu Duc, 2022. "Forecasting US stock market returns by the aggressive stock-selection opportunity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    7. Maaja Vadi & Krista Jaakson, 2006. "The Importance Of Value Honest: Determining Factors And Some Hints To Ethics," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 43, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    8. Xu, Yongan & Liang, Chao & Wang, Jianqiong, 2023. "Financial stress and returns predictability: Fresh evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Jiang, Fuwei & Lee, Joshua & Martin, Xiumin & Zhou, Guofu, 2019. "Manager sentiment and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 126-149.
    10. John Y. Campbell & Samuel B. Thompson, 2008. "Predicting Excess Stock Returns Out of Sample: Can Anything Beat the Historical Average?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 1509-1531, July.
    11. Adnan Safi & Xianrong Yi & Salman Wahab & Yingying Chen & Hassan Hassan, 2021. "CEO overconfidence, firm-specific factors, and systemic risk: evidence from China," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(1), pages 30-47, June.
    12. Chen, Jian & Tang, Guohao & Yao, Jiaquan & Zhou, Guofu, 2022. "Investor Attention and Stock Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(2), pages 455-484, March.
    13. Xu, Yongan & Liang, Chao & Li, Yan & Huynh, Toan L.D., 2022. "News sentiment and stock return: Evidence from managers’ news coverages," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    14. Shaofang Li & Chao Liu, 2018. "Quality of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure and Cost of Equity Capital: Lessons from China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(11), pages 2472-2494, September.
    15. Roll, Richard, 1984. "A Simple Implicit Measure of the Effective Bid-Ask Spread in an Efficient Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1127-1139, September.
    16. Cai, Ye & Sevilir, Merih, 2012. "Board connections and M&A transactions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 327-349.
    17. Pham, Mia Hang, 2020. "In law we trust: Lawyer CEOs and stock liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    18. Jeong†Bon Kim & Zheng Wang & Liandong Zhang, 2016. "CEO Overconfidence and Stock Price Crash Risk," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(4), pages 1720-1749, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jiang, Fuwei & Liu, Hongkui & Tang, Guohao & Yu, Jiasheng, 2024. "Global mispricing matters," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Zhang, Jixiang & Zeng, Qing & Bouri, Elie & Gozgor, Giray, 2025. "Newly-constructed Chinese geopolitical risk index and trade stock returns," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Qiu, Rui & Liu, Jing & Li, Yan, 2023. "Long-term adjusted volatility: Powerful capability in forecasting stock market returns," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Xu, Yongan & Duong, Duy & Xu, Hualong, 2023. "Attention! Predicting crude oil prices from the perspective of extreme weather," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    5. Jonathan A. Batten & Harald Kinateder & Niklas Wagner, 2022. "Beating the Average: Equity Premium Variations, Uncertainty, and Liquidity," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 58(3), pages 567-588, September.
    6. Xu, Yongan & Liang, Chao & Wang, Jianqiong, 2023. "Financial stress and returns predictability: Fresh evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Karstanje, Dennis & Sojli, Elvira & Tham, Wing Wah & van der Wel, Michel, 2013. "Economic valuation of liquidity timing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5073-5087.
    8. Yaojie Zhang & Feng Ma & Chao Liang & Yi Zhang, 2021. "Good variance, bad variance, and stock return predictability," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 4410-4423, July.
    9. , & Stein, Tobias, 2021. "Equity premium predictability over the business cycle," CEPR Discussion Papers 16357, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. He, Mengxi & Zhang, Yaojie & Wen, Danyan & Wang, Yudong, 2021. "Forecasting crude oil prices: A scaled PCA approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    11. Yongan Xu & Jianqiong Wang & Zhonglu Chen & Chao Liang, 2023. "Sentiment indices and stock returns: Evidence from China," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 1063-1080, January.
    12. Qingjing Zhang & Taufiq Choudhry & Jing-Ming Kuo & Xiaoquan Liu, 2021. "Does liquidity drive stock market returns? The role of investor risk aversion," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 929-958, October.
    13. Xue Gong & Weiguo Zhang & Yuan Zhao & Xin Ye, 2023. "Forecasting stock volatility with a large set of predictors: A new forecast combination method," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(7), pages 1622-1647, November.
    14. Xing, Li-Min & Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2022. "Forecasting crude oil prices with shrinkage methods: Can nonconvex penalty and Huber loss help?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    15. Mengxi He & Yudong Wang & Yaojie Zhang, 2023. "The predictability of iron ore futures prices: A product‐material lead–lag effect," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(9), pages 1289-1304, September.
    16. Ana Sofia Monteiro & Helder Sebastião & Nuno Silva, 2025. "Prediction and Allocation of Stocks, Bonds, and REITs in the US Market," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 65(3), pages 1191-1230, March.
    17. Wen, Danyan & He, Mengxi & Wang, Yudong & Zhang, Yaojie, 2024. "Forecasting crude oil market volatility: A comprehensive look at uncertainty variables," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 1022-1041.
    18. Hoang, Khoa & Cannavan, Damien & Huang, Ronghong & Peng, Xiaowen, 2021. "Predicting stock returns with implied cost of capital: A partial least squares approach," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    19. Ma, Feng & Wang, Ruoxin & Lu, Xinjie & Wahab, M.I.M., 2021. "A comprehensive look at stock return predictability by oil prices using economic constraint approaches," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    20. Xiaojun Chu & Jianying Qiu, 2021. "Forecasting stock returns using first half an hour order imbalance," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 3236-3245, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G17 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Financial Forecasting and Simulation

    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:eee:ecofin:v:78:y:2025:i:c:s1062940825000762. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620163 .

    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.