IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v88y2023ics1057521923002041.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

China's diversification discount: The role of the information environment

Author

Listed:
  • Yin, Libo
  • Bai, Ruxue

Abstract

Based on information uncertainty, in this paper, we provide a mispricing explanation for the diversification discount in the Chinese A-shares market. The empirical evidence reveals an overestimation of a diversified company's value due to the uncertain information of such companies, and this overestimation is stronger when exacerbated by high sentiment. Moreover, we provide new evidence of the year breakpoint in the diversification discount during different sample subintervals, which relies on a change in ex post mispricing related to the macroeconomic environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Yin, Libo & Bai, Ruxue, 2023. "China's diversification discount: The role of the information environment," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:88:y:2023:i:c:s1057521923002041
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102688
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521923002041
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102688?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacquemin, Alexis P & Berry, Charles H, 1979. "Entropy Measure of Diversification and Corporate Growth," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 359-369, June.
    2. Harper, Joel T. & Iyer, Subramanian Rama & Nejadmalayeri, Ali, 2017. "Diversification discount and investor sentiment," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 218-236.
    3. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    4. Cohen, Lauren & Lou, Dong, 2012. "Complicated firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 383-400.
    5. Raghuram Rajan & Henri Servaes & Luigi Zingales, 2000. "The Cost of Diversity: The Diversification Discount and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 35-80, February.
    6. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    7. Faccio, Mara & Morck, Randall & Deniz Yavuz, M., 2021. "Business groups and the incorporation of firm-specific shocks into stock prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(3), pages 852-871.
    8. Heitor V. Almeida & Daniel Wolfenzon, 2006. "A Theory of Pyramidal Ownership and Family Business Groups," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2637-2680, December.
    9. Newey, Whitney & West, Kenneth, 2014. "A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 125-132.
    10. Jose Manuel Campa & Simi Kedia, 2002. "Explaining the Diversification Discount," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1731-1762, August.
    11. Richard A. Bettis & Constance E. Helfat & J. Myles Shaver & Sungyong Chang & Bruce Kogut & Jae-Suk Yang, 2016. "Global diversification discount and its discontents: A bit of self-selection makes a world of difference," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(11), pages 2254-2274, November.
    12. Hund, John & Monk, Donald & Tice, Sheri, 2010. "Uncertainty about average profitability and the diversification discount," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 463-484, June.
    13. Gopalan, Radhakrishnan & Nanda, Vikram & Seru, Amit, 2007. "Affiliated firms and financial support: Evidence from Indian business groups," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 759-795, December.
    14. Charles Cao & David Gempesaw & Timothy T Simin, 2021. "Information Choice, Uncertainty, and Expected Returns [A noisy rational expectations equilibrium for multi-asset securities markets]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(12), pages 5977-6031.
    15. Zhi Da & Joseph Engelberg & Pengjie Gao, 2011. "In Search of Attention," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1461-1499, October.
    16. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    17. Toni M. Whited, 2001. "Is It Inefficient Investment that Causes the Diversification Discount?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1667-1691, October.
    18. Clifford S. Asness & Andrea Frazzini & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2019. "Quality minus junk," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 34-112, March.
    19. Kewei Hou & David T. Robinson, 2006. "Industry Concentration and Average Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1927-1956, August.
    20. Hilliard, Jitka & Zhang, Haoran, 2015. "Size and price-to-book effects: Evidence from the Chinese stock markets," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 40-55.
    21. Irani, Rustom M. & Oesch, David, 2013. "Monitoring and corporate disclosure: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 398-418.
    22. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "The Limits of Arbitrage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 35-55, March.
    23. Kent D. Daniel & David Hirshleifer & Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, 2001. "Overconfidence, Arbitrage, and Equilibrium Asset Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 921-965, June.
    24. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    25. Brown, Gregory W. & Cliff, Michael T., 2004. "Investor sentiment and the near-term stock market," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-27, January.
    26. Mitton, Todd & Vorkink, Keith, 2010. "Why Do Firms with Diversification Discounts Have Higher Expected Returns?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(6), pages 1367-1390, December.
    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. Ren, Yangqiu & Hu, Guoliu & Wan, Qing, 2024. "Environmental Protection tax and diversified transition of heavily polluting enterprises: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1570-1592.

    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. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Chen, Xiaoyan & Ling, Xin & Smith, Tom & Zhu, Yushu, 2017. "Research in finance: A review of influential publications and a research agenda," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 188-199.
    2. Harper, Joel T. & Iyer, Subramanian Rama & Nejadmalayeri, Ali, 2017. "Diversification discount and investor sentiment," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 218-236.
    3. David Hirshleifer & Po-Hsuan Hsu & Dongmei Li, 2018. "Innovative Originality, Profitability, and Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(7), pages 2553-2605.
    4. Ma, Yao & Yang, Baochen & Su, Yunpeng, 2021. "Stock return predictability: Evidence from moving averages of trading volume," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Clifford S. Asness & Andrea Frazzini & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2019. "Quality minus junk," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 34-112, March.
    6. Keunbae Ahn, 2021. "Predictable Fluctuations in the Cross-Section and Time-Series of Asset Prices," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 1-2021, January-A.
    7. Stefan Erdorf & Thomas Hartmann-Wendels & Nicolas Heinrichs & Michael Matz, 2013. "Corporate diversification and firm value: a survey of recent literature," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 27(2), pages 187-215, June.
    8. Marinelli, Federico, 2008. "Persistence of outstanding performance and shareholder value among diversified firms: The impact of past performance, efficient internal capital market, and relatedness of business segments," IESE Research Papers D/758, IESE Business School.
    9. Zaremba, Adam & Szyszka, Adam & Karathanasopoulos, Andreas & Mikutowski, Mateusz, 2021. "Herding for profits: Market breadth and the cross-section of global equity returns," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 348-364.
    10. Massa, Massimo & O'Donovan, James & Zhang, Hong, 2022. "International asset pricing with strategic business groups1," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 339-361.
    11. Atilgan, Yigit & Bali, Turan G. & Demirtas, K. Ozgur & Gunaydin, A. Doruk, 2020. "Left-tail momentum: Underreaction to bad news, costly arbitrage and equity returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(3), pages 725-753.
    12. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2022. "Salience theory and the cross-section of stock returns: International and further evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 689-725.
    13. Chue, Timothy K. & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Mian, G. Mujtaba, 2019. "Aggregate investor sentiment and stock return synchronicity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    14. Mohrschladt, Hannes, 2021. "The ordering of historical returns and the cross-section of subsequent returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    15. Abderrazak Dhaoui & Nesrine Bensalah, 2017. "Asset valuation impact of investor sentiment: A revised Fama–French five-factor model," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(1), pages 16-28, January.
    16. Obaid, Khaled & Pukthuanthong, Kuntara, 2022. "A picture is worth a thousand words: Measuring investor sentiment by combining machine learning and photos from news," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 273-297.
    17. Zhu, Zhaobo & Ding, Wenjie & Jin, Yi & Shen, Dehua, 2023. "Dissecting the idiosyncratic volatility puzzle: A fundamental analysis approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. Jiaju Miao & Pawel Polak, 2023. "Online Ensemble of Models for Optimal Predictive Performance with Applications to Sector Rotation Strategy," Papers 2304.09947, arXiv.org.
    19. Chen, Tsung-Yu & Chao, Ching-Hsiang & Wu, Zhen-Xing, 2021. "Does the turnover effect matter in emerging markets? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    20. Bai, Min & Fu, Yumei & Sun, Mingwei, 2023. "Corporate diversification and labor investment efficiency: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).

    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:finana:v:88:y:2023:i:c:s1057521923002041. 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/620166 .

    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.