IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v73y2022ics0927538x2200052x.html

Stock return asymmetry in China

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Dongxu
  • Wu, Ke
  • Zhu, Yifeng

Abstract

In this study, we find that the upside asymmetry calculated based on a new distribution-based asymmetry measure proposed by Jiang et al. (2020) is negatively related to average future returns in the cross-section of Chinese stock returns. Conversely, when using the conventional skewness measure, the relationship between asymmetry and the average returns is unclear. Furthermore, an asymmetry factor constructed from the new asymmetry measure cannot be explained by the three- (CH-3) or four-factor (CH-4) models proposed by Liu et al. (2019). When augmenting the CH-3 model with our asymmetry factor, the augmented four-factor model can explain 32 anomalies out of a universe of 37 significant anomalies in the Chinese stock market, outperforming both the CH-3 and CH-4 models.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Dongxu & Wu, Ke & Zhu, Yifeng, 2022. "Stock return asymmetry in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:73:y:2022:i:c:s0927538x2200052x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2022.101757
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X2200052X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.pacfin.2022.101757?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. Arditti, Fred D., 1971. "Another Look at Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 909-912, June.
    2. Kewei Hou & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2015. "Editor's Choice Digesting Anomalies: An Investment Approach," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(3), pages 650-705.
    3. Bakshi, Gurdip & Chabi-Yo, Fousseni, 2019. "New Entropy Restrictions and the Quest for Better-Specified Asset-Pricing Models," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(6), pages 2517-2541, December.
    4. Jiang, Lei & Wu, Ke & Zhou, Guofu, 2018. "Asymmetry in Stock Comovements: An Entropy Approach," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(4), pages 1479-1507, August.
    5. Nartea, Gilbert V. & Kong, Dongmin & Wu, Ji, 2017. "Do extreme returns matter in emerging markets? Evidence from the Chinese stock market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 189-197.
    6. Jiang, Lei & Wu, Ke & Zhou, Guofu & Zhu, Yifeng, 2020. "Stock Return Asymmetry: Beyond Skewness," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(2), pages 357-386, March.
    7. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    8. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    9. Fred D. Arditti, 1967. "Risk And The Required Return On Equity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 22(1), pages 19-36, March.
    10. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. C. W. Granger & E. Maasoumi & J. Racine, 2004. "A Dependence Metric for Possibly Nonlinear Processes," Journal of Time Series Analysis, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 649-669, September.
    12. Kewei Hou & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2020. "Replicating Anomalies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 2019-2133.
    13. 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.
    14. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    15. Bali, Turan G. & Cakici, Nusret & Whitelaw, Robert F., 2011. "Maxing out: Stocks as lotteries and the cross-section of expected returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 427-446, February.
    16. Liu, Jianan & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Yuan, Yu, 2019. "Size and value in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 48-69.
    17. Jennifer Conrad & Robert F. Dittmar & Eric Ghysels, 2013. "Ex Ante Skewness and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(1), pages 85-124, February.
    18. Fousseni Chabi-Yo & Riccardo Colacito, 2019. "The Term Structures of Coentropy in International Financial Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(8), pages 3541-3558, August.
    19. Gibbons, Michael R & Ross, Stephen A & Shanken, Jay, 1989. "A Test of the Efficiency of a Given Portfolio," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(5), pages 1121-1152, September.
    20. Shanken, Jay, 1992. "On the Estimation of Beta-Pricing Models," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(1), pages 1-33.
    21. Agarwal, Vikas & Jiang, Lei & Wen, Quan, 2020. "Why do mutual funds hold lottery stocks?," CFR Working Papers 20-08, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    22. Kent Daniel & David Hirshleifer & Lin Sun, 2020. "Short- and Long-Horizon Behavioral Factors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(4), pages 1673-1736.
    23. Nicholas Barberis & Ming Huang, 2008. "Stocks as Lotteries: The Implications of Probability Weighting for Security Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 2066-2100, December.
    24. Amaya, Diego & Christoffersen, Peter & Jacobs, Kris & Vasquez, Aurelio, 2015. "Does realized skewness predict the cross-section of equity returns?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 135-167.
    25. Whitney Newey & Kenneth West, 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.
    26. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan, 1990. "Evidence of Predictable Behavior of Security Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 881-898, July.
    27. Alok Kumar, 2009. "Who Gambles in the Stock Market?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1889-1933, August.
    28. Backus, David & Boyarchenko, Nina & Chernov, Mikhail, 2018. "Term structures of asset prices and returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 1-23.
    29. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    30. Xing, Yuhang & Zhang, Xiaoyan & Zhao, Rui, 2010. "What Does the Individual Option Volatility Smirk Tell Us About Future Equity Returns?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 641-662, June.
    31. Gui, Pingshu & Zhu, Yifeng, 2021. "Value at risk and the cross-section of expected returns: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    32. Stephen Brown & Yan Lu & Sugata Ray & Melvyn Teo, 2018. "Sensation Seeking and Hedge Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(6), pages 2871-2914, December.
    33. Brian Boyer & Todd Mitton & Keith Vorkink, 2010. "Expected Idiosyncratic Skewness," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(1), pages 169-202, January.
    34. Lewellen, Jonathan & Nagel, Stefan, 2006. "The conditional CAPM does not explain asset-pricing anomalies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 289-314, November.
    35. Campbell R. Harvey & Akhtar Siddique, 2000. "Conditional Skewness in Asset Pricing Tests," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(3), pages 1263-1295, June.
    36. Nicholas Barberis & Abhiroop Mukherjee & Baolian Wang, 2016. "Prospect Theory and Stock Returns: An Empirical Test," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(11), pages 3068-3107.
    37. Jiang, Lei & Wu, Ke & Zhou, Guofu & Zhu, Yifeng, 2020. "Stock Return Asymmetry: Beyond Skewness — CORRIGENDUM," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(2), pages 707-707, March.
    38. Francisco Barillas & Jay Shanken, 2018. "Comparing Asset Pricing Models," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(2), pages 715-754, April.
    39. Kent Daniel & David Hirshleifer & Lin Sun, 2020. "Short- and Long-Horizon Behavioral Factors," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1673-1736.
    40. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    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. Wang, Jinzhe & Zhu, Yifeng, 2024. "A comparison of factor models in China," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Dai, Yiming & Jiang, Yuexiang & Long, Huaigang & Wang, Hui & Zaremba, Adam, 2023. "Does realized skewness predict the cross-section of Chinese stock returns?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    3. Chen, Shan & Liu, Xujun & Li, Tao, 2023. "Does the investment-profitability correlation affect the factor premiums? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Wang, Jianqiu & Wang, Zhuo & Wu, Ke, 2025. "Forecasting stock market return with anomalies: Evidence from China," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 1278-1295.
    5. Sun, Kaisi & Wang, Hui & Zhu, Yifeng, 2023. "Salience theory in price and trading volume: Evidence from China," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 38-61.
    6. Wang, Yu & Cheung, Adrian Wai Kong & Yan, Wan-Lin & Wang, Bin, 2025. "Connectedness of China’s green bond and green stock markets at the low- and high-order moments: The role of economic and climate policy uncertainty," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Esfandiar Maasoumi & Jianqiu Wang & Zhuo Wang & Ke Wu, 2024. "Identifying factors via automatic debiased machine learning," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 438-461, April.
    8. Liu, Xinheng & Lv, Shumei & Yang, Xin & Cao, Jie & Huang, Chuangxia, 2025. "Extreme temperature shocks and firms’ financial distress," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    9. Yang, Liu & Lee, Eunmi Tatum, 2025. "Why does good news increase stock price crash risk: An explanation based on the gambling channel," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).

    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. Liu, Yakun & Chen, Yan & Zhang, Lei & Deng, Xi, 2026. "Forecasting stock return: The role of idiosyncratic asymmetry risk," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    2. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, January.
    3. Chen, Yan & Liu, Yakun, 2024. "Idiosyncratic asymmetry in stock returns: An entropy measure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Sun, Kaisi & Wang, Hui & Zhu, Yifeng, 2023. "Salience theory in price and trading volume: Evidence from China," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 38-61.
    5. Xu, Zhongxiang & Chevapatrakul, Thanaset & Li, Xiafei, 2019. "Return asymmetry and the cross section of stock returns," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 93-110.
    6. Turan G. Bali & Quan Wen, 2023. "Lottery demand, lottery factor, and anomalies," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(4), pages 392-407, October.
    7. Eom, Cheoljun & Eom, Yunsung & Park, Jong Won, 2023. "Left-tail momentum and tail properties of return distributions: A case of Korea," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    8. Sun, Kaisi & Wang, Hui & Zhu, Yifeng, 2022. "How is the change in left-tail risk priced in China?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. EOM, Cheoljun & EOM, Yunsung & PARK, Jong Won, 2024. "Intermediate cross-sectional prospect theory value in stock markets: A novel method," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    10. Zhong, Angel & Gray, Philip, 2016. "The MAX effect: An exploration of risk and mispricing explanations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 76-90.
    11. Wang, Chen & Xiong, Xiong & Shen, Dehua, 2022. "Tail risks, firm characteristics, and stock returns," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Cao, Ji & Rieger, Marc Oliver & Zhao, Lei, 2023. "Safety first, loss probability, and the cross section of expected stock returns," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 345-369.
    13. 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.
    14. Liu, Yakun & Chen, Yan, 2024. "Skewness risk and the cross-section of cryptocurrency returns," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    15. 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.
    16. Mohrschladt, Hannes, 2021. "The ordering of historical returns and the cross-section of subsequent returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    17. Lin, Chaonan & Chen, Hong-Yi & Ko, Kuan-Cheng & Yang, Nien-Tzu, 2021. "Time-dependent lottery preference and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 272-294.
    18. Hollstein, Fabian & Nguyen, Duc Binh Benno & Prokopczuk, Marcel, 2019. "Asset prices and “the devil(s) you know”," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 20-35.
    19. Lin, Lei & Tan, Jing, 2025. "Monetary policy uncertainty and ambiguity premium from news," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    20. Hollstein, Fabian, 2022. "The world of anomalies: Smaller than we think?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:pacfin:v:73:y:2022:i:c:s0927538x2200052x. 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/pacfin .

    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.