Z. Nuray Güner

Is the Information Deficiency in Real Estate Evident in Public Market Trading

This paper examines the summary informativeness of trading in real estate securities. Prior literature on publicly traded real estate securities suggests that the information deficiency associated with local economies and unique rent dynamics will manifest itself as severe information asymmetry. To date, most studies concerned with these issues have focused on the conventional measures of liquidity (serial correlations, bid-ask spreads, etc.). However, the conventional measures have several shortcomings as pure measures of trading information. To address this issue, we use a vector autoregressive methodology pioneered by Hasbrouck. We examine the empirical proposition that information-gathering activities are related to trade informativeness. The evidence is consistent with a theoretical model in which traders are risk-averse and the number of information gatherers is small. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

Capital Distribution Policy and Information Asymmetry: A Real Estate Market Perspective

This article examines the relation between the distribution of capital to real estate investors and a market-based measure of information asymmetry. Previous research suggests that information asymmetries decrease as capital is distributed to outside investors. However, little attention has been given to those firms for which the marginal benefit of increased distributions may be small. Our analyses are based on a sample of real estate investment trusts (REITs), which are popularly characterized as high yield investments due to the regulation of a minimum distribution policy. The extent to which information asymmetry is influenced by these regulations, as well as by the opaque nature of the underlying assets, is an interesting empirical question. The results based on several years of data indicate that the perception of asymmetric information is lower for REITs that distribute more capital to their shareholders. A decomposition of yield into income and return-of-capital components reveals no differential effect in information relevance. The insights drawn from the results may be useful in determining the efficacy of real estate capital distribution policies and regulations.

Investment Analysis, Price Formation and Neglected Firms: Does Real Estate Make a Difference?

This paper examines the relation between information-gathering activities and price formation when the gatherers are small in number. Two measures of information asymmetry are estimated to test the cross-sectional effect of investment-analyst attention on price formation. The analysis contrasts firms that invest predominately in real estate assets to those that do not. Unlike most studies of the competition among information gatherers, the results in this paper indicate that liquidity worsens with increasing investment-analyst attention. These findings provide further evidence that information deficiency is an important economic trait, although real estate securities may suffer less from neglect than from asset-specific information asymmetry. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.

An Investigation of Returns to Insider Transactions: Evidence from the Istanbul Stock Exchange

In this paper, the return performance of insiders of companies listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) from their open market transactions and that of uninformed investors (outsiders) following insider transactions announced to the public are examined by using a portfolio approach. It is found that, depending on the affiliation of the insider with the company, abnormal returns from their sale transactions last over longer periods than their purchase transactions. Furthermore, outsiders can also earn abnormal returns by mimicking sales of affiliated shareholders of a company. Findings of this study imply that the ISE is neither Semi Strong nor Strong Form Efficient.

Day-of-The-Week and Session Effects: Evidence from an Emerging Market

Empirical studies on market returns are carried out to try to better understand the various markets. An interesting and not fully explained finding is that mean returns differ across the day of-the-week. The most commonly found patterns in developed markets and some developing markets are the “low Monday” and “high Friday” effects. Some studies have also uncovered a less common structure in some markets where there seems to be a low Tuesday effect. A previous study examining 1995-2001 period found that the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) also displays the low Monday and high Friday effects, and more interestingly unlike the U.S. the bulk of ISE low Monday returns came from Monday afternoon. This study contributes to the literature by examining the returns of actual stocks from the ISE between 1991-2002. The data is analyzed for the whole period and subgroups. We separate daily returns into returns in the Morning and Afternoon trading sessions. Furthermore, we separate the entire sample into 3 subsamples. We also examine the day-of-the-week effects by making them conditional on the previous days return ( or -). As a result we provide a comprehensive picture of the behaviour of one of the major emerging stock markets of the world.

Do price limits help control stock price volatility

On the negative side, price limits are criticized for increasing stock price volatility and hindering the price discovery process. On the positive side, price limits are argued to give panicky investors additional time to reassess their judgments and thus provide an opportunity for correcting the element of overreaction in pricing stocks. This study analyzes the effectiveness of price limits in Borsa Istanbul by utilizing a propensity-matched control sample in addition to the traditional benchmarks used in the literature. Similar to recent research, we find strong evidence that price limits lead to increased and persistent price volatility and decreased liquidity. We also provide evidence that price limits interfere with the price discovery process. Results show that smaller stocks with larger volatility and higher trading volume are more likely to experience limit hits. Furthermore, the difference in the findings from the matched control sample and the traditional benchmarks points out the importance of accounting for firm- and market-related characteristics when analyzing the effect of price limits.

International Evidence on Risk Taking by Banks Around the Global Financial Crisis

ABSTRACT This study models the risks of commercial banks from the United States and developed, emerging, and frontier countries while controlling for bank- and country-specific variables within a panel framework. Bank risk is measured by both the traditional Z-score and a composite bank risk index proposed by the authors. The findings suggest that even though the riskiness of all banks from different country groups increased following the financial crisis, the magnitude of the change is not the same across groups. During the post-crisis period, banks in developed, emerging, and frontier countries experienced a smaller increase in their risk compared to their counterparts in the United States. This article provides support for the claim that banks in emerging and frontier countries have experienced the effects of the financial crisis to a lesser extent compared to those in the United States.