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Research Article

Intra-Industry Information Contagion Effect at the Time of Administrative Issue Designation

Pyo, Yeongin · Kim, Il

Published: January 2002 · Vol. 31, No. 3 · pp. 751-767
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Abstract

This study investigates intra-industry information transfers to non-designated stocks when a listed company's stock is designated as an administrative issue (managed stock) upon meeting delisting criteria on the Korea Stock Exchange. The sample consists of firms designated as administrative issues on the Korea Stock Exchange from 1980 to 1999, with study periods of 11, 21, and 41 days surrounding the designation date (day 0), specifically (-5, 5), (-10, 10), and (-20, 20), respectively. Three investigations are conducted as follows. First, the existence of information transfer is examined. The designation of a stock as an administrative issue may constitute either negative news indicating difficulties within the same industry, or positive news suggesting that non-designated firms may capture the market share held by the designated firm, potentially giving rise to information transfer. However, both effects may occur simultaneously, or neither may occur. The occurrence of information transfer is examined by testing whether the stock return variance of non-designated stocks during the study period is greater than the stock return variance during the control period. The results indicate that the former exceeds the latter, suggesting that administrative issue designation induces intra-industry information transfer. Second, the directionality of information transfer is investigated. Since administrative issue designation is negative news for the designated firm, its stock price movement would be negative; the study examines whether the stock price movements of non-designated firms are also negative in the same direction. The results show that both stock price movements are negative in the same direction, indicating that administrative issue designation induces directional information transfer. Third, the quantitative magnitude of information transfer is examined. During the study period, the stock price movements of designated and non-designated stocks exhibit a positive quantitative correlation that is statistically significant. That is, the greater the impact on the stock price of the designated firm due to administrative issue designation, the greater the impact on non-designated stocks' prices, generating information transfer. This study was conducted under the assumption that intra-industry information transfer is identical for all firms. However, information transfer within the industry may differ depending on competitive or complementary relationships. Future research could investigate such differential firm-to-firm information transfers.
Keywords: bad newsdirectionalinformation transfernondirectional good news