The Effect of Information Asymmetry on Bid-Ask Spreads Around Earnings Announcements by NASDAQ Firms

In: Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies, Band 3, Heft 3, S. 331-346

Abstract

This paper empirically tests Kim and Verrecchia's (1994, hereafter KV) theory that bid-ask spreads may increase around earnings announcements when information asymmetry increases between the informed traders and the less informed market-makers. Despite certain limitations, prior research has used analysts' earnings forecasts as a proxy for information asymmetry. I substitute the percentage of common stocks held by institutional investors as a more precise proxy for information asymmetry. Consistent with KV's proposition, I find (1) that bid-ask spreads increase at the time of earnings announcements, and (2) that bid-ask reactions to earnings announcements are significantly positively related to information asymmetry even after controlling for the effects of other cross-sectional determinants of spreads.