Jang-Chul Kim

This study investigates the impact of country-level peacefulness on the liquidity of cross-listed stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from 2008 to 2019. Our empirical analysis reveals that stocks from more peaceful countries exhibit enhanced liquidity, characterized by narrower spreads and reduced information-based trading. Among the global peace index’s sub-indices, the safety and security measure shows the strongest and most consistent relationship with stock liquidity. We further explore the direct, indirect, and mediating effects of peace-related factors on market liquidity, employing change and instrumental variable regressions to validate our results. The findings remain robust, demonstrating that improvements in a country’s peacefulness can significantly boost the liquidity and market quality of its cross-listed stocks, offering key insights for investors and policymakers.

This paper examines how major tax legislation affects stock liquidity and price efficiency using the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBBA) as a setting. OBBBA both clarifies elements of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and introduces layered provisions that increase interpretive complexity. Using high-frequency trade and quote data and an intraday event-study design around key legislative milestones, we document a deterioration in market quality following the Act’s passage. Spreads widened, displayed depth, and a composite market-quality index declined, and variance-ratio measures indicate weaker short-horizon price efficiency. The deterioration is significantly smaller among firms with higher foreign sales exposure. Overall, the evidence suggests that, in the immediate market response, the frictions embedded in large tax packages outweigh any clarity-related benefits, raising trading costs and slowing price discovery.

We investigate liquidity and information asymmetry for a sample of non-U.S. stocks in the NYSE. Using the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), we find that liquidity and information asymmetry measures for non-U.S. stock listings are significantly related to the macro-institutional quality of their home countries such as political risk and absence of violence/terrorism, government effectiveness, voice and accountability, control of corruption, and rule of law. We find non-U.S. stocks from countries with lower institutional quality metrics tend to have lower liquidity and higher information asymmetry. Therefore, improving the institutional quality of a country alleviates information problems and improves market liquidity for non-U.S. stocks listed on the NYSE.

This study investigates the impact of firms' potential to automate routine‐task labor on stock liquidity. We demonstrate that firms with a high potential for automation (AP), characterized by a significant share of displaceable labor, experience a decline in stock liquidity. Our analysis shows that this association is particularly pronounced during positive technological shocks and heightened product market competition. Using the catastrophic 2011 Thai flooding as an exogenous shock to AP, we find evidence that the relationship between AP and liquidity is likely causal. The findings withstand rigorous testing, encompassing industry‐level analysis, propensity score matching, and the utilization of alternative proxies for both displaceable labor and stock liquidity. This examination is augmented by the inclusion of additional control variables. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the interplay between automation, market dynamics, and liquidity, offering valuable insights for investors, policymakers, and firms navigating the evolving technological innovation landscape.

This study examines the effect of firms’ greenness on IPO underpricing and subsequent short-term performance during the COVID-19 crisis period. Using 173 U.S. IPOs, we find that IPO underpricing is more pronounced for brown firms (i.e., firms have higher carbon footprints or operate in pollution-intensive industries) than for green firms (i.e., firms are engaged in environmentally sustainable practices). However, when we account for the exogenous change in environmental concerns, we find that an increase in environmental concerns causes lower initial day returns for brown firms. Later, we examine the post-IPO 3-month (6-month) holding period returns and find that brown firms earn higher returns than green firms when environmental concerns increase. Additionally, cross-sectional regressions indicate that firm-level characteristics, such as offer price and Hi-Tech, are positively associated, while R&D, leverage, and profitability are negatively associated with IPO.

This paper examines how terrorism and geopolitical risk impact the liquidity of non-U.S. energy stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). We find that countries with higher terrorism risk have wider bid-ask spreads, smaller market depth, and poorer market quality, thus suggesting lower liquidity. We also find that higher terrorism risk leads to increased information-based trading. In addition, the effect of terrorism risk on liquidity is not uniform across the energy sector. Specifically, we find the Oil and Gas Extraction and Utility sectors exhibit lower liquidity in countries with higher terrorism risk. However, this effect is opposite for Supporting Activities for Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector. Additionally, we investigate how the Crimean crisis affects the liquidity of non-U.S. energy stocks and find that the crisis results in lower liquidity and higher information-based trading for these stocks. JEL Classification: G14, G38, Q43

This paper investigates the impact of the Luckin Coffee accounting scandal on stock liquidity and spillover effects in the financial market, focusing on Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges. Utilizing event studies, we analyze eight pivotal events related to the scandal to examine stock liquidity and market quality changes. The results show a significant decline in Luckin’s stock liquidity during the scandal, while spillover effects on other Chinese stocks are limited. Comparisons with the Satyam accounting scandal suggest that individual company scandals may not substantially affect the liquidity of other stocks from the same country. The findings highlight the importance of robust regulatory frameworks and investor due diligence in safeguarding market integrity and restoring investor confidence.