IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/mulfin/v60y2021ics1042444x21000153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The stabilizing effects of pension funds vs. mutual funds on country-specific market risk

Author

Listed:
  • Xue, Wenjun
  • He, Zhongzhi
  • Hu, Yu

Abstract

Using country-level data on 47 global markets, this paper examines the stabilizing effects of pension funds vs. mutual funds on country-specific market risk. We find that mutual funds have a significantly negative effect on idiosyncratic volatility in developed markets, but this role becomes insignificant in emerging markets. In contrast, pension funds significantly reduce country-specific market risk in both developed and emerging markets, with a much stronger stabilizing effect. The prudence of pension funds subsumes the macrofactor effects on market risk and drives away the effects of mutual funds in emerging markets. Our results suggest that the steady growth of pension funds can be a viable strategy to improve a country’s financial health, especially for emerging markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Xue, Wenjun & He, Zhongzhi & Hu, Yu, 2021. "The stabilizing effects of pension funds vs. mutual funds on country-specific market risk," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:mulfin:v:60:y:2021:i:c:s1042444x21000153
    DOI: 10.1016/j.mulfin.2021.100691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042444X21000153
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.mulfin.2021.100691?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:6:p:2243-2257 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Campbell, John Y. & Hentschel, Ludger, 1992. "No news is good news *1: An asymmetric model of changing volatility in stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 281-318, June.
    3. Eduardo Walker & Fernando Lefort, 2002. "Pension Reform And Capital Markets: Are There Any (Hard) Links?," Abante, Escuela de Administracion. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 5(2), pages 77-149.
    4. Ippolito, Richard A, 1992. "Consumer Reaction to Measures of Poor Quality: Evidence from the Mutual Fund Industry," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 45-70, April.
    5. Levine, Ross & Zervos, Sara, 1998. "Stock Markets, Banks, and Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 537-558, June.
    6. Yexiao Xu & Burton G. Malkiel, 2003. "Investigating the Behavior of Idiosyncratic Volatility," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(4), pages 613-644, October.
    7. Li, Donghui & Nguyen, Quang N. & Pham, Peter K. & Wei, Steven X., 2011. "Large Foreign Ownership and Firm-Level Stock Return Volatility in Emerging Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 1127-1155, August.
    8. Harvey, Campbell R, 1995. "Predictable Risk and Returns in Emerging Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(3), pages 773-816.
    9. Roel M. W. J. Beetsma & Ward E. Romp & Siert J. Vos, 2013. "Intergenerational Risk Sharing, Pensions, and Endogenous Labour Supply in General Equilibrium," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 115(1), pages 141-154, January.
    10. Bali, Turan G. & Cakici, Nusret, 2008. "Idiosyncratic Volatility and the Cross Section of Expected Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 29-58, March.
    11. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    12. John C. Driscoll & Aart C. Kraay, 1998. "Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation With Spatially Dependent Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(4), pages 549-560, November.
    13. Chevalier, Judith & Ellison, Glenn, 1997. "Risk Taking by Mutual Funds as a Response to Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1167-1200, December.
    14. Cheung, Yin-Wong & Ng, Lilian K, 1992. "Stock Price Dynamics and Firm Size: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1985-1997, December.
    15. Ashok Thomas & Luca Spataro, 2016. "The Effects Of Pension Funds On Markets Performance: A Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 1-33, February.
    16. Coval, Joshua & Stafford, Erik, 2007. "Asset fire sales (and purchases) in equity markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 479-512, November.
    17. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2006. "What Works in Securities Laws?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 1-32, February.
    18. Robert T. Daigler & Marilyn K. Wiley, 1999. "The Impact of Trader Type on the Futures Volatility‐Volume Relation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2297-2316, December.
    19. Bohl, Martin T. & Brzeszczynski, Janusz & Wilfling, Bernd, 2009. "Institutional investors and stock returns volatility: Empirical evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 170-182, June.
    20. Bohl, Martin T. & Brzeszczynski, Janusz, 2006. "Do institutional investors destabilize stock prices? evidence from an emerging market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 370-383, October.
    21. Channarith Meng & Wade Donald Pfau, 2010. "The Role of Pension Funds in Capital Market Development," GRIPS Discussion Papers 10-17, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    22. Thomas, Ashok & Spataro, Luca & Mathew, Nanditha, 2014. "Pension funds and stock market volatility: An empirical analysis of OECD countries," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 11(C), pages 92-103.
    23. Kabir Hassan, M. & Maroney, Neal C. & Monir El-Sady, Hassan & Telfah, Ahmad, 2003. "Country risk and stock market volatility, predictability, and diversification in the Middle East and Africa," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 63-82, March.
    24. Khorana, Ajay & Servaes, Henri & Tufano, Peter, 2005. "Explaining the size of the mutual fund industry around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 145-185, October.
    25. Fu, Fangjian, 2009. "Idiosyncratic risk and the cross-section of expected stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 24-37, January.
    26. Caglayan, Mustafa Onur & Xue, Wenjun & Zhang, Liwen, 2020. "Global investigation on the country-level idiosyncratic volatility and its determinants," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 143-160.
    27. Che, Limei, 2018. "Investor types and stock return volatility," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 139-161.
    28. Bekaert, Geert & Hodrick, Robert J. & Zhang, Xiaoyan, 2012. "Aggregate Idiosyncratic Volatility," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(6), pages 1155-1185, December.
    29. French, Kenneth R. & Schwert, G. William & Stambaugh, Robert F., 1987. "Expected stock returns and volatility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 3-29, September.
    30. Roel M. W. J. Beetsma & A. Lans Bovenberg, 2009. "Pensions and Intergenerational Risk‐sharing in General Equilibrium," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(302), pages 364-386, April.
    31. Russ Wermers, 1999. "Mutual Fund Herding and the Impact on Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 581-622, April.
    32. Guercio, Diane Del & Tkac, Paula A., 2002. "The Determinants of the Flow of Funds of Managed Portfolios: Mutual Funds vs. Pension Funds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 523-557, December.
    33. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2008. "All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 785-818, April.
    34. Qureshi, Fiza & Kutan, Ali M. & Ismail, Izlin & Gee, Chan Sok, 2017. "Mutual funds and stock market volatility: An empirical analysis of Asian emerging markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 176-192.
    35. Chen, Zhian & Du, Jinmin & Li, Donghui & Ouyang, Rui, 2013. "Does foreign institutional ownership increase return volatility? Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 660-669.
    36. Alexander Barinov, 2014. "Turnover: Liquidity or Uncertainty?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2478-2495, October.
    37. Walker, Eduardo*Lefort, Fernando, 2002. "Pension reform and capital markets : are there any (hard) links?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 24082, The World Bank.
    38. Christie, Andrew A., 1982. "The stochastic behavior of common stock variances : Value, leverage and interest rate effects," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 407-432, December.
    39. 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.
    40. Guo, Hui & Kassa, Haimanot & Ferguson, Michael F., 2014. "On the Relation between EGARCH Idiosyncratic Volatility and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 271-296, February.
    41. Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2016. "Does institutional ownership increase stock return volatility? Evidence from Vietnam," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 54-61.
    42. Michael W. Brandt & Alon Brav & John R. Graham & Alok Kumar, 2010. "The Idiosyncratic Volatility Puzzle: Time Trend or Speculative Episodes?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(2), pages 863-899, February.
    43. Claessens, Stijn & Dasgupta, Susmita & Glen, Jack, 1995. "Return Behavior in Emerging Stock Markets," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 9(1), pages 131-151, January.
    44. Patrick J. Dennis & Deon Strickland, 2002. "Who Blinks in Volatile Markets, Individuals or Institutions?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 1923-1949, October.
    45. Zhang, Chu, 2010. "A Reexamination of the Causes of Time-Varying Stock Return Volatilities," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 663-684, June.
    46. Oecd, 2006. "The Impact of Pension Funds on Financial Markets," Financial Market Trends, OECD Publishing, vol. 2006(2), pages 145-167.
    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. Alin Marius Andrieş & Mihaela Brodocianu & Nicu Sprincean, 2023. "The role of institutional investors in the financial development," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 345-378, February.

    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. Thomas, Ashok & Spataro, Luca & Mathew, Nanditha, 2014. "Pension funds and stock market volatility: An empirical analysis of OECD countries," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 11(C), pages 92-103.
    2. Caglayan, Mustafa Onur & Xue, Wenjun & Zhang, Liwen, 2020. "Global investigation on the country-level idiosyncratic volatility and its determinants," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 143-160.
    3. Nartea, Gilbert V. & Wu, Ji, 2013. "Is there a volatility effect in the Hong Kong stock market?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 119-135.
    4. Qureshi, Fiza & Kutan, Ali M. & Ismail, Izlin & Gee, Chan Sok, 2017. "Mutual funds and stock market volatility: An empirical analysis of Asian emerging markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 176-192.
    5. Chang, Eric C. & Dong, Sen, 2006. "Idiosyncratic volatility, fundamentals, and institutional herding: Evidence from the Japanese stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 135-154, April.
    6. Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2016. "Does institutional ownership increase stock return volatility? Evidence from Vietnam," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 54-61.
    7. Brzeszczyński, Janusz & Bohl, Martin T. & Serwa, Dobromił, 2019. "Pension funds, large capital inflows and stock returns in a thin market," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 347-387, July.
    8. Ana Isabel Ramos Domingues & António de Melo da Costa Cerqueira & Elísio Fernando Moreira Brandão, 2016. "Idiosyncratic Volatility and Earnings Quality: Evidence from United Kingdom," FEP Working Papers 579, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    9. Gerlach, Richard & Obaydin, Ivan & Zurbruegg, Ralf, 2015. "The impact of leverage on the idiosyncratic risk and return relationship of REITs around the financial crisis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 207-219.
    10. Alda, Mercedes, 2017. "The relationship between pension funds and the stock market: Does the aging population of Europe affect it?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 83-97.
    11. Kim, Daehwan & Iwasawa, Seiichiro, 2017. "Hot money and cross-section of stock returns during the global financial crisis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 8-22.
    12. Jain, Ajeet & Strobl, Sascha, 2017. "The effect of volatility persistence on excess returns," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 58-63.
    13. Babalos, Vassilios & Stavroyiannis, Stavros, 2020. "Pension funds and stock market development in OECD countries: Novel evidence from a panel VAR," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    14. Fiza Qureshi & Ali M. Kutan & Habib Hussain Khan & Saba Qureshi, 2019. "Equity fund flows, market returns, and market risk: evidence from China," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 48-71, March.
    15. Che, Limei, 2018. "Investor types and stock return volatility," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 139-161.
    16. Woon Sau Leung & Nicholas Taylor, 2013. "Testing for contagion: the impact of US structured markets on international financial markets," Chapters, in: Adrian R. Bell & Chris Brooks & Marcel Prokopczuk (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Empirical Finance, chapter 11, pages 256-284, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Nartea, Gilbert V. & Wu, Ji & Liu, Zhentao, 2013. "Does idiosyncratic volatility matter in emerging markets? Evidence from China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 137-160.
    18. Aboulamer, Anas & Kryzanowski, Lawrence, 2016. "Are idiosyncratic volatility and MAX priced in the Canadian market?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 20-36.
    19. Tian, Shu & Wu, Eliza & Wu, Qiongbing, 2018. "Who exacerbates the extreme swings in the Chinese stock market?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 50-59.
    20. Nektarios Aslanidis & Charlotte Christiansen & Neophytos Lambertides & Christos S. Savva, 2019. "Idiosyncratic volatility puzzle: influence of macro-finance factors," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 381-401, February.

    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:mulfin:v:60:y:2021:i:c:s1042444x21000153. 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/mulfin .

    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.