IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v63y2020ics0927538x19306493.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Investors exaggerate corporate ESG information? Evidence of the ESG momentum effect in the Taiwanese market

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Hong-Yi
  • Yang, Sharon S.

Abstract

As environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors become increasingly important in the business sector, investors pay more attention to corporate ESG information. Integrating ESG factors into the investment process has transformed from a niche to mainstream activity. This study demonstrates that investors systematically exaggerate corporate ESG information, leading to ESG momentum effects in financial markets. Specifically, investors exhibit optimistic responses to good news about companies with higher ESG scores but pessimistic responses to bad news about companies with lower ESG scores. Consistent with the overreaction hypothesis, the empirical results show that an ESG momentum strategy can lead to substantial profits in the short run and reversals in the long run. Moreover, this study reveals that investors overreact to the environmental factor more than social or governance factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Hong-Yi & Yang, Sharon S., 2020. "Do Investors exaggerate corporate ESG information? Evidence of the ESG momentum effect in the Taiwanese market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:63:y:2020:i:c:s0927538x19306493
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2020.101407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X19306493
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.pacfin.2020.101407?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. Antoniou, Constantinos & Doukas, John A. & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2013. "Cognitive Dissonance, Sentiment, and Momentum," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(1), pages 245-275, February.
    2. Patel, Jayendu & Zeckhauser, Richard & Hendricks, Darryll, 1991. "The Rationality Struggle: Illustrations from Financial Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 232-236, May.
    3. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2006. "Investor Sentiment and the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1645-1680, August.
    4. Gunther Capelle-Blancard & Stéphanie Monjon, 2011. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Funds: Does the Screening Process Matter?," Working Papers 2011-12, CEPII research center.
    5. Thomas J. George & Chuan‐Yang Hwang, 2007. "Long‐Term Return Reversals: Overreaction or Taxes?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(6), pages 2865-2896, December.
    6. John A. Doukas & Phillip J. McKnight, 2005. "European Momentum Strategies, Information Diffusion, and Investor Conservatism," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 11(3), pages 313-338, June.
    7. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:6:p:1839-1885 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Chordia, Tarun & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2006. "Earnings and price momentum," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 627-656, June.
    9. Sadka, Ronnie, 2006. "Momentum and post-earnings-announcement drift anomalies: The role of liquidity risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 309-349, May.
    10. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:5:p:2145-2176 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Andy C.W. Chui & Sheridan Titman & K.C. John Wei, 2010. "Individualism and Momentum around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(1), pages 361-392, February.
    12. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1998. "A model of investor sentiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 307-343, September.
    13. Snehal Banerjee & Ron Kaniel & Ilan Kremer, 2009. "Price Drift as an Outcome of Differences in Higher-Order Beliefs," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3707-3734, September.
    14. Ashiq Ali & Mark A. Trombley, 2006. "Short Sales Constraints and Momentum in Stock Returns," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3-4), pages 587-615.
    15. Bauer, Rob & Koedijk, Kees & Otten, Roger, 2005. "International evidence on ethical mutual fund performance and investment style," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1751-1767, July.
    16. Hong-Yi Chen & Sheng-Syan Chen & Chin-Wen Hsin & Cheng Few Lee, 2020. "Does Revenue Momentum Drive or Ride Earnings or Price Momentum?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Cheng Few Lee & John C Lee (ed.), HANDBOOK OF FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING, chapter 94, pages 3263-3318, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Matteo P. Arena & K. Stephen Haggard & Xuemin (Sterling) Yan, 2008. "Price Momentum and Idiosyncratic Volatility," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 43(2), pages 159-190, May.
    18. Lakonishok, Josef & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1994. "Contrarian Investment, Extrapolation, and Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1541-1578, December.
    19. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    20. Ashiq Ali & Mark A. Trombley, 2006. "Short Sales Constraints and Momentum in Stock Returns," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3‐4), pages 587-615, April.
    21. Marc Orlitzky & Diane L. Swanson, 2008. "Toward Integrative Corporate Citizenship," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-59470-8.
    22. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    23. Derwall, Jeroen & Koedijk, Kees & Ter Horst, Jenke, 2011. "A tale of values-driven and profit-seeking social investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 2137-2147, August.
    24. Lin, Chaonan & Ko, Kuan-Cheng & Feng, Zhi-Xiang & Yang, Nien-Tzu, 2016. "Market dynamics and momentum in the Taiwan stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 59-75.
    25. Hong-Yi Chen & Cheng Few Lee & Wei-Kang Shih, 2020. "Technical, Fundamental, and Combined Information for Separating Winners from Losers," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Cheng Few Lee & John C Lee (ed.), HANDBOOK OF FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING, chapter 95, pages 3319-3365, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    26. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    27. Zhi Da & Umit G. Gurun & Mitch Warachka, 2014. "Frog in the Pan: Continuous Information and Momentum," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(7), pages 2171-2218.
    28. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7347 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. Piet Eichholtz & Nils Kok & John M. Quigley, 2010. "Doing Well by Doing Good? Green Office Buildings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2492-2509, December.
    30. James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte Madrian & Andrew Metrick, 2004. "Employees' Investment Decisions about Company Stock," NBER Working Papers 10228, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    31. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "The Limits of Arbitrage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 35-55, March.
    32. Du, Ding & Huang, Zhaodan & Liao, Bih-shuang, 2009. "Why is there no momentum in the Taiwan stock market?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 140-152.
    33. Harrison Hong & Jeremy C. Stein, 2007. "Disagreement and the Stock Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 109-128, Spring.
    34. Harrison Hong & Jeremy C. Stein, 1999. "A Unified Theory of Underreaction, Momentum Trading, and Overreaction in Asset Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2143-2184, December.
    35. Tarun Chordia & Lakshmanan Shivakumar, 2002. "Momentum, Business Cycle, and Time‐varying Expected Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 985-1019, April.
    36. Shlomo Benartzi, 2001. "Excessive Extrapolation and the Allocation of 401(k) Accounts to Company Stock," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1747-1764, October.
    37. Verardo, Michela, 2009. "Heterogeneous Beliefs and Momentum Profits," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(4), pages 795-822, August.
    38. Gunther Capelle†Blancard & Stéphanie Monjon, 2014. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Funds: Does the Screening Process Matter?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 20(3), pages 494-520, June.
    39. Marc Orlitzky & Diane L. Swanson, 2008. "Doing Well by Doing Good: Objective Findings, Subjective Assumptions, or Selective Amplification?," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Toward Integrative Corporate Citizenship, chapter 7, pages 164-187, Palgrave Macmillan.
    40. Hoje Jo & Haejung Na, 2012. "Does CSR Reduce Firm Risk? Evidence from Controversial Industry Sectors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(4), pages 441-456, November.
    41. Laura Xiaolei Liu & Lu Zhang, 2008. "Momentum Profits, Factor Pricing, and Macroeconomic Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2417-2448, November.
    42. Makarov, Igor & Rytchkov, Oleg, 2012. "Forecasting the forecasts of others: Implications for asset pricing," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(3), pages 941-966.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hong‐Yi Chen & Pin‐Huang Chou & Chia‐Hsun Hsieh, 2018. "Persistency of the momentum effect," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 24(5), pages 856-892, November.
    2. Chen, Hong-Yi & Hsieh, Chia-Hsun & Lee, Cheng-Few, 2023. "Revisiting the momentum effect in Taiwan: The role of persistency," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Simarjeet Singh & Nidhi Walia, 2022. "Momentum investing: a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(1), pages 87-113, February.
    4. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, June.
    5. Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2018. "Equity market momentum: A synthesis of the literature and suggestions for future work," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 291-296.
    6. Jungshik Hur & Vivek Singh, 2016. "Reexamining momentum profits: Underreaction or overreaction to firm-specific information?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 261-289, February.
    7. Mao, Mike Qinghao & Wei, K.C. John, 2014. "Price and earnings momentum: An explanation using return decomposition," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 332-351.
    8. Goulding, Christian L. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Mazzoleni, Michele G., 2023. "Momentum turning points," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(3), pages 378-406.
    9. Badreddine, Sina & Galariotis, Emilios C. & Holmes, Phil, 2012. "The relevance of information and trading costs in explaining momentum profits: Evidence from optioned and non-optioned stocks," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 589-608.
    10. Jiaqi Guo & Peng Li & Youwei Li, 2022. "What Can Explain Momentum? Evidence from Decomposition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(8), pages 6184-6218, August.
    11. Chen, Tsung-Yu & Chou, Pin-Huang & Hsieh, Chia-Hsun & Ghon Rhee, S., 2021. "Momentum life cycle, revisited," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    12. Khasawneh, Maher & McMillan, David G. & Kambouroudis, Dimos, 2024. "Left-tail risk and UK stock return predictability: Underreaction, overreaction, and arbitrage difficulties," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    13. Hong-Yi Chen & Sheng-Syan Chen & Chin-Wen Hsin & Cheng Few Lee, 2020. "Does Revenue Momentum Drive or Ride Earnings or Price Momentum?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Cheng Few Lee & John C Lee (ed.), HANDBOOK OF FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING, chapter 94, pages 3263-3318, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    14. Anwer S. Ahmed & Irfan Safdar, 2018. "Dissecting stock price momentum using financial statement analysis," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(S1), pages 3-43, November.
    15. Min, Byoung-Kyu & Kim, Tong Suk, 2016. "Momentum and downside risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(S), pages 104-118.
    16. Hong-Yi Chen & Cheng Few Lee & Wei-Kang Shih, 2020. "Technical, Fundamental, and Combined Information for Separating Winners from Losers," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Cheng Few Lee & John C Lee (ed.), HANDBOOK OF FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING, chapter 95, pages 3319-3365, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Marco Ottaviani & Peter Norman Sørensen, 2015. "Price Reaction to Information with Heterogeneous Beliefs and Wealth Effects: Underreaction, Momentum, and Reversal," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(1), pages 1-34, January.
    18. Celiker, Umut & Kayacetin, Nuri Volkan & Kumar, Raman & Sonaer, Gokhan, 2016. "Cash flow news, discount rate news, and momentum," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 240-254.
    19. Cakici, Nusret & Tang, Yi & Yan, An, 2016. "Do the size, value, and momentum factors drive stock returns in emerging markets?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 179-204.
    20. Hao, Ying & Chou, Robin K. & Ko, Kuan-Cheng & Yang, Nien-Tzu, 2018. "The 52-week high, momentum, and investor sentiment," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 167-183.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ESG; ESG momentum strategy; Excessive extrapolation; Investor sentiment; Momentum strategy; Overreaction hypothesis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pacfin:v:63:y:2020:i:c:s0927538x19306493. 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/pacfin .

    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.