IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/ecothe/v56y2018i3p369-387n6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evidence for and Against the Validity of Efficient Market Hypothesis

Author

Listed:
  • Leković Miljan

    (University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia)

Abstract

The concept of an efficient financial market, in literature known as efficient market hypothesis (EMH), has had a long and difficult development path from the idea itself to its final conception, as one of the central paradigms in modern finance. It has been tested and critically reviewed for decades, and the two basic types of problems it has encountered are theoretical paradoxes and market anomalies. The aim of the paper is to examine the validity of EMH through various financial market efficiency tests and the results of previous research. The intention is to answer the question of whether, despite theoretical paradoxes and market anomalies, the notion of validity can be attributed to the concept of an efficient financial market. In this regard, the paper presents plenty of evidence for and against the validity of weak, semi-strong, and strong form of EMH, to conclude that, even after more than half a century of research, financial literature has not reached a consensus on the presence or absence of the validity of this hypothesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Leković Miljan, 2018. "Evidence for and Against the Validity of Efficient Market Hypothesis," Economic Themes, Sciendo, vol. 56(3), pages 369-387, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:ecothe:v:56:y:2018:i:3:p:369-387:n:6
    DOI: 10.2478/ethemes-2018-0022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/ethemes-2018-0022
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/ethemes-2018-0022?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Lee, Hei-Wai & Sharma, Vivek & Cai, Kelly Nianyun, 2011. "Are stocks dumped or neglected by analysts' inferior investments to covered stocks?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(5), pages 501-507, May.
    3. Chan, Louis K C & Hamao, Yasushi & Lakonishok, Josef, 1991. "Fundamentals and Stock Returns in Japan," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(5), pages 1739-1764, December.
    4. Fama, Eugene F., 1998. "Market efficiency, long-term returns, and behavioral finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 283-306, September.
    5. Andrew W. Lo, A. Craig MacKinlay, 1988. "Stock Market Prices do not Follow Random Walks: Evidence from a Simple Specification Test," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 41-66.
    6. Robert A. Levy, 1967. "Relative Strength As A Criterion For Investment Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 22(4), pages 595-610, December.
    7. Shleifer, Andrei & Summers, Lawrence H, 1990. "The Noise Trader Approach to Finance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 19-33, Spring.
    8. Betty Agnani & Henry Aray, 2011. "The January effect across volatility regimes," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(6), pages 947-953.
    9. Seyhun, H. Nejat, 1986. "Insiders' profits, costs of trading, and market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 189-212, June.
    10. Jaffe, Jeffrey F, 1974. "Special Information and Insider Trading," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(3), pages 410-428, July.
    11. Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
    12. Maria Rosa Borges, 2010. "Efficient market hypothesis in European stock markets," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(7), pages 711-726.
    13. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1988. "Permanent and Temporary Components of Stock Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(2), pages 246-273, April.
    14. Schwert, G. William, 2003. "Anomalies and market efficiency," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 15, pages 939-974, Elsevier.
    15. Hojatallah Goudarzi, 2013. "Volatility Mean Reversion and Stock Market Efficiency," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(12), pages 1681-1692, December.
    16. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan, 1990. "Evidence of Predictable Behavior of Security Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 881-898, July.
    17. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1, March.
    18. Zhu, Hong & Jiang, Zhi-Qiang & Li, Sai-Ping & Zhou, Wei-Xing, 2015. "Profitability of simple technical trading rules of Chinese stock exchange indexes," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 439(C), pages 75-84.
    19. Jensen, Michael C., 1978. "Some anomalous evidence regarding market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2-3), pages 95-101.
    20. Finnerty, Joseph E, 1976. "Insiders and Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 31(4), pages 1141-1148, September.
    21. Banz, Rolf W., 1981. "The relationship between return and market value of common stocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 3-18, March.
    22. De Bondt, Werner F M & Thaler, Richard H, 1987. "Further Evidence on Investor Overreaction and Stock Market Seasonalit y," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(3), pages 557-581, July.
    23. Jensen, Michael C & Bennington, George A, 1970. "Random Walks and Technical Theories: Some Additional Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 469-482, May.
    24. Fama, Eugene F, 1991. "Efficient Capital Markets: II," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(5), pages 1575-1617, December.
    25. Wing-Keung Wong & Meher Manzur & Boon-Kiat Chew, 2003. "How rewarding is technical analysis? Evidence from Singapore stock market," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(7), pages 543-551.
    26. Massoud Metghalchi & Juri Marcucci & Yung-Ho Chang, 2012. "Are moving average trading rules profitable? Evidence from the European stock markets," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(12), pages 1539-1559, April.
    27. Hojatallah Goudarzi, 2013. "Volatility Mean Reversion and Stock Market Efficiency," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(12), pages 1681-1692.
    28. Ray Ball, 2009. "The Global Financial Crisis and the Efficient Market Hypothesis: What Have We Learned?," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 21(4), pages 8-16, September.
    29. De Bondt, Werner F M & Thaler, Richard, 1985. "Does the Stock Market Overreact?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 793-805, July.
    30. Bruce N. Lehmann, 1990. "Fads, Martingales, and Market Efficiency," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(1), pages 1-28.
    31. André Betzer & Erik Theissen, 2009. "Insider Trading and Corporate Governance: The Case of Germany," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 15(2), pages 402-429, March.
    32. Basu, S, 1977. "Investment Performance of Common Stocks in Relation to Their Price-Earnings Ratios: A Test of the Efficient Market Hypothesis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(3), pages 663-682, June.
    33. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
    34. Gropp, Jeffrey, 2004. "Mean reversion of industry stock returns in the U.S., 1926-1998," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 537-551, September.
    35. Agrawal, Anup & Jaffe, Jeffrey F & Mandelker, Gershon N, 1992. "The Post-merger Performance of Acquiring Firms: A Re-examination of an Anomaly," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1605-1621, September.
    36. Hatgioannides, John & Mesomeris, Spyros, 2007. "On the returns generating process and the profitability of trading rules in emerging capital markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 948-973, October.
    37. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1986. "Rational Choice and the Framing of Decisions," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 251-278, October.
    38. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 2, March.
    39. Werner Kristjanpoller Rodriguez, 2012. "Day of the Week Effect in Latin American Stock Markets," Revista de Analisis Economico – Economic Analysis Review, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business, vol. 27(1), pages 71-89, April.
    40. Ball, Ray, 1978. "Anomalies in relationships between securities' yields and yield-surrogates," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2-3), pages 103-126.
    41. Brock, William & Lakonishok, Josef & LeBaron, Blake, 1992. "Simple Technical Trading Rules and the Stochastic Properties of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1731-1764, December.
    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. Fernando Rubio, 2005. "Eficiencia De Mercado, Administracion De Carteras De Fondos Y Behavioural Finance," Finance 0503028, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 Jul 2005.
    2. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, March.
    3. Achim Himmelmann & Dirk Schiereck & Marc Simpson & Moritz Zschoche, 2012. "Long-term reactions to large stock price declines and increases in the European stock market: a note on market efficiency," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 36(2), pages 400-423, April.
    4. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2013. "Understanding Asset Prices," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2013-1, Nobel Prize Committee.
    5. Ashok Chanabasangouda Patil & Shailesh Rastogi, 2019. "Time-Varying Price–Volume Relationship and Adaptive Market Efficiency: A Survey of the Empirical Literature," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Stephen A. Gorman & Frank J. Fabozzi, 2021. "The ABC’s of the alternative risk premium: academic roots," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(6), pages 405-436, October.
    7. Meredith Beechey & David Gruen & James Vickery, 2000. "The Efficient Market Hypothesis: A Survey," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2000-01, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    8. Schwert, G. William, 2003. "Anomalies and market efficiency," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 15, pages 939-974, Elsevier.
    9. Amit Goyal, 2012. "Empirical cross-sectional asset pricing: a survey," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 26(1), pages 3-38, March.
    10. Sonntag, Dominik, 2018. "Die Theorie der fairen geometrischen Rendite [The Theory of Fair Geometric Returns]," MPRA Paper 87082, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Cheol‐Ho Park & Scott H. Irwin, 2007. "What Do We Know About The Profitability Of Technical Analysis?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 786-826, September.
    12. Eero Pätäri & Timo Leivo, 2017. "A Closer Look At Value Premium: Literature Review And Synthesis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 79-168, February.
    13. Daniel, Kent & Hirshleifer, David & Teoh, Siew Hong, 2002. "Investor psychology in capital markets: evidence and policy implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 139-209, January.
    14. Gabriel Hawawini & Donald B. Keim, "undated". "The Cross Section of Common Stock Returns: A Review of the Evidence and Some New Findings," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 08-99, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    15. Kung, James J., 2009. "Predictability of Technical Trading Rules: Evidence from the Taiwan Stock Market," Review of Applied Economics, Lincoln University, Department of Financial and Business Systems, vol. 5(01-2), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Thanh Huong Nguyen, 2019. "Information and Noise in Stock Markets: Evidence on the Determinants and Effects Using New Empirical Measures," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 7-2019, January-A.
    17. Kaserer Christoph & Hanauer Matthias X., 2017. "25 Jahre Fama-French-Modell: Erklärungsgehalt, Anomalien und praktische Implikationen," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 98-116, June.
    18. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.
    19. Manolis Kavussanos & Everton Dockery, 2001. "A multivariate test for stock market efficiency: the case of ASE," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(5), pages 573-579.
    20. Kamal, Mona, 2014. "Studying the Validity of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) in the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) after the 25th of January Revolution," MPRA Paper 54708, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    weak-form EMH tests; semi-strong-form EMH tests; strong-form EMH tests;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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:vrs:ecothe:v:56:y:2018:i:3:p:369-387:n:6. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    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.