Investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect

We examine the investor sentiment and limits-to-arbitrage explanations for the positive cross-sectional relation between cash holdings and future stock returns. Consistent with the investor sentiment hypothesis, we find that the cash holding effect is significant when sentiment is low, and it is ins...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Li, Xiafei, Luo, Di
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37594/
_version_ 1848795493357846528
author Li, Xiafei
Luo, Di
author_facet Li, Xiafei
Luo, Di
author_sort Li, Xiafei
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We examine the investor sentiment and limits-to-arbitrage explanations for the positive cross-sectional relation between cash holdings and future stock returns. Consistent with the investor sentiment hypothesis, we find that the cash holding effect is significant when sentiment is low, and it is insignificant when sentiment is high. In addition, the cash holding effect is strong among stocks with high transaction costs, high short selling costs, and large idiosyncratic volatility, indicating that arbitrage on the cash holding effect is costly and risky. In line with the limits-to-arbitrage hypothesis, high costs and risk prevent rational investors from exploiting the cash holding effect.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:32:58Z
format Article
id nottingham-37594
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:32:58Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Oxford University Press
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-375942020-05-04T19:09:54Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37594/ Investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect Li, Xiafei Luo, Di We examine the investor sentiment and limits-to-arbitrage explanations for the positive cross-sectional relation between cash holdings and future stock returns. Consistent with the investor sentiment hypothesis, we find that the cash holding effect is significant when sentiment is low, and it is insignificant when sentiment is high. In addition, the cash holding effect is strong among stocks with high transaction costs, high short selling costs, and large idiosyncratic volatility, indicating that arbitrage on the cash holding effect is costly and risky. In line with the limits-to-arbitrage hypothesis, high costs and risk prevent rational investors from exploiting the cash holding effect. Oxford University Press 2017-09-30 Article PeerReviewed Li, Xiafei and Luo, Di (2017) Investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect. Review of Finance, 21 (6). pp. 2141-2168. ISSN 1573-692X Cash holding investor sentiment Transaction costs Idiosyncratic volatility http://rof.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/06/22/rof.rfw031.abstract doi:10.1093/rof/rfw031 doi:10.1093/rof/rfw031
spellingShingle Cash holding investor sentiment
Transaction costs
Idiosyncratic volatility
Li, Xiafei
Luo, Di
Investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect
title Investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect
title_full Investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect
title_fullStr Investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect
title_full_unstemmed Investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect
title_short Investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect
title_sort investor sentiment, limited arbitrage and the cash holding effect
topic Cash holding investor sentiment
Transaction costs
Idiosyncratic volatility
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37594/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37594/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37594/