The influence of ownership structure, analyst following and institutional infrastructure on stock price informativeness: International evidence

Abstract

Using firms from 20 non-US countries, we investigate whether and how ownership structure, analyst following and country-level institutions influence stock price informativeness (SPI). We find that stock price informativeness decreases with control-ownership wedge (the detachment of voting rights from cash flows rights), and this SPI-reducing effect of the wedge is attenuated for firms with high analyst following and in countries with strong country-level institutions. We also find that stock price informativeness decreases with analyst following, but this SPI-reducing effect of analyst following is attenuated in countries with strong country-level institutions.