Do markets learn from experience? Price reaction to stock dividends in the Turkish market

In this paper we provide an empirical analysis of the announcement and implementation of rights issues and stock dividends in the thinly traded Istanbul Stock Exchange. The efficiency of the Turkish market with respect to this information set is tested at different time horizons characterized by different development levels of the market. Evidence is detected of different price reactions for the different development phases of the market as well as for the board meeting and actual implementation information. As the market matures, neither the board meeting nor the actual implementation of stock dividends-rights offerings cause significant price reactions. Besides the traditional event study methodology, non-parametric tests such as sign and rank tests are also employed but are found to be unsuitable for this particular case.