We examine the reaction of the equity options market to accounting earnings announcements over the period 1996–2008 using changes in implied volatility to measure the options market response to earnings news. We find that positive earnings surprises and positive profit announcements produce a...

We draw on the psychology literature on cross-country cultural differences to explain the information content of stock markets around the world. We show that cultural dimensions in the studies of Hofstede (1980, 2001) such as individualism and uncertainty avoidance closely relate to several...

We investigate the prevalence of informed options trading prior to takeover announcements, when the legal prohibition against insider trading is strictest. Although insider trading laws apply equally to the options and stock markets, the options market is considerably more transparent than the...

Using firm-specific regressions, I show that earnings response coefficient differ across firms. However, there is no evidence of differential earnings response coefficient to a certain earnings announcement time. By switching to a different announcement time from its preferred time, a firm does...

This paper examines whether cultural dimensions explain the variation in corporate cash holdings around the world as well as within the United States. We establish four major findings. First, in an international setting, corporate cash holdings are negatively associated with individualism and...

This study examines the effect of options trading on the January effect in the period 1996–2009. The options market offers investors an alternative trading venue that circumvents several trading limitations in the equity market and hence enables a higher level of arbitrage activities. In...