a b s t r a c tIn this study, we address whether the degree of financial liberalization affects the aggregated total volatility of stock returns by considering the time-varying nature of financial liberalization. We also explore channels through which the degree of financial liberalization impacts aggregated total volatility. We document a negative relation to the degree of financial liberalization after controlling for size, liquidity, country, and crisis effects, especially for small and medium-sized markets. Moreover, the degree of financial liberalization transmits its negative impact on aggregated total volatility through aggregated idiosyncratic and local volatilities. Overall, our results provide evidence in favor of the view that the broadening of the investor base due to the increasing degree of financial liberalization causes a reduction in the total volatility of stock returns.

We examine the short-run relationship between stock-return volatility and daily equity trading by several investor groups in the Korean Stock Exchange. We also investigate whether trade characteristics and trading styles can explain the potential distinct volatility effects of these investor groups. For large stocks, we find that whether a trade is a purchase or a sale and whether it is a contrarian or a momentum trade does not play a role in the relation between volatility and trading. It is the trading of informed institutional investors against non-informed individual investors that drives volatility and produces a negative volatility effect. We further show that net foreign trading has a non-decreasing impact on volatility. Our results are robust to alternative measures of volatility and obtained after controlling for a Monday effect, volatility persistency, total volume and lagged stock returns.

a b s t r a c tIn this study, we address whether the degree of financial liberalization affects the aggregated total volatility of stock returns by considering the time-varying nature of financial liberalization. We also explore channels through which the degree of financial liberalization impacts aggregated total volatility. We document a negative relation to the degree of financial liberalization after controlling for size, liquidity, country, and crisis effects, especially for small and medium-sized markets. Moreover, the degree of financial liberalization transmits its negative impact on aggregated total volatility through aggregated idiosyncratic and local volatilities. Overall, our results provide evidence in favor of the view that the broadening of the investor base due to the increasing degree of financial liberalization causes a reduction in the total volatility of stock returns.

Leverage, Investment, Panel data, Emerging markets,

International audienceUsing firm-level option and stock data, we examine the predictive ability of option-implied volatility measures proposed by previous studies and recommend the best measure using up-to-date data. Portfolio-level analysis implies significant non-zero risk-adjusted returns on arbitrage portfolios formed on the call -- put implied volatility spread, implied volatility skew, and realized -- implied volatility spread. Firm-level cross-sectional regressions show that the implied volatility skew has the most significant predictive power over various investment horizons. The predictive power persists before and after the 2008 Global Financial Crisi