Title: Corporate governance and its effect on the liquidity of a stock: evidence from the MENA region

Authors: Omar Farooq; Mohammed Seffar

Addresses: Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University, Fibigerstraede 4, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark. ' School of Business Administration, Al Akhawayn University, P.O. Box 104, Hassan II Avenue, 53000 Ifrane, Morocco

Abstract: What causes investors to trade in certain stocks more than the others? We answer this question by documenting significant relationship between various proxies of corporate governance mechanisms and liquidity in the MENA region. Our results show that higher analyst following, lower ownership concentration, and having Big-Four auditors as external auditors lead to higher liquidity. All of these factors are considered to be the proxies of better corporate governance mechanisms. We argue that better corporate governance mechanisms lower the extent of adverse selection problems and therefore lead to higher liquidity. Our results indicate that managers can improve information environment of a firm, if they want to increase tradability of their stocks. Interestingly, our results show a negative relationship between dividend payout ratio and liquidity. Consistent with Banerjee et al. (2007), we argue that frictions in the MENA region stock markets lead to high demand for dividends in less liquid stocks, thereby resulting in negative relationship between the two.

Keywords: stock liquidity; emerging markets; corporate governance; MENA stock markets.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBGE.2012.050040

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2012 Vol.7 No.3, pp.232 - 251

Published online: 25 Oct 2012 *

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