Université de Fribourg

Investors' perception of business group membership during an economic crisis : Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

Ducret, Romain

(Working Papers SES ; 524)

This paper examines how investors perceive business group membership in Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stock price performance analysis reveals evidence of a time-varying and heterogeneous value of affiliation: investors discount business group affiliation during a market collapse, but are willing to pay a premium for affiliation during market recovery. Overall, this pattern is more...

Université de Fribourg

Chasing dividends during the COVID-19 pandemic

Eugster, Nicolas ; Ducret, Romain ; Isakov, Dušan ; Weisskopf, Jean-Philippe

(Working Papers SES ; 520)

This paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trading behavior of investors around ex-dividend dates in Europe. The sudden decrease in the number of companies paying dividends reduced the opportunities to capture dividends. The firms that have maintained dividend payments during the pandemic thus attracted more interest than before. This led to a doubling in the magnitude...

Université de Fribourg

The Korea discount and chaebols

Ducret, Romain ; Isakov, Dušan

(Working Papers SES ; 511)

Finance practitioners frequently claim that stocks of Korean firms are undervalued and trade at a discount relative to foreign firms. This phenomenon is commonly called «the Korea discount». It is based on anecdotal evidence comparing either the price- earnings ratios of different market indexes or those of different individual stocks. This paper provides empirical evidence on the existence...