Financial market liberalization and the pricing of idiosyncratic risk

Article history: Received 29 August 2012 Received in revised form 21 May 2013 Accepted 6 August 2013 Available online 15 August 2013 We test the impact of idiosyncratic risk on stock returns for emerging markets that experience financial market liberalizations. Idiosyncratic risk is positively associated with returns prior to financial market liberalization, but liberalization diminishes this effect. Moreover, prior to liberalization, the number (concentration) of stocks available in the market is negatively (positively) correlated with the pricing of idiosyncratic risk. The decrease in the pricing of idiosyncratic risk can explain the reduction in the cost of capital around liberalizations. Additionally, the change in the pricing of idiosyncratic risk may be a useful measure of the success of financial market liberalization. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: G15