Methodological issues
We investigate the extent to which IMF-related announcements
have an effect on asset values, using the standard event-study
methodology commonly used in finance. Stock returns contain
expectations of investors about future economic activity when
market participants learn about IMF related announcements. Event
studies are based on the presumption that the market impounds all
new information in stock prices immediately. The return to a country’s
stock market provides a forward-looking measure of changes
in expected future economic activity (Kho and Stulz, 2000). Following
these studies, we account for shocks to aggregate economic
activity through each sector’s exposure to the stock market and
use the abnormal returns (AR). In order to understand whether
there is something unique to each sector’s exposure to events related
to IMF actions during the crisis we need to account for the
impact of news/shocks on aggregate economic activity in each sector.
Since stock prices are forward looking, we have to consider
changes in expected future economic activity in each sector when
market participants learn about them. A systemic risk should affect
all firms in all sectors. We therefore account for shocks to a specific
sector through the exposure of that particular sector to the stock
market and use abnormal returns. For example, Kaminsky and
Schmukler (1999) and Evrensel and Kutan (2007) use returns on
specific days of the Asian crisis for their analysis. In contrast, we
use each sector’s ARs, which are measured in excess of the market,
and thus cannot be predicted on the evolution of the stock market
during the crisis. Hence, if asset values fall, for example, in the
banking sector only because the stock market falls, the AR is zero
irrespective of why the stock market falls. If that were the case, a
fall in the stock market brought about by IMF-related news could
lead to a fall in bank values but there would be nothing specific
to the banking sector about the impact of IMF-related news on
bank values. Therefore, our methodology is designed to differentiate
the impact of IMF-related news that is unique to banks as opposed
to the impact they have on the whole economy. Accordingly,
we investigate ARs in each sector in excess of the market returns
on important dates of the crisis.