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Driven to Distraction: Extraneous Events and Underreaction to Earnings News


David A. Hirshleifer


University of California, Irvine - Paul Merage School of Business

Sonya S. Lim


DePaul University - Department of Finance

Siew Hong Teoh


University of California - Paul Merage School of Business

April 16, 2007

3rd Prize, 2007 Chicago Quantitative Alliance Annual Academic Competition
Journal of Finance, Forthcoming

Abstract:     
Psychological evidence indicates that it is hard to process multiple stimuli and perform multiple tasks at the same time. This paper tests the investor distraction hypothesis, which holds that the arrival of extraneous news causes trading and market prices to react sluggishly to relevant news about a firm. Our test focuses on the competition for investor attention between a firm's earnings announcements and the earnings announcements of other firms. We find that the immediate stock price and volume reaction to a firm's earnings surprise is weaker, and post-earnings announcement drift is stronger, when a greater number of earnings announcements by other firms are made on the same day. Distracting news has a stronger effect on firms that receive positive than negative earnings surprises. Industry-unrelated news has a stronger distracting effect than related news. A trading strategy that exploits post-earnings announcement drift is unprofitable for announcements made on days with little competing news.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 41

Keywords: limited attention, behavioral finance, investor psychology, capital markets, post-earnings announcement drift, market efficiency

JEL Classification: G12, G14, M41, M45

working papers series


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Date posted: April 18, 2007 ; Last revised: October 19, 2008

Suggested Citation

Hirshleifer, David A., Lim, Sonya S. and Teoh, Siew Hong, Driven to Distraction: Extraneous Events and Underreaction to Earnings News (April 16, 2007). 3rd Prize, 2007 Chicago Quantitative Alliance Annual Academic Competition; Journal of Finance, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=980958 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.980958

Contact Information

David A. Hirshleifer
University of California, Irvine - Paul Merage School of Business ( email )
Irvine, CA California 92697-3125
United States
Sonya S. Lim (Contact Author)
DePaul University - Department of Finance ( email )
1 East Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604-2287
United States
HOME PAGE: http://mozart.depaul.edu/~slim/
Siew Hong Teoh
University of California - Paul Merage School of Business ( email )
Irvine, CA California 92697-3125
United States
Feedback to SSRN (Beta)


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