New Technologies and Stock Returns

58 Pages Posted: 23 Dec 2022 Last revised: 18 Mar 2023

Date Written: December 11, 2022

Abstract

Investments in emerging technologies, such as quantum computing, are risky. This paper examines whether investing in stocks of companies with high exposure to new technologies leads to potentially high returns. I collect all U.S. patent publications publicized between 1976 and 2021 and their first-and second-hop neighbor patents in their citation network. I use textual information and the information on the citation network to detect tech clusters experiencing high growth of new patents. A size-adjusted value-weighted portfolio is created by buying firms with high exposure to new technology and selling firms with low exposure (new-minus-old factor, NMO). The portfolio generates 7.4% annual returns and 5.7% to 14.7% annualized alphas depending on different factor models. In the Fama and MacBeth (1973) regressions of monthly excess returns, the exposure to new technology has a positive, statistically significant loading. I further show that the results are driven by risk-return trade-off.

Keywords: New Technology, Portfolio Analysis

JEL Classification: G11, G12, G14, O32

Suggested Citation

Kim, Jinyoung, New Technologies and Stock Returns (December 11, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4299577 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4299577

Jinyoung Kim (Contact Author)

Boston College

Carroll School of Management
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3808
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
184
Abstract Views
664
Rank
251,622
PlumX Metrics