Return transmissions between ADRs and A-shares of dual-listed Chinese firms

Abstract

Purpose – A number of Chinese firms have dual-listed in USA and China. The US listing takes the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) whereas the China listing in the form of A-shares. Though ADRs and their underlying A-shares lack full fungibility due to regulatory constraints, they nevertheless represent the same claiming rights and hence should be affected by the same fundamentals or news. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mutual return influences between ADRs and A-shares of dual-listed Chinese firms, and whether and how the recent global financial crisis has altered the mutual feedback dynamics. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the bivariate VAR approach to model the returns of ADRs and A-shares. The model is jointly estimated with the three-stage least squares (3SLS) method. It also accounts for the non-synchronous trading problem caused by the fact that the Chinese and US markets are located in different time zones and that the two market observe different national and religious holidays. Findings – The authors find significant mutual return transmissions between ADRs and their A-share counterparts. In the absence of local market sentiments, the return transmission is more prevalent going from USA to China than it is the other way around. After the market factors are included in the models, the information flows between A-shares and ADRs become stronger and bidirectional. Additionally, both ADR and A-share returns are strongly affected by the market sentiment of the marketplace where they are traded. Lastly, the authors find evidence showing that the recent global financial crisis has enhanced the linkage between ADRs and their underlying A-shares. Originality/value – This paper adopts a more rigorous approach to overcome the potential issue caused by non-synchronous trading. It investigates how the global financial crisis has altered the ADR and A-share return feedback dynamics.