Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-17-2017
Abstract
Approximately $10 trillion is benchmarked to Morgan Stanley Capital International’s Developed, Emerging, Frontier, and standalone market indexes. Reclassifications from one index to another require thousands of investors to decide how to react. We study a comprehensive sample of past reclassifications to guide this decision. Reclassified markets’ prices substantially overshoot between the announcement and effective dates—prices fall when a market moves from an index with more benchmarked ownership to one with less, such from Emerging to Frontier, and vice-versa—but revert within a year. We identify alpha-maximizing responses to reclassifications for both tightly benchmarked and more flexible investors.
Recommended Citation
Burnham T. C., Gakidis, H., & Wurgler, J. (2017). Investing in the presence of massive flows: The case of MSCI country reclassifications. ESI Working Papers 17-08. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers/219
Comments
Working Paper 17-10