Cross-listing decisions and the foreign bias of investors

Abstract

We show that two major puzzles in financial economics, the home bias puzzle in international equity allocations and the choice of destination market for cross-listing, are related. In particular, the level of cross-listing activity from the home market to a foreign market is strongly positively related to the degree of over-/under-investment of the home market investors in that particular foreign market, after controlling for other potential explanations of cross-listing decisions. This finding suggests that corporate managers, when making a cross-listing decision, may be prone to the same behavioral/familiarity bias as investors, and both puzzles may in fact be the same.