Differences in Information and Common Stock Returns: Estimation Risk or Unequal Distribution of Information?

Information can be differential or "incomplete" in two different ways: as a result of the quality of information itself or as a result of the manner in which information is distributed to investors. The effect on capital market equilibrium under either scenario is that higher returns will be required for low information securities. Prior empirical studies documenting a relationship between low information firms and positive abnormal returns have generally attributed such results to the quality of information; the current research tests the possibility that these results are instead due to the manner in which information is distributed to investors. Copyright 1996 by MIT Press.