We examine the effects of thin trading on the specification of event study tests. Simulations of upper and lower tail tests are reported with and without variance increases on the event date across levels of trading volume. The traditional standardized test is misspecified for thinly traded samples. If return variance is unlikely to increase, then Corrado's rank test provides the best specification and power. With variance increases, the rank test is misspecificed. The Boehmer et al. standardized cross-sectional test is properly specified, but not powerful, for upper-tailed tests. Lower-tailed alternative hypotheses can best be evaluated using the generalized sign test.

JEL classification: G14

Keywords: event study research methods; trading volume; thin trading;
nonparametric tests; Nasdaq

*The authors are grateful to James Larsen, Nandkumar Nayar, Ajai Singh, David Suk and two anonymous referees for helpful comments.

1. Introduction

The use of daily data in event studies is important for isolating stock price reactions to announcements. A potential problem with the use of daily returns is that thin trading may cause statistical tests to be poorly specified. The issue of thin trading is increasingly relevant as researchers use more daily data from markets with wide ranges of trading frequency such as the Nasdaq Stock Market. The frequency with which stocks are traded is potentially important to the correct selection of test procedures. This paper provides direct empirical evidence of the effect of trading frequency on event study test specification and recommends appropriate procedures for thinly traded samples.

Some properties of infrequently traded securities are likely to differ from more heavily traded securities, and these have implications for event study methods. Thinly traded stocks are more likely to be characterized by numerous zero and large non-zero returns, resulting in non-normal return distributions. Cowan (1992) and Campbell and Wasley (1993) report substantial departures from normality in the abnormal returns of Nasdaq stocks. These authors also document that Nasdaq stocks exhibit a much higher frequency of zero returns than New York and American Stock Exchange stocks. Campbell and Wasley argue that the high frequency of zero returns, and corresponding extreme nonzero returns, distort the variance estimates required for the popular standardized abnormal return test [Patell (1976)]. Infrequently traded securities are more affected by nonsynchronous return periods for the stock and market index. Scholes and Williams (1977) and Dimson (1979) demonstrate that ordinary least squares estimates of market model parameters are biased and inconsistent in the presence of nonsynchronous trading. Institutional trading requirements (trading frictions) can have different effects on the measurement error associated with a security's return depending on trading volume. When trading frictions are relatively higher, as in the case of trades being made in eighths of a dollar for low priced securities, information may not be acted upon until the gains exceed the costs. These price adjustment delays enhance serial cross-sectional dependence in observed returns which contribute to biased OLS beta estimates. The longer the price adjustment delay, the more the OLS beta tends toward zero [Cohen, Maier, Schwartz and Whitcomb (1986)].

Recent studies find a conventional parametric test statistic, the Patell (1976) standardized abnormal return statistic, poorly specified with thinly traded samples. Campbell and Wasley (1993) report that the standardized test rejects a true null hypothesis too often with Nasdaq samples. Maynes and Rumsey (1993) report a similar misspecification of the test using the most thinly traded one-third of Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) stocks.

Three potential solutions to the problems of nonnormality and misestimation of variance caused by thin trading appear in the literature. Boehmer, Musumeci and Poulsen (1991) develop a standardized cross-sectional test as a remedy for event-induced increases in return variance. Their standardized cross-sectional test retains the properties of the Patell standardized test in adjusting for both non-constant variance across stocks and out-of-sample prediction. The standardized cross-sectional test improves on the Patell test by allowing the abnormal return variances to differ between the estimation and event periods. Because trading activity and therefore variance are likely to differ between the estimation and event periods, the Boehmer, Musumeci and Poulsen procedure is potentially useful in thinly traded samples.

A second potential solution for thinly traded stocks is the rank test [Corrado (1989)]. The rank test is nonparametric and therefore does not depend on the assumption of normality. Campbell and Wasley (1993) report that the rank test is better specified with Nasdaq data than common parametric tests. On the other hand, Cowan (1992) finds that the rank test is misspecified with Nasdaq data. Thus, the suitability of the rank test for thinly traded samples is an unsettled question.

The third test is the generalized sign test analyzed by Cowan (1992). Like the rank test, it is nonparametric, thus avoiding the dependence on normality of return distributions. It also exploits the large number of zero returns in Nasdaq samples to improve power. Cowan reports the test to be well specified in general samples from NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq stocks.

As Campbell and Wasley (1993) observe, Nasdaq stocks on average are smaller and less frequently traded than exchange-listed stocks. However, some Nasdaq stocks are actively traded while some exchange-listed stocks are thinly traded. The relative performance of the standardized (Patell), standardized cross-sectional, rank, and generalized sign tests could vary more across different levels of trading activity than a comparison between NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq reveals. The present study takes advantage of the recent addition to the CRSP files of daily trading volume data for both exchange-traded and Nasdaq stocks. By using volume, we identify stocks that are thinly traded and compare test statistics at different trading frequencies. No previous study has examined the effect of thin trading on the power and specification of event study test statistics using daily volume data.

This paper reports simulations of event study tests on exchange listed and Nasdaq stocks by deciles of trading volume. The results show serious misspecification of the Patell standardized test in thinly traded NYSE-AMEX samples and thinly to moderately traded Nasdaq samples without an increase in return variance, and in all samples with an increase in return variance. Of the remaining tests, no one test is best across all situations. Even with the most thinly traded stocks, the nonparametric generalized sign and rank tests generally perform well as long as there is no variance increase. If anything, the nonparametric tests detect abnormal returns more often with thinly traded samples than with heavily traded stocks. Of the two, the generalized sign test typically is more powerful at detecting a positive abnormal return in thinly traded NYSE-AMEX samples and all but the most actively traded decile of Nasdaq stocks. The rank test is more powerful in the remaining samples. The standardized cross-sectional test is well specified with upper-tailed tests but less powerful than the nonparametric tests. It also tends to commit too many Type I errors in lower-tail tests.

When we simulate an increase in the return variance on the event date, the standardized cross-sectional, rank and generalized sign tests all exhibit misspecification in some samples. The standardized cross-sectional test is correct for upper-tail tests and the generalized sign test is correct for lower-tail tests. However, if the suspected variance increase does not occur, the researcher using these tests loses the superior power of the rank test. In addition, we document that there is no pervasive advantage to the adjustment of betas for thin trading.

1. Experimental Design

The simulation approach used in this paper resembles that of Brown and Warner (1985). Unlike a true Monte Carlo simulation where the investigator samples artificially generated values from a carefully specified theoretical probability distribution, Brown and Warner repeatedly sample actual returns from the CRSP stock files. By randomly selecting event dates and stocks, Brown and Warner create simulated event studies without assuming a particular distribution of stock returns. Similar research designs appear in Corrado (1989), Boehmer, Musumeci and Poulsen (1991), Corrado and Zivney (1992), Cowan (1992), and Campbell and Wasley (1993), among others.

1. Abnormal Returns

Abnormal returns are prediction errors from the market model, , where is the rate of return of the th stock on day and is the rate of return of the CRSP NYSE-AMEX equally weighted market index on day The random noise term for and for is assumed not to be autocorrelated. The period for the estimation of the market model parameters is days -255 through -1, where day 0 is the randomly selected event date. Initially we assume that . Although beta estimation is not the primary focus of the study, betas are computed using both OLS and the Scholes and Williams (1977) procedure that adjusts for the effect of thin trading on the market index. The computation of Scholes-Williams betas requires additional simple linear regressions of on lagged and leading values of and the estimation of the first-order autocorrelation of .

1. Test Statistics

Following Boehmer, Musumeci and Poulsen (1991), we use the following notation to describe the test statistics:

	number of stocks in the sample
	stock j's abnormal return on the event day
	stock j's abnormal return on day t
	number of trading days in stock j's estimation period, equal to 255 if there is no missing return
	average market index return during the estimation period
	stock j's estimated standard deviation of abnormal return during the estimation period
	stock j's standardized abnormal return on the event day
	=1 if =0 otherwise
	number of stocks in the sample with a positive abnormal return on the event date

The test statistics examined are the Patell (1976) standardized residual test studied by Brown and Warner (1985), the standardized cross-sectional test introduced by Boehmer, Musumeci and Poulsen (1991), the rank test introduced by Corrado (1989), and the generalized sign test analyzed by Cowan (1992). The null hypothesis for each test is that the mean abnormal return is equal to zero.

The Patell test standardizes the event-date prediction error for each stock by its standard deviation. The individual prediction errors are assumed to be cross-sectionally independent and distributed normally, so each standardized prediction error has a Student t distribution. By the Central Limit Theorem, the distribution of the sample average standardized prediction error is normal. The resulting test statistic is

Brown and Warner (1985) report that the test is well specified under the null hypothesis and more powerful than tests that do not assume cross-sectional independence. However, if the variance of stock returns increases on the event date, the Patell test rejects the null hypothesis more often than the nominal significance level.

In using Scholes-Williams betas with the Patell test, this paper follows Moore, Peterson and Peterson (1986) by defining the standard deviation of the prediction error the same way as with OLS betas. Scholes-Williams and OLS prediction errors are different, so they have different standard deviations. However, no adjustment is made to the standard deviation formula specifically to reflect the use of the lagged and leading market returns in the beta estimation. This is consistent with the idea that, in the Scholes-Williams procedure, the adjustment of beta should capture the true sensitivity of the stock return to the contemporaneous market return. Thus, only the contemporaneous market return on the event date, not the lag or lead, enters the calculation of the prediction error. Likewise, only the contemporaneous market return enters the calculation of the standard deviation of the prediction error.

The standardized cross-sectional test is similar to the Patell standardized test. The difference is that instead of using the theoretical variance of the t distribution, the variance is estimated from the cross-section of event-date standardized prediction errors. The procedure requires the assumption that the event date variance is proportional to the estimation period variance: Boehmer, Musumeci and Poulsen (1991) write the test statistic as

Boehmer, Musumeci and Poulsen report that the test is correctly specified in NYSE-AMEX samples under the null hypothesis even when there is a variance increase on the event date. Moreover, unlike other prevalent tests, the standardized cross-sectional test is nearly as powerful as the Patell test when there is no variance increase.

The third test is the rank test developed by Corrado (1989). The rank test procedure treats the 255-day estimation period and the event day as a single 256-day time series, and assigns a rank to each daily return for each firm. Following the notation of Corrado, let K_jt represent the rank of abnormal return AR_jt in the time series of 256 daily abnormal returns of stock j. Rank one signifies the smallest abnormal return. Following Corrado and Zivney (1992), we adjust for missing returns by dividing each rank by the number of non-missing returns in each firm's time series plus one:

where is the number of non-missing abnormal returns for stock j. The rank test statistic is

The standard deviation is

where there are N_t nonmissing returns across the stocks in the sample on day t of the combined estimation and event period. Corrado, Corrado and Zivney and Campbell and Wasley (1993) report that the rank test is well specified and powerful. Cowan (1992) reports the test to be powerful and well specified with exchange-listed stocks, but misspecified for Nasdaq stocks and when the return variance increases on the event date.

The fourth test is the nonparametric generalized sign test. This test is like the traditional sign test. However, the sign test requires the assumption that the number of stocks in a sample of size n that have positive returns on the event date follows a binomial distribution with parameter p. The null hypothesis for the traditional sign test is that p=0.5. In the generalized sign test, the null hypothesis does not specify p as 0.5, but as the fraction of positive returns computed across stocks and across days in the parameter estimation period. Thus the fraction of positive abnormal returns expected under the null hypothesis is

and the generalized sign test statistic is

Cowan (1992) reports that the test is well specified and powerful under a variety of conditions. Like the standardized cross-sectional test, it is relatively robust to variance increases on the event date.

1. Sample Selection
2. General Simulation Samples

The simulation samples come from the CRSP NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq daily stock return files. The NYSE-AMEX file contains returns for all firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange or the American Stock Exchange from July 1962 through December 1993. The Nasdaq file contains returns from December 1972 through December 1993.

The samples contain 50,000 stock-event date combinations each from the NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq CRSP files. Within each of the two CRSP files, we randomly select with replacement from stocks that have at least 260 trading days of returns. The probability of a stock being selected increases with the number of trading days present on the file. For each stock selected, an event date is randomly chosen with replacement from the range of dates that returns are available for the stock. To allow for estimation, the event date must occur after the first 255 trading days of data for the stock. Subject to this constraint, all firm-event day combinations present in the CRSP population are approximately equally likely to enter the simulation sample.

If a stock has more than 12 missing returns in the estimation period, another randomly selected stock (with a new event date) takes its place. The elimination of stocks with many missing returns does not necessarily exclude thinly traded stocks. Returns on the CRSP files are computed from the average of ask and bid prices when no closing trade price exists. Thus, even on a day when there is no trade, there need not be a missing return.

The final 50,000 stock-event date combinations from each CRSP file are grouped into 1000 NYSE-AMEX samples and 1000 Nasdaq samples of 50 stocks. The grouping occurs in the same order as the random draw.

1. Volume-Clustered Samples

To gauge the effect of trading frequency on the specification and power of event study tests, we need a measure of the trading activity of the stock. Maynes and Rumsey (1993) use the mean number of days between trades for their TSE sample. The reciprocal measure, the number of trades per day, is available on the CRSP files only for stocks on the Nasdaq National Market, which trade more actively than Nasdaq Small-Cap Market stocks. (Current versions of the CRSP files include the number of trades for Nasdaq Small-Cap stocks from mid-1992 onward, making only a year and a half of data available to this study.) However, CRSP reports the daily volume of shares traded for the two Nasdaq markets and for NYSE-AMEX stocks. We measure the trading activity for each stock by the mean shares traded over the 255-day estimation period.

The ranking of stocks by trading volume should produce results similar to ranking by the number of trades per day. To verify this claim, we randomly select 2,500 stock-event date combinations from the Nasdaq file using an algorithm similar to the one that selected the initial samples for the main simulations. We compute the mean volume and number of trades over a 100-day period beginning with the randomly selected date. The Spearman rank correlation between the mean number of trades and the mean volume is 0.93 (p-value = .001). The 100-day mean number of trades ranges from 0.12 to 618.88 trades per day, with a grand mean of 20 and a median of 7 trades per day. We conclude that volume is a good measure of trading frequency.

To construct volume-clustered samples, 800,000 NYSE-AMEX and 800,000 Nasdaq stock-event date combinations are drawn as described above. After we impose a requirement of at least 50 days of volume data in the estimation period, 796,777 NYSE-AMEX and 601,371 Nasdaq stock-event date combinations survive. The large number of dropouts from the Nasdaq sample occurs because no volumes are available on the CRSP file for any Nasdaq stocks before November 1982. We sort the combinations into decile groups. Each decile group contains more than 50,000 stock-event date combinations, so we randomly select combinations from the decile groups for simulation purposes. Table 1 reports the mean, minimum and maximum volume for the full decile groups 1-10. To examine the performance of event study methods with thinly traded samples in comparison to actively traded stocks, we run simulations on the decile groups.

1. Simulating Abnormal Performance

We follow Brown and Warner (1985) in simulating abnormal performance by adding a constant to each day 0 (event date) actual stock return. The simulations are repeated with a constant of zero or positive or negative 0.5%, 1% or 2%.

1. Results
2. Distributional properties of abnormal returns under the null hypothesis

Table 2 reports summary statistics of abnormal returns over the 255-day estimation period for the 50,000 stocks in each of the 22 simulation samples. The table reports the average of 50,000 stock-specific time-series means, standard deviations, skewness, centered kurtosis coefficients, and studentized ranges.

The daily abnormal returns of Nasdaq stocks depart from normality to a greater degree than NYSE and AMEX stocks. Both are positively skewed and leptokurtic, and studentized ranges exceed 7.7, well outside a 95% confidence interval for a normal population. For both NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq stocks, nonnormality increases as trading frequency decreases. Nasdaq decile 1 exhibits particularly severe departures from normality with the kurtosis coefficient exceeding 26 and the studentized range close to 11. The standard deviation in this decile is smaller than more actively traded samples. These characteristics are consistent with a high proportion of zero returns, which would be expected in such a profoundly thinly traded sample.

Table 3 reports statistics of the cross-sectional distributions of day 0 (event day) portfolio abnormal returns for the 1000 50-stock portfolios in each of the 22 samples. Combining stocks into portfolios produces smaller departures from normal return distributions. Skewness and kurtosis values exceed normal benchmarks in all cases. Skewness coefficients range from less than 0.40 for actively traded NYSE-AMEX stocks to about 0.60 for some Nasdaq samples. Kurtosis coefficients exceed 6.5 for all samples and are over 13 for the most thinly traded Nasdaq stocks. However, the studentized range values are within the 95% confidence interval for a normal population.

1. Tests with No Change in the Return Variance

Table 4 reports the simulation results for exchange-listed stocks at 5% and 1% nominal significance levels in panels A and B respectively. When the artificially induced abnormal return is zero, the tests should reject the null hypothesis of no abnormal performance 5% and 1% of the time. When no variance change is induced, the rejection rates of all four tests under the null for both the upper and lower-tails are mostly within the 95% confidence interval. The only exception is the standardized cross-sectional (OLS) lower tailed test, which is at the 95% significance level. Thus, misspecification is not identified for any of the four test statistics for the NYSE-AMEX stocks.

Brown and Warner (1985, table 8) report an OLS upper-tailed rejection rate of 6.4% for the Patell test under the null hypothesis. This is larger than the 5.4% reported in table 4 panel A; however, both are larger than the expected value of 5.0%. The standardized cross-sectional test rejects 4.6% of the time for the upper tail and 6.4% for the lower tail. These results are consistent with those of Boehmer, Musumeci and Poulsen (1991), who report an upper-tailed rejection rate of 4.8%. The generalized sign test is well specified in the lower tail, which is consistent with Cowan (1992).

There is no noticeable improvement in the power of the tests using Scholes-Williams betas. For some tests at some abnormal return levels, the power is greater, while for other combinations, it is lower or unchanged. Thus, for exchange-listed stocks, there is no apparent advantage to the use of Scholes-Williams betas. This is the conclusion that Brown and Warner (1985) and Dyckman, Philbrick and Stephan (1984) also reach.

Each of the test statistics, with the exception of the generalized sign, shows similar power between the upper and lower-tails. The rejection rates for the generalized sign test typically are 13 percentage points better for the upper-tail tests as compared to the lower-tailed tests. This occurs because the generalized sign test compares the percentage of positive abnormal returns on the event date to the percentage in the estimation period. Because the percentage of positive abnormal returns in the estimation period is less than 50% due to the presence of zero raw returns, the power to detect negative abnormal returns is lower.

Table 5 reports the corresponding results for Nasdaq stocks. The upper-tailed Patell standardized test is the only one that has a rejection rate that exceeds the upper 95% confidence limit for no induced abnormal return. It rejects the true null hypothesis 8.6% of the time at 5% level and 3.6% of the time at 1% level, both of which are outside a 99% confidence interval. The rejection rate at 5% level is consistent with the 9.6% reported by Campbell and Wasley (1993) and suggests misspecification for the more thinly traded Nasdaq sample. The power of the generalized sign test is greater for the upper-tail than the lower-tail tests. Like the exchange listed results, the use of Scholes-Williams betas did not improve the power of the test statistics. This conclusion also is consistent with Campbell and Wasley.

The power of the tests with Nasdaq samples is roughly similar to their power in exchange-listed samples when the artificially induced abnormal return is 2%; all of the tests show rejection rates of 97% or better. The nonparametric tests are more powerful than the parametric tests for both samples at each artificially induced abnormal return.

1. Tests with a Variance Increase on the Event Date

Brown and Warner (1985) report that variance increases on the event date cause tests that use estimation period data to reject the null hypothesis too often. Boehmer, Musumeci and Poulsen (1991) report that the standardized cross-sectional test offers better specification in cases of variance increases. We use the same method as Brown and Warner (1985) to simulate an increase in the raw return variance on the event date. Assume that the day 0 and day +5 returns, as drawn from the CRSP file, are independent and identically distributed, with the same expected value as a return in the pre-event estimation period. Given the random selection of stocks and event dates, the assumption is reasonable. Then the following procedure will double the variance of the day 0 return without changing its expected value. For each stock, we add the day +5 return to the event-date return and subtract the estimation period mean return.

Tables 6 and 7 report the rejection rates for the NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq stocks respectively when the variance increases on the event date. As expected the Patell test rejects the true null hypothesis too often when there is a variance increase on the event date for the NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq stocks. The rank test also rejects the true null hypothesis for the lower tail too often for both samples. At the 1% nominal significance level for Nasdaq stocks, the rank test also rejects too frequently for the upper tail tests. The generalized sign rejects the null hypothesis too often in the upper tail for the Nasdaq sample but only at 5% nominal significance levels. The standardized cross-sectional test exhibits correct specification with variance increases.

The results in tables 6 and 7 suggest that the use of Scholes-Williams betas does not help reduce the excessive rejection problem and makes no material difference in test statistic performance. Therefore, further Scholes-Williams beta results are not presented but are available upon request from the authors.

1. Tests on Volume-Clustered Samples with no increase in return variance

The sampling procedure used above causes stocks with a long trading history in the Nasdaq market to enter the sample more often, simply because they have data available on more dates. These stocks may tend to be the more heavily traded Nasdaq stocks. Moreover, the range of trading activity for both the NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq markets varies significantly, implying a need to segment based on trading volume. This section presents simulation results using samples grouped by trading volume.

Table 8 reports upper-tail and lower-tail simulation results at the 5% nominal significance level for volume based deciles of NYSE and AMEX stocks; table 9 reports the parallel results for Nasdaq stocks. Upper-tailed tests using thinly traded NYSE-AMEX stocks tend to reject the null hypothesis too often with the Patell test. This result is even stronger for Nasdaq stocks, extending consistently throughout the lower half of the deciles of upper-tailed Patell tests and also for many of the lower deciles of lower-tailed tests. These findings are consistent with misspecification of the Patell test reported by Campbell and Wasley (1993) for general Nasdaq samples and by Maynes and Rumsey (1993) for thinly traded TSE samples. The standardized cross-sectional test rejects the null hypothesis too often in the more actively traded deciles for NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq stocks. No other rejection rates are statistically larger than expected. In general, the results (and the results presented in tables 4 and 5) are consistent with misspecification of lower-tailed standardized cross-sectional tests for more actively traded stocks and upper-tailed Patell tests for more thinly traded stocks.

Surprisingly, the power to detect moderate abnormal returns of 0.5% and 1.0% using any of the tests is greater for the most thinly traded sample (decile 1) than the other lower deciles (and often than any other decile). Evidently the relative lack of trading activity in decile 1 makes a moderate abnormal return all the more conspicuous, given relatively stable market returns.

Table 10 is a comparison of the power of standardized cross-sectional, rank, and generalized sign tests at induced abnormal returns of 0.5% and 1.0% for the NYSE-AMEX sample by decile. The rank test is significantly more powerful than the standardized cross-sectional test for all deciles, and both upper and lower-tailed tests. The rank test outperforms the generalized sign test for all deciles of lower-tailed tests, and for upper-tailed tests of more actively traded deciles at induced abnormal returns of 1.0%. The power of the generalized sign test is greater for the upper-tail tests of more thinly traded stocks at a 0.5% induced abnormal return.

Table 11 presents the results for the Nasdaq samples. As with the NYSE-AMEX samples, the rank test outperforms the standardized cross-sectional test in all deciles for both upper and lower-tailed tests. The rank test consistently outperforms the generalized sign test for the lower-tailed tests of Nasdaq stocks and the generalized sign test tends to outperform the rank test for the 0.5% induced abnormal returns of upper-tailed tests at mid- to high-volume deciles.

1. Tests on volume-clustered samples with an increase in return variance

Tables 12 and 13 report the NYSE-AMEX and Nasdaq simulation results by decile when there is a doubling of the event date return variance. The standardized test rejects the null hypothesis with no abnormal return added from 9% to 20% of the time. Clearly, the standardized test is unacceptable when there is an event-related variance increase. This conclusion holds regardless of the trading frequency or location of the stocks.

Against an upper-tailed alternative, the standardized cross-sectional test does not reject the null hypothesis with no abnormal return added significantly more than 5% of the time except for NYSE-AMEX decile 1, where the 6.7% rejection rate still is within the 99% confidence interval. However, against a lower-tailed alternative, the standardized cross-sectional test rejects the null more often than the 99% confidence limit of 6.8% in two NYSE-AMEX and two Nasdaq samples, both in the upper trading volume deciles.

The rank test lower-tail rejection rate under the null hypothesis exceeds the 99% confidence limit in every sample except one, where it is at the limit. This result is consistent with the finding of Cowan (1992) for general Nasdaq samples. The upper-tail rate exceeds the limit in 6 of the 7 most thinly traded Nasdaq samples. The upper-tail rejection frequency is within the 99% confidence limit for all NYSE-AMEX samples but exceeds the 95% confidence limit in deciles 1, 3 and 6. Thus, when the return variance increases on the event date, the rank test is consistently well specified only for upper tailed tests on actively traded samples.

The generalized sign statistic is well specified or conservative for all lower-tailed tests. It rejects in favor of an upper-tailed alternative too frequently in NYSE-AMEX decile 1 at the 99% confidence level and also in deciles 3 and 6 at the 95% confidence level. The upper-tailed generalized sign test is well specified only in the single most actively traded of the Nasdaq deciles.

1. Conclusions

The traditional Patell standardized test is poorly specified for thinly traded stocks, even on the NYSE and AMEX. This conclusion complements the finding of misspecification by Campbell and Wasley (1993) and Maynes and Rumsey (1993) for markets where thin trading is pervasive. The best replacement for the standardized test depends on the conditions of the study. If the return variance is unlikely to increase on the event date, the rank test presents the best specification and power for general use. However, the generalized sign test also is well specified and offers at least as much power to detect a small positive abnormal return. Both the rank and generalized sign tests are much more powerful than the standardized cross-sectional test in thinly traded samples without sacrificing power in the actively traded samples. Users of the standardized cross-sectional test should mind its tendency to reject a true null hypothesis too often with a lower-tailed alternative in some samples.

When the return variance increases on the event date, the Patell test is severely misspecified even for actively traded stocks. None of the other three tests is an ideal replacement in this situation. The standardized cross-sectional test is robust to variance increases for upper-tailed alternatives, but is not very powerful. With lower-tailed alternatives, it is misspecified in some volume deciles. If the expected variance increase does not occur, the standardized cross-sectional test runs a greater risk of misspecification. The rank statistic is badly misspecified in lower-tailed tests regardless of volume and in upper-tail tests for several samples. The generalized sign test is misspecified in some thinly traded samples when the alternative is upper-tailed but is conservative with lower-tailed alternatives. Thus, the standardized cross-sectional statistic should be preferred for upper-tailed tests and the generalized sign statistic for lower-tailed tests. The main risk in this prescription is that the researcher gives up the superior power of the rank statistic if the expected variance increase does not occur.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to James Larsen, Nandkumar Nayar, Ajai Singh, David Suk, session participants at the 1995 Financial Management Association meeting and two anonymous referees of the Journal of Banking and Finance for helpful comments.

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