Is Foreign Investors' behavior Involved in Investor Sentiment? Evidence Based on the Korean Stock Crashes

This study investigates whether foreign investors' behavior is involved in firm-specific investor sentiment. Because the mixed role of foreign investors on investor sentiment formation seems to exist in the Korean stock market, it needs to examine the moderate or incremental effect of foreign investors on the stock price crash risk which is due to investor sentiment. The analysis results using Korea Stock Exchanges - listed firms for the period of 2011-2019 show the increased future stock price crash risk which is attributable to high investor sentiment is mitigated for firms with the high foreign ownership, indicating the moderate effect. This study expands the literature on the foreign investors' behavior in the Korean stock market, by showing foreign investors are not involved in firm-specific investor sentiment, which improves market's efficiency in the Korean stock market. Also, the paper is valuable to the academic and practice field in that the findings shed light on the foreign investors' mitigating role in stock price crashes in the behavioral finance perspective.