Institutional Presence

We propose an Institutional Presence (IP) measure to capture the latent role of non-owner institutional investors who nevertheless may be observing a firm. We employ this measure to examine whether the ‘presence’ of institutional investors reduces information asymmetry in the market. Firms in areas with high institutional presence experience higher liquidity, faster information
incorporation, lower costs of equity capital, and less financing frictions relative to firms in low IP areas. The results hold after controlling for firm and geographical characteristics including institutional ownership and urban locality. Our findings indicate that being in the presence of institutional investors brings tangible benefits.