International Journal of Financial Studies

This research investigates the impact of higher education expansion on the educational wage premium from a long-term perspective in Taiwan. By using 1985 to 2015 Manpower Utilization Survey (MUS) data with the difference-in-difference-in-differences model (DDD), this study analyzes the change of the wage premium of university educated versus lower-than-university educated counterparts across the expansion of higher education since 1995. The number of universities in Taiwan tripled between 1995 and 2005, from 50 to more than 150, with upgrading of about 100 technology colleges and vocational schools additionally. Dramatic expansion of universities as well as the number of university graduates will shrink the university wage premium for the young generation who entered into the labor market after year 2000, but the older generation will be less affected. The empirical results show that the wages premium of university graduates of the younger generation is 12% to 21% lower than their older generation counterparts due to the higher-education expansion. Full article

Previous research suggests that internationalization affects initial public offering (IPO) performance in the short term, but it less is known about the founders’ role in the relationship between internationalization and IPO performance. The objectives of this study were to investigate moderating effects of the founders’ role on the impact of internationalization on IPO performance of newly listed companies. The samples included 80 international firms listed in Thailand stock markets from 2013 to 2020. Multiple regression analysis was employed to test the effects of internationalization on IPO performance, and the PROCESS macro was applied to test the moderating effects. Founder CEO as a proxy of a founders’ role was a moderator variable where internationalization was a predictor variable and IPO underpricing, a proxy of IPO performance, was the outcome variable. The results revealed that internationalization demonstrated no statistically significant effect on IPO underpricing. A non-founder CEO had a moderating effect on the influence of internationalization on IPO underpricing, whereas a founder CEO revealed no moderating effect. Specifically, internationalization had a negative effect on IPO underpricing once an international firm had a non-founder CEO. A decrease in IPO underpricing of international firm is clearly explained by the results of this study. Full article

The seasoned equity offering (SEO) market plays a significant role in the economic development of a country by providing liquidity for ongoing commercialization and innovation. This study is a comprehensive analysis of 149 SEOs and their effect on share prices in Thailand between 2009 and 2019. SEOs are categorized based on their time categories (early, mid, and grown) and volume categories (small, medium, big, and super). Using the event study methodology (multi-factor model), we find that most SEOs under both categories have a negative cumulative abnormal return (CAR) in the window period. Ranking the types of SEOs reveals that grown SEOs have the highest proportion of negative CAR under the time categories. Under the volume categories, medium SEOs show the largest share. The results were validated by regression assumption tests provided by Gnu Regression, Econometrics and Time-series Library, and correspond to established theories. The paper also contains an extensive literature review of studies examining the link between SEOs and share-price development. Our findings have important implications for corporations, investors, and regulatory bodies and can thus help in increasing market confidence for sustainable corporate funding. Full article

Accounting conservatism (AC) is one of the components of financial reporting, and has been widely studied by academicians to identify its impact on information quality. Scholars in accounting have started to explore how AC is related to different fundamental functional areas of organizations. The interest of the scholars has resulted in an increasing number of publications in this field. In this study, we examined 408 indexed publications related to AC. This work’s objectives include analyzing the regional distribution, size, and evolution of this knowledge base by identifying key authors, documents, and journals while exploring current literature, scholarly structure, and highlighting contemporary trends. The findings of the study concluded that most of the studies are conducted in developed nations contexts. However, there are still areas that need further exploration to obtain more profound insights on the subject. This bibliometric review inspires a new generation of researchers on the topic by giving them an overview of the past studies related to AC. Full article

This study investigates market reactions to announcements of CEO turnover and finds that forced turnovers are not accompanied by positive returns, which contradicts the broad view that firing a CEO sends a positive signal to the market. This contradiction is further explored by focusing on the nature of not only turnover but also a firm’s past performance. This study finds that the market seems to incorporate both types of information in reacting to CEO turnover announcements. Firing an underperforming CEO is viewed as a positive signal, whereas firing an outperforming CEO is viewed as a negative signal. Rather than taking early action against CEOs for a deterioration in their performance, firms appear to be firing outperforming CEOs owing to their apparent nonperformance-related reasons. This study also explores reasons behind the decision to fire a CEO from different news databases and finds that giving no clear reasons for a CEO’s departure increases uncertainty in the market, thereby causing a negative market reaction. However, stating performance as the reason for the departure assures investors about the future trajectory of the firm and results in a positive market reaction. Full article

The study investigates the safe haven properties and sustainability of the top five cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Monero, and Ripple) and gold for BRICS stock markets during the COVID-19 crisis period from 31 January 2020 to 17 September 2020 in comparison to the precrisis period from 1 January 2016 to 30 January 2020, in a nonlinear and asymmetric framework using Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) methodology. Our results show that the relationship dynamics of stock market and cryptocurrency returns both in the short and long run are changing during the COVID-19 crisis period, which justifies our study using the nonlinear and asymmetric model. As far as a sustainable safe haven is concerned, Dash and Ripple are found to be a safe haven for all the five markets before the pandemic. However, all five cryptocurrencies are found to be a safe haven for three emerging markets, such as Brazil, China, and Russia, during the financial crisis. In a comparative framework, gold is found to be a suitable safe haven only for Brazil and Russia. The results have implications for index fund managers of BRICS markets to include Dash and Ripple in their portfolio as safe haven assets to protect its value during a stock market crisis. Full article

The change of information near light speed, advances in high-speed trading, spatial arbitrage strategies and foreseen space exploration, suggest the need to consider the effects of the theory of relativity in finance models. Time and space, under certain circumstances, are not dissociated and can no longer be interpreted as Euclidean. This paper provides an overview of the research made in this field while formally defining the key notions of spacetime, proper time and an understanding of how time dilation impacts financial models. We illustrate how special relativity modifies option pricing and hedging, under the Black–Scholes model, when market participants are in two different reference frames. In particular, we look into maturity and volatility relativistic effects. Full article

The business environment of today is complex and dynamic due to increasing global competition. The businessman needs to master and know all the information that has strategic value, and Competitive Intelligence is positioned as the most appropriate tool to achieve this goal. In recent decades, research and publications related to Competitive Intelligence have been increasing, although the military heritage of this field of research and the association with large corporations has meant that the literature is still at an early phase of development and specialisation. This paper analyses scientific articles on Competitive Intelligence from journals in the Web of Science database between 1985 and 2021. The main objective of this research has been to detect the topics that have been most related to Competitive Intelligence. The 589 papers analysed indicate that interest in this topic is relatively recent and that the most central topic in the sample is Innovation. The bibliometric analysis carried out indicates that Competitive Intelligence is closely linked to innovation processes in companies, facilitating its development. Furthermore, it highlights the importance that business management, together with the promotion of absorptive capacity and alignment around Competitive Intelligence will allow companies to improve their competitive advantages, as well as greater success with new products. Little research was found on aspects related to small and medium-sized enterprises and patents in relation to Competitive Intelligence. This research aims to show which are the most researched topics in relation to Competitive Intelligence, so that it can serve as support for future research, as well as for company managers in making decisions in relation to this topic. Full article

This paper investigates the dynamic tail dependence risk between BRICS economies and the world energy market, in the context of the COVID-19 financial crisis of 2020, in order to determine optimal investment decisions based on risk metrics. For this purpose, we employ a combination of novel statistical techniques, including Vector Autoregressive (VAR), Markov-switching GJR-GARCH, and vine copula methods. Using a data set consisting of daily stock and world crude oil prices, we find evidence of a structure break in the volatility process, consisting of high and low persistence volatility processes, with a high persistence in the probabilities of transition between lower and higher volatility regimes, as well as the presence of leverage effects. Furthermore, our results based on the C-vine copula confirm the existence of two types of tail dependence: symmetric tail dependence between South Africa and China, South Africa and Russia, and South Africa and India, and asymmetric lower tail dependence between South Africa and Brazil, and South Africa and crude oil. For the purpose of diversification in these markets, we formulate an asset allocation problem using raw returns, MS GARCH returns, and C-vine and R-vine copula-based returns, and optimize it using a Particle Swarm optimization algorithm with a rebalancing strategy. The results demonstrate an inverse relationship between the risk contribution and asset allocation of South Africa and the crude oil market, supporting the existence of a lower tail dependence between them. This suggests that, when South African stocks are in distress, investors tend to shift their holdings in the oil market. Similar results are found between Russia and crude oil, as well as Brazil and crude oil. In the symmetric tail, South African asset allocation is found to have a well-diversified relationship with that of China, Russia, and India, suggesting that these three markets might be good investment destinations when things are not good in South Africa, and vice versa. Full article

In this paper, a dynamic mixture copula model is used to estimate the marginal expected shortfall in the South African insurance sector. We also employ the generalized autoregressive score model (GAS) to capture the dynamic asymmetric dependence between the insurers’ returns and the stock market returns. Furthermore, the paper implements a ranking framework that expresses to what extent individual insurers are systemically important in the South African economy. We use the daily stock return of five South African insurers listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange from November 2007 to June 2020. We find that Sanlam and Discovery contribute the most to systemic risk, and Santam turns out to be the least systemically risky insurance company in the South African insurance sector. Our findings defy common belief whereby only banks are systemically risky financial institutions in South Africa and should undergo stricter regulatory measures. However, our results indicate that stricter regulations such as higher capital and loss absorbency requirements should be required for systemically risky insurers in South Africa. Full article

We investigated the differential impacts of a new Twitter-based Market Uncertainty index (TMU) and variables for Bitcoin before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results showed that TMU is a leading indicator of Bitcoin returns only during the pandemic, and the effect of the TMU on Bitcoin’s conditional volatility is significantly greater during the pandemic. Furthermore, during the pandemic, the uncertainty content of people’s tweets is impacted by the highly salient Bitcoin market. Taken together, our results suggest that the information contained in virtual communities such as Twitter have a much larger impact on cryptocurrency markets following COVID-19. Full article

The management of cash requires careful considerations to allow firms to benefit from proper resource allocations while mitigating agency issues. Accounting comparability can play an important role in tackling information asymmetry and agency cost, thus enabling managers to hoard more cash. This research aims to investigate the link between accounting comparability and cash holdings in an emerging market. Using a sample of listed firms in Vietnam from 2010 to 2019 and System Generalized Method of Moments, the study finds that comparability is positively associated with corporate cash holdings, confirming the value of the former as an effective governance mechanism. Additionally, we find a non-linear impact of comparability on cash holdings; in other words, comparability specifically enhances cash holdings for firms with high levels of comparability. We further document that cash holdings improve firm performance only for firms with high levels of comparability. Such evidence implies that only firms with high levels of financial statement comparability show commitment to tackle agency cost and information asymmetry. Full article

With this study, we aimed to determine (1) the effect of the daily new cases and deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States on the CBOE volatility index (VIX index) and (2) the effect of the VIX index on the major stock markets during the early stage of the pandemic period. To do this, we collected and analysed the daily new cases and death numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic period in the United States and the country indexes of the USA (DJI), Germany (DAX), France (CAC40), England (FTSE100), Italy (MIB), China (SSEC) and Japan (Nikkei225) to determine the impact of the VIX index on the major stock markets. We then subjected this data to the Johansen co-integration test and the fully modified least-squares (FMOLS) method. The results indicated that there was co-integration between the VIX and the COVID-19 pandemic and that there was co-integration between the VIX index and major indexes, except for the CAC 40 and MIB. Moreover, the results showed that the new COVID-19 cases in the USA had a higher impact on the VIX than cases of deaths during the same period. Full article

Audit reports represent the only information stakeholders have about conducted audits and they are a key instrument used in economic and financial decisions. Improving audit reports should be a priority of regulators and auditors. The authors solicited perceptions from 212 experienced auditors and financial report users about the value of audit reports and ways to improve their format and content. An analysis of the responses suggests that adding information on audits (such as auditor’s responsibility about fraud) and on annual accounts and client’s information systems, without significant changes in the format, would improve the decision usefulness of audit reports. The growing sophistication of markets and reporting standards requires new information in audit reports, such as auditors’ conclusions about management’s estimates in annual accounts. The study is useful to regulators, auditors’ corporations, academics, and users and contributes to the current audit literature by providing evidence on consensus between auditors and users with regard to the format and content of audit reports. Full article

The present research investigates the impact of trading volume on stock return volatility using data from the Greek banking system. For our analysis, the empirical study uses daily measures of volatility constructed from intraday data for the period 5 January 2001–30 December 2020. This period includes several market phases, such as the latest financial crisis, the European sovereign debt crisis and enforcement of restrictions on transactions owing to capital controls on the Athens Stock Exchange in June 2015. Based on the estimated quantile regressions, we find evidence of a direct impact of the trading volume on stock return volatility mainly in all quantiles. The findings extrapolated are of relevance and interest to financial (banking) analysts, policy makers and practitioners concerned with intraday data and volatility modeling. Full article

This study extracts the common factors from firm-based credit spreads of major Japanese corporate bonds and examines the predictive content of the credit spread on the real economy. Instead of employing single-maturity corporate bond spreads, we focus on the entire term structure of the credit spread to predict the business cycle. We extend the dynamic Nelson-Siegel model to allow for both common and firm-specific factors. The results show that the estimated common factors are important drivers of individual credit spreads and have substantial predictive power for future Japanese economic activity. This study contributes to the literature by examining the relationship between firm-based credit spread curves and economic fluctuation and forecasting the business cycle. Full article

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of short-selling deregulation on the financial performance of SMEs in China. The external governance role of short-selling is also tested by adopting corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance as the mediating effect. This study investigates a panel data analysis with a sample of 5038 firm-years of SMEs listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2019. The PSM-DID method is adopted in this study to alleviate self-selection and endogenous problems to observe the comparable pure effect of short-selling deregulation, while the mediation test is conducted based on Baron and Kenny’s model. The finding of this study showed that the existence of short-selling could enhance firm financial performance and the mediating effect of CSR performance position in their relationship. In addition, the further analysis revealed that the mediating effect of CSR is more pronounced for family businesses and firms with high real short-selling threats. The robust test of alternative measurements is conducted and valid. This study provides insights for policymakers to consider further short-selling ban lifting and corporate executives to practice more CSR activities to improve the financial performance. Limitations and further implications of this study are also discussed. Full article

Using a new panel cointegration test that considers serial correlation and cross-section dependence on a mixed and heterogenous sample of Saudi banks, we revisit the cointegrating equation of the z-score index of banking stability. Our results show that even when we consider the cross-section dependency and serial correlation of the errors, there is a possibility of a long-run relationship, which holds in our sample of banks. Furthermore, in the medium term, we found some banks to be integrated, whereas others were non-cointegrated. We interpret this to suggest that some banks contribute to banking stability, whereas others do not. In other words, there exists at least one bank that acts as a destabilizer and the challenge for financial regulators is to identify which banks these are. However, the current version of the Hadri et al. test does not allow for the identification of the non-cointegrated banks. If the test was able to do that, the regulatory authorities would be able to develop corrective policies/measures specifically tailored to the non-cointegrated units. Full article

This study aims to explore the investment behavior of female entrepreneurs as the new competitor in the investment field and to determine the underlying factors that influence their investment attitudes. A qualitative investigation approach was employed for the study that includes 18 in-depth exploratory interviews to ascertain the fundamental determinants of the investment behavior represented by female entrepreneurs, an emergent section in investment. The accumulated data was analyzed through manual coding procedures. The study revealed that female entrepreneurs are not inclined to take risk in their business for investment decisions, they are somewhat conservative and risk averse. This research also asserts that if they spend quality time and get better training about the nuances of different investment tools, so they will also take risks in investment activities. Two big cosmopolitan cities Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan were selected as sample for this study. Research in other countries considering the culture and ethnicity must be conducted to expand the scope of understanding the investment behaviors of female entrepreneurs. This study outcomes would help the investment manager to understand women’s psychology to develop significant portfolio recommendations, service providers to develop consultancy training centers, policy makers to mitigate their risk and maximize their return opportunities. Hence, intending to provide opportunities for gender equalities, this research appears to be the first in Pakistan to adopt the inductive approach in this domain. Full article