Search Results (4)

Could the European Union mitigate the negative effects of economic, pandemic and environmental crises using only one tool? The answer is positive, by implementing “green” fiscal expansion financed by “green” common debt, such as issuing green bonds. In this paper, we connect the independent responses to different crises into a single response that could end them. The European Union’s theoretical background is based on new-classical models, but current research findings doubt new-classical orthodoxy, underling the importance of economic federalism for sustainable economic and green growth. We argue that the Economic and Monetary Union has to speed up fiscal federalism by establishing a powerful European Union common budget using green Eurobonds and implementing fiscal transfers as a mechanism to address the consequences of the triple crisis. Full article

This study examined credit risk management and return on equity of Nigerian deposit money banks (DMBs) twelve (12) years (2010–2021) post-adoption of the common accounting year-end as mandated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2009. Our data set comprises independent variables of capital adequacy ratio (CAR), liquidity ratio (LQR), loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR), risk asset ratio (RAR), non-performing loans ratio (NPLR), loan loss provision ratio (LLP), and size (SZ). Our dependent variable is the return on equity (ROE). Using a panel data regression analysis, we found that CAR, RAR, NPLR, and SZ are the significant determinants of ROE. We also found that Nigerian DMBs now significantly rely on offshore borrowings in Eurobonds to create risk assets to overcome CBN’s constriction on using local depositors’ funds to create risk assets. Furthermore, we found that shareholders of DMBs with international banking licenses in Nigeria within the study period were not significantly more compensated for their risk exposure than investors in risk-free assets (treasury bills). Therefore, the CBN should continue strengthening its regulatory functions with regular reviews that would compel improvements of the DMBs’ credit risk management systems to mitigate the likely failure of the credit life cycle of granted loans. Additionally, a review of its current regulatory cash reserve ratio of 37.5% is imperative to reduce DMBs’ dependence on offshore funding and its associated foreign exchange risk. Full article

This study uses structural entropy as a valuable method for studying complex networks in a macro-finance context, such as the European government bond market. We make two contributions to the empirical literature on sovereign bond markets and entropy in complex networks. Firstly, our article contributes to the empirical literature on the disciplinary function of credit markets from an entropy perspective. In particular, we study bond yield differentials at an average daily frequency among EU countries’ 10-year Eurobonds issued between 1 January 1997, and 4 October 2022. Secondly, the article brings a methodological novelty by incorporating an entropy perspective to the study of government bond yield differentials and European capital market integration. Entropy-based methods hold strong potential to bring new sources of dynamism and valuable contributions to the areas of macroeconomics and finance. Full article

This paper discusses the future of the Stability and Growth Pact (hereafter SGP). Although Neoclassical economic models argue that strict fiscal and monetary rules minimize moral hazard and crowding out, in practice many governments adopt fiscal expansion (in recent years in the form of non-standard monetary measures) to mitigate market failures, consequently rethinking monetary rules and targets. Government spending and countercyclical policies are essential tools for soothing business cycles and other market failures. To this end, we empirically test whether current and past forms of the SGP have led to greater convergence, while we critically assess and investigate a possible SGP reform. By adopting more flexible rules, in terms of government spending and fiscal expansion, the Economic and Monetary Union (hereafter EMU) could yield multiple positive spillover effects in long-term economic growth under specific terms and conditions, such as green conditionalities. We conclude that to mitigate the triple crisis threat (economic, environmental and health), what is mostly needed are reforms in the form of fiscal federalism, such as common debt issuance (Eurobonds) that enhance the ability of the EMU to tackle the consequences of the aforementioned crises. Full article