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This study aims to explore the feasibility of adopting international capital budgeting (ICB) Criteria, specifically Net Present Value (NPV) and Adjusted Present Value (APV), as more suitable criteria for international companies when making investment decisions (ID). The study also elucidates the equations related to measuring the results of ICB Criteria, contributing to the estimation and prediction of future cash flows. The research sample included analysts, investors, academics, financial managers, and individuals interested in foreign investments and financial data analysis across all service contract fields. The researcher distributed 343 valid survey forms, including paragraphs and questions, and collected and classified the data using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 24). The study concludes that ICB Criteria (NPV and APV) based on discounted cash flows (DCF) are preferred measures for making optimal ID in the Iraqi environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the feasibility of establishing international capital budgeting Criteria (ICBC) that are more suitable for international companies in making investment decisions (ID). It highlights the equations related to measuring the results of international capital budgeting (CB) Criteria that contribute to achieving and predicting future cash flows. The research sample consisted of analysts, investors, academics, financial managers, and individuals interested in foreign investments and financial data analysis across various service contract fields. The researcher distributed 343 valid survey forms for analysis. The questionnaire included a set of paragraphs and questions, and the data were collected and categorized using the statistical software (SPSS 24). The study concludes that ICBC based on discounted cash flows (DCF) are preferred measures for making optimal ID in the Iraqi environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the burgeoning interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings, current results regarding ESG rating‐performance relationship are inconclusive. Since what affects this disagreement is ambiguous, we examine how internal control weaknesses (ICW) may affect the relationship between ESG rating and a firm's performance. In fact, employing a sample of French listed firms during the period between 2012 and 2018, we predicted and found that both ICW and ESG ratings have a positive and significant influence on a firm's performance. In addition, the results indicate that ICW negatively and significantly moderates the relationship between ESG ratings and corporate performance. Moreover, the robustness of the results is checked through the generalized method of moments regression. We also offer theoretical and practical implications to drive policymakers and businesses to assure sustainable development. We expect that our study can help managers to strengthen their internal resources, such as the internal control (IC) and ESG ratings to improve a firm's performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research which investigated how the environmental performance index (EPI) of countries and other related indicators influence their environmental democracy index (EDI). Topics explored include the EDI coverage such as citizen participation in environmental decision making and implementation of environmental policies by the government, the review of published studies concerning environmental performance, and government intervention in environmental protection.

Purpose – Many factors like CEO ("the chief executive officer") decision can influence efficiency and productivity in insurance firms. This paper seeks to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach – To test the effect of CEO power on the efficiency and the productivity of the European insurance industries, the authors use the flexible Fourier cost function and they decompose the total factor productivity growth. Findings – The result shows that after the integration of the CEO power score, not only efficiency scores in each country have changed, but also the order of non-life insurance systems. Also, the CEO power influences the growth of productivity and an optimal power of the CEO can allow the insurance firm to be more productive and more efficient. Originality/value – In this paper the authors model a new cost function in which they include the CEO power score; they also decompose the total factor of productivity in which they include the effect of the growth in the CEO power score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT An optimal asset allocation is crucial for nonlife insurance companies. The most previous studies focused on this topic use a mono-objective technique optimization. This technique usually allows the maximization of shareholders' expected utility. As nonlife insurance company is a complex system, it has many stakeholders other than shareholders. So, the satisfaction of the shareholders' expected utility cannot lead usually to the satisfaction of other stakeholders' objectives. Therefore, the focus on utility maximization can be a destruction source of other objectives such as productivity, competitiveness and solvency. Our developed model integrates simulation approach with a multiobjective particle swarm optimization algorithm. This model insures an optimal asset allocation that maximizes, simultaneously, shareholders expected utility and technical efficiency of European nonlife insurance companies. The empirical application conducts a comparison between the attained results with multiobjective optimization technique and mono-objective technique to search the optimal asset allocation for nonlife insurance companies. Our results show that the investment portfolio will be more diversified between most available investment assets. In addition, any decision maker should take account of different stakeholders' objectives. Accordingly, multiobjective optimization allows us to find the best asset allocation that maximizes simultaneously expected utility and technical efficiency of nonlife insurance companies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we test whether the overconfidence bias explains several stylized market anomalous, including a short-term continuation (momentum), a long-term reversal in stock returns, high levels of trading volume and excessive volatility. Using data of French stocks market, we find empirical evidence in support of overconfidence hypothesis. First, based on a restricted VAR framework, we show that overconfident investors overreact to private information and underreact to public information. Second, by performing Granger-causality tests of stock returns and trading volume, we find that overconfident investors trade more aggressively in periods subsequent to market gains. Third, based on a two GARCH specifications, we show that self attribution bias, conditioned by right forecasts, increases investors overconfidence and trading volume. Fourth, the analysis of the relation between return volatility and trading volume shows that the excessive trading of overconfident investors makes a contribution to the observed excessive volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether momentum strategies remain profitable, when the trading costs, including price impact are considered. Using French enterprises quoted over the period 1995- 2004, momentum strategy is applied for various formation (6 and 12 months) and holding (1, 3, 6, 9, 12 months) periods. Performance of momentum strategy is evaluated after taking into account alternative measures of transaction costs. In order to estimate measures of liquidity, trading cost estimates are adjusted to a set of predetermined firm-specific variables. Two approaches were followed to estimate the returns of the momentum strategy, net of the trading costs. First we compared the returns of the winner minus loser portfolio to the respective transaction cost estimates. Second, we estimate the abnormal returns of Fama and French three factors model [6]. We find that the returns associated with relative strength investing strategies exceed three measures of trading costs: effective spread, price impact measures of Breen et al. [2] and Glosten et al. [9] cost models. For proportional trading costs (quoted spread and effective spread), the estimated abnormal return imply that proportional spreads do not eliminate the statistically significance of momentum profits. For non proportional trading costs (price impact models), the performance of the trading strategy declines with portfolio size. We estimate the abnormal returns for different levels of initial investment. For Breen et al. specification, we find that for the major break even fund sizes momentum strategies perform better post price impact. For Glosten et al. specification, we find that abnormal return remains positive for all levels of initial investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]