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This study examines the distributive and welfare effects of cross‐ownership by firms in a general equilibrium economy on the product and factor markets. The cross‐ownership of equities, such as collusion, tends to be anticompetitive, thereby narrowing the wage gap between skilled and unskilled labor in the short term with the existing number of firms. In the capital market, reducing capital cost through cross‐ownership causes new firms to enter the market in the long term. This firm‐entry effect induced by cross‐ownership through an increase in the number of competitors generates a competitive force that exacerbates wage inequality and reduces welfare in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The innovation of defense industry base requires not only technological progress but also scientific organization and management and reasonable business model. Based on the data of A‐share listed companies related to defense industry base in China from 2013 to 2021, this paper employs panel‐probit model with instrumental variable to empirically test the relationship and influence mechanism of financing efficiency on non‐technological innovation. It is found that the financing efficiency of the defense industry base has a significantly positive effect on organizational innovation and market innovation, which is more prominent in state‐owned enterprises and military enterprises. The influence mechanism is mainly to improve information symmetry and reduce agency costs. Internally, the defense industry base should strengthen the management of financing and innovation activities; from the external point of view, the government needs to improve the construction of capital market, and financial institutions need to play the role of professional institutional investors and external supervisors, which is conducive to improving the non‐technical innovation ability of defense industry base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between managerial tone in management discussion and analysis (MD&A) disclosures and stock price crash risk. We make a distinction between two types of tone—concave and convex—based on how managers' tone changes according to whether performance is good or bad. Tone is classified as 'concave' ('convex') when managers overstate (understate) bad news and understate (overstate) good news. Using data on Chinese listed firms from 2013 to 2018, we find that convex tone is positively associated with stock price crash risk, and negatively associated with future performance. The positive relationship between convex tone and stock price crash risk is more pronounced for firms with high free cash flow, opaque financial reporting, and non‐stated‐owned enterprises. These results suggest that the use of a convex tone in MD&A may have a negative impact on the capital market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catastrophe bonds (cat bond in short) are an alternative risk‐transfer instrument used to transfer peril‐specific financial risk from governments, financial institutions, or (re)insurers, to the capital market. Current approaches for cat bond pricing are calibrated on seismic mainshocks, and thus do not account for potential effects induced by earthquake sequences. This simplifying assumption implies that damage arises from mainshocks only, while aftershocks yield no damage. Postearthquake field surveys reveal that this assumption is inaccurate. For example, in the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake sequence and 2016–2017 Central Italy Earthquake sequence, aftershocks were responsible for higher economic losses when compared to those caused by mainshocks. This article proposes a time‐dependent aggregate loss model that takes into account seismicity clustering and damage accumulation effects in the computation of damage. The model is calibrated on the seismic events recorded during the recent 2016–2017 Central Italy Earthquake sequence. Furthermore, the effects of earthquake sequence on cat bond pricing is explored by implementing the proposed model on five Italian municipalities. The investigation showed that neglecting time‐dependency may lead to higher difference (up to 45%) in the cat bond price when compared to standard approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of ASC 606 significantly changed revenue recognition practices for many firms in the capital market by increasing the level of discretion required to record revenue amounts. I examine the impact of this increase in discretion on revenue manipulation around external targets. I find that firms near analyst revenue targets have increased levels of discretionary revenues under ASC 606 relative to their peers, indicating increased revenue manipulation. Further analysis reveals that these increased levels of discretionary revenues are concentrated in firms characterized as having increased opportunity or incentive to use ASC 606 opportunistically to manipulate revenues upwards. Specifically, firms with more complex revenue operations and firms in earlier life cycles are associated with increased discretionary revenues under ASC 606. I also provide preliminary evidence of revenue manipulation varying systematically with industry characteristics. This paper is one of the first to provide evidence of capital market consequences stemming from ASC 606, while also highlighting the impact of firm characteristics on the choice to manage revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability reporting was introduced after financial reporting to meet the social and environmental informational needs of stakeholders, while integrated reporting was initiated to integrate financial reporting and sustainability reporting to advance the decision usefulness of corporate disclosure practices. Despite claims and evidence of the value relevance of each reporting framework exclusively, studies on the incremental value relevancies of these subsequent disclosure practices have been sparse. Using a sample of firms from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange from 2011 to 2020 and firms' capital market liquidity performance, this study finds that sustainability reporting and integrated reporting are not only value‐relevant disclosure practices but also offer incremental value relevancies. Sustainability reporting provides incremental value relevance over financial reporting, and integrated reporting offers incremental value relevance over financial reporting and sustainability reporting. However, the findings do not find support for integrated reporting to replace the practices of financial reporting and sustainability reporting and affirm the contribution of each of the three reports in the corporate reporting space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although auditing standards instruct auditors to avoid issuing standardised key audit matters (KAMs), standard setters warn and financial statement users worry about expanded auditor's reports becoming sticky, generic and boilerplate over time. Based on textual analysis of expanded auditor's reports from the UK, I provide longitudinal evidence of an increase in various textual similarity measures including year‐over‐year similarity (stickiness), within‐peer group similarity (generality) and boilerplate language over time. Next, I identify a number of crucial drivers of convergence and find that disclosure similarity diminishes the positive capital market effect of precise KAM reporting documented in prior studies. Together, these findings suggest that audit firms have successively developed standard text modules for KAM reporting that undermine the aim of expanded auditor's reports to provide informative value. This paper extends the literature on the relationship between institutional environments and unintended effects of auditor disclosure regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of affiliation with a large business group on a firm's trade credit policy while controlling for the effects of its financial health and bargaining power in the Korean setting. Group affiliation may influence trade credit finance through the internal capital market mechanism and/or the extra bargaining power mechanism. In our empirical analyses, we focus on identifying the more dominant mechanism for determining trade credit demand (TCD) and supply (TCS). First, we provide a set of empirical findings showing that a firm's affiliation with a large business group increases the firm's TCD but decreases its TCS. These findings support the extra bargaining power mechanism argument. Second, we provide another set of empirical findings that group‐wise financial distress has weak positive impacts on a group affiliate's TCD and TCS. These findings support the internal capital market mechanism argument. Overall, we provide evidence that large business groups in Korea function uniquely in that the extra bargaining power mechanism greatly dominates the internal capital market mechanism when determining a group affiliate's trade credit transactions. We also provide evidence of the internal capital market mechanism functioning when an entire business group faces severe financial difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether the increased quantity of public information has a spillover impact on equity sales by private industry peer firms. To capture an increase in the quantity of public peer information, we use corporate spin‐offs as these events cause an increase in the number of independent public entities that mandatorily disclose financial reports. Using a unique dataset on private firms' equity sales extracted from the Securities and Exchange Commission filings pursuant to Regulation D, we find that private industry peers sell more equity following spin‐offs, but the increase is not statistically significant. When we divide our spin‐off sample based on the availability of segment information on subsidiaries before spin‐offs, however, we find a significant an increase in private firms' equity sales after spin‐offs when parent firms did not previously disclose segment reports. Additional test results suggest that our inferences regarding private industry peers are not entirely explained by an industry‐wide demand shock. Overall, we contribute to the literature by establishing an information spillover channel, incremental to the effect of common industry shocks, flowing from the public to private markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the pivotal figure of information transmission in the capital market, the mainstream financial press has a significant impact on the operation of the stock market. Based on the mainstream financial press, this study obtains the news reports of 945 China A‐share listed companies in 2010–2019 and analyzes the relationship between the attention of the mainstream financial press and the efficiency of stock pricing. Further, we explore the mediating effect of corporate governance in this correlation. The empirical results show that the more reports on listed companies from the mainstream financial press the lower the delay level of the stock price of listed companies. At the same time, the characteristics information of the stock price increases, the higher the stock pricing efficiency. The attitude of press reports of listed companies also has an impact on the efficiency of stock pricing. The improvement of pricing efficiency will be achieved through neutral reporting. Mainstream financial press reports indirectly improve the efficiency of stock pricing by reducing the agency costs of the two types, and corporate governance plays a significant intermediary role in it. Finally, compared with market‐oriented media, the effect of policy‐oriented mainstream financial press on pricing efficiency is more significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of rating events in capital markets has garnered considerable attention from investors, experts, and academics, with third‐party rating agencies being one of the topics. We focus on the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings on corporate innovation and confirm a positive relationship. We also believe that ESG ratings play a governance role as informal institutions in stimulating corporate innovation. The efficacy of ESG ratings in promoting corporate innovation is dependent on a favorable information environment that is devoid of negative influences. We confirm the synergistic effect of ESG ratings with other informal institutions and the substitution effect with formal institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of Chinese firms' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance on their financial constraint and financing activities. We find a negative association between firms' ESG performance and their financial constraint driven by the Chinese government's commitment to tackling climate change. Compared with state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), non‐SOEs have alleviated their financial constraint through both equity and debt issuance, thanks to the stock price appreciation and green credit. High‐pollution firms benefit from both equity and debt issuance, while low‐pollution firms mainly finance through equity issuance. Our findings demonstrate the leading role of the Chinese government in its domestic capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has grown dramatically as a major form of international capital transfer over the past decades. The unprecedented growth of cross‐country FDI flows has been attributed to a rich set of economic, geographical and institutional factors. In this paper, Ι examine the role of financial system heterogeneity as a potential detrimental factor to FDI flows across OECD economies. To do so, Ι use a panel dataset of the most recently updated bilateral FDI data at the country level according to OECD BMD4 definition and construct measures of financial distance using a broad set of financial indicators. The econometric approach consists of a gravity‐style model, estimated according to the latest advancements in econometric techniques in order to avoid omitted variable bias. The results indicate that financial system similarity is associated with increased bilateral FDI flows, a conclusion that is robust across different estimation strategies and financial distance measures. This insightful policy implication for advanced economies is that the restructuring of the financial system and harmonisation to best practices can contribute to economic recovery through the FDI channel as well. Finally, the results highlight the importance for the full implementation of the Banking Union and the Capital Markets Union in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of sustainability, ESG information has become a key factor for investors in capital market, but researches on the relationship between ESG disclosure and capital market efficiency has not been clear. Using the data of Chinese A‐share listed companies from 2011 to 2019, this study examined the relationship between ESG disclosure and market mispricing. The results showed that the higher ESG disclosure with lower level of mispricing, which was also verified in both the overvalued and undervalued samples. The test of environmental (E), social (S), and, governance (G) showed that environmental disclosure can restrain the over‐valuation, social disclosure can mitigate the under‐valuation, and corporate governance disclosure has no significant impact on the mispricing. In addition, this paper identified the effect of ESG disclosure on market mispricing by using exogenous market fluctuation. Furtherly, mechanism analysis results showed that ESG disclosure can affect pricing deviation through signaling and supervision effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ambitious EU Green Deal project is linked to extensive regulations on sustainability reporting, sustainable finance, and sustainable corporate governance. With increasing awareness of the impact of sustainable board governance on corporate environmental performance, our paper includes an innovative sustainable board governance score, reflecting significant board attributes. The question arises whether the combined effect of sustainable board measures, based on (1) sustainability board committees, (2) a critical mass of female board members, and (3) sustainability‐related executive compensation, influences environmental performance and its main sub‐pillars according to the EU Taxonomy Regulation. Based on stakeholder and critical mass theories, our study empirically addresses the impact of sustainable board governance on environmental performance and five sub‐pillars (carbon, emissions, biodiversity, resource use, and water performance). Using a sample of 2630 firm‐year observations from 2014 to 21, we find that sustainable board governance significantly improves environmental performance and the related sub‐pillars, except for biodiversity and water performance. Our findings are robust to robustness analyses and endogeneity checks. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to rely on the combined effect of sustainable board attributes and its impact of environmental performance and its major sub‐pillars. Thus, this study provides new insight into the relationship between corporate governance and environmental performance in the EU capital market to guide researchers, business practice, and regulatory bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the Vietnamese capital market has undergone a remarkable transformation, with a significant focus on its stock market that has displayed substantial expansion since 2012. This research delves into the impact of this market progression on the choices pertaining to capital structure made by companies listed in Vietnam. By analyzing a range of trade‐off and pecking order models and amalgamating them into a unified regression framework, we gauge their capacity to elucidate these decisions. Our study outcomes unveil that the trade‐off theory offers a more robust rationale for the capital structure determinations of Vietnamese companies, particularly during the post‐2012 period. Furthermore, we observe a notable increase in the pace of leverage adjustments made by Vietnamese companies post‐2012. Subsequent analysis indicates that this acceleration is primarily driven by overleveraged firms, as opposed to underleveraged ones. This study contributes valuable insights into the relationship between capital market development and capital structure choices within the Vietnamese context. It offers important implications for policymakers, investors, and corporate decision‐makers seeking to better understand and navigate the evolving dynamics of the Vietnamese capital market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we use a meta‐analysis to examine the performance of socially responsible investing (SRI). We find that, on average, SRI neither outperforms nor underperforms the market portfolio. However, in line with modern portfolio theory, we find that global SRI portfolios outperform regional subportfolios. Moreover, high‐quality publications, publications in finance journals and authors who publish more frequently on SRI are all less likely to report SRI outperformance. In particular, we find that including more factors in a capital market model reduces the likelihood that a study will find SRI outperformance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine whether increasing investor attention affects stock price efficiency. To identify the causal effect, we employ daily repeated quasi‐natural experiments in China where investor attention difference is purely driven by price rounding effect without information regarding stock fundamentals. Stocks tend to draw significant more attention and show higher price efficiency after being exposed to the Winner List. We also find supporting evidence for two nonexclusive channels through which investor attention enhance stock price efficiency: increasing stock liquidity and stronger net inflows from large orders. The positive relationship between investor attention and price efficiency is more pronounced among stocks with lower institutional shareholdings, stocks without overseas or Big Four audit firms, and stocks without B‐ or H‐shares. Our findings further shed light on the significant impact of saliency on the capital market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the critical interplay between economic institutions and political institutions and assess their influence on venture capital market development in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). To address endogeneity concern in our model specification, the two‐step system generalised method of moments was employed on a sample of 34 SSA countries from 2007 to 2018. The findings reveal that strengthening disaggregated measures of economic institutions, comprising legal system and property rights, size of government, sound money, regulations, and freedom to trade internationally spur venture capital market development in SSA. Finally, the evidence indicates that political institutions condition the influence of economic institutions on venture capital market development. The implications for policy are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms can voluntarily create independent firms to implement their technologically distant innovations and capture their value through capital markets. We argue that when firms repeatedly compete to make innovations, there is inefficient external implementation of innovations and "excessive" creation of such firms. This inefficiency is most exacerbated in the early stages of an industry, when the number of firms is still limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the growing emphasis on sustainable development, there is an emerging trend of companies actively pursuing the transition towards sustainability. This shift is driven by various factors, including heightened societal scrutiny and a greater focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations. As a result, companies are increasingly acknowledging the significance of incorporating sustainable practices into their operations to align with the expectations of the capital market. This paper investigates the association between ESG disclosures and stock price crash moderated by corporate governance (board size, independence, and gender diversity) for Saudi firms. Using a fixed effects regression method, we find that the coefficient of ESG is significant and negative (−0.0043 for NCSKEW and − 0.0006 for DUVOL) indicating a positive influence of ESG in diminishing stock price crash. The results also show that corporate governance positively and significantly moderate the ESG‐stock price crash risk. As additional analyses, we find a significant negative relationship between each aspect of ESG including social responsibility, environmental activities and governance practices and stock price crash risk. Moreover, the pandemic COVID‐19 has a dampening effect on the ESG‐stock price crash association. To ensure the validity of these conclusions, dynamic GMM models were employed to tackle any potential endogeneity issues, making the results even more robust. Our findings highlight that improving corporate sustainability positively impacts the stability of companies' stock prices. This study provides valuable insights and perspectives from the context of Saudi Arabia and offers theoretical and managerial implications that are relevant for policymakers and investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the effectiveness of R&D subsidies on firms' R&D efforts in a developing country like Ecuador. We use the National Survey of Innovation Activities. Methodologically, we employ a structural framework that considers simultaneity and selection issues. Our results indicate that subsidies have an extensive margin effect, as they encourage firms to carry out R&D activities, and an intensive margin effect, as they increase firms' total innovation effort. However, this is compatible with partial crowding‐out of private efforts by public funds. One possible mechanism to explain this result is that, in developing countries with less developed capital markets, firms with financial constraints may divert part of the subsidy to invest in fixed capital. We find some support for this hypothesis, as the most financially constrained firms both explain the crowding‐out effect and increase their fixed capital investment when receiving a subsidy. For other firms, we observe crowding‐in, and their fixed capital investment remains insensitive to the subsidy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regardless of economic cycles, financial regulation can be understood to be bound by an uncomfortable social policy trilemma. When faced with 1) providing market integrity, 2) fostering innovation, and 3) enabling financial inclusion, regulators have long been able to achieve, at best, only two of these three goals. Often the result of this trilemma are choices made in the name of consumer and investor protection, or innovation, that indirectly promote, enable or exacerbate wealth inequality by redlining capital markets or exposing the vulnerable to undue risk. In this article, I explain this trilemma and argue that addressing it will require novel innovations – from incorporating inclusion and innovation formally into regulatory mandates to upgrading existing offices of innovation, and creating offices of financial inclusion, to better navigate the tradeoffs inherent in the trilemma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine how the cost of issuing equity affects bank lending. Using the SEC rule change that allowed exchange‐listed firms with public float less than $75 million to raise equity via shelf registrations as a quasi‐natural experiment, we show that the affected banks increase mortgage lending relative to control banks. Furthermore, the affected banks reduce demand for precautionary capital and become less likely to sell mortgages to third parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether board social networks are associated with executive trading profitability. Using a sample of US public firms with a history of executive trading from years 2000 to 2015, we find robust evidence that the profitability of executive trading is significantly lower in firms with higher levels of board social networks. The evidence is consistent with our view that board social networks effectively curb executives' private information advantage over outsiders, thus leading to a lower level of managerial rent‐seeking. Our research has policy implications for regulators concerned about the role of corporate board in capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether institutional investors moderate the relationship between ethical commitment and financial performance amongst Malaysian companies. Through the role of institutional investors, the external monitoring mechanism is expected to reduce the cost associated with the agency problem amongst Malaysian companies, as shown by the lack of ethical practises. Using data from 429 publicly listed companies on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia from 2012 to 2021, the results show that companies with higher ETHICS have better financial performance than companies with lower ETHICS. However, the findings on the moderating effect of institutional investors cannot be proven. By separating the sample based on pre‐MCCG 2017, institutional investors were found to have an association between ETHICS and performance, but no evidence was found during the period post‐MCCG 2017. This study adds to the perspective of agency theory in the academic literature, of which companies can create values by being committed to higher ethical practises. Results on the moderating effect of institutional investors provide perspective on external monitoring mechanisms in the Malaysian market because they are found to have a monitoring role in enhancing corporate performance. However, such a role decreases after the introduction of MCCG 2017. This study provides insights for Malaysian regulators on the necessity to keep promoting ethical practises and transparency amongst companies to achieve the goals of the National Anti‐Corruption Plan 2019–2023. The ethical practises, however, are not limited to listed companies, and regulators should also consider monitoring the institutions within the capital market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated capital markets provide better risk sharing and market efficiency, but presence of different barriers such as information asymmetry across borders hinders these benefits. This study investigates whether the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) (uniform accounting standards) impacts the integration of worldwide capital markets by decreasing financial information frictions. Staggered adoption dates with price‐based measures (Beta and Sigma Convergence) of integration are used to measure the incremental impact of IFRS adoption on integration. The sample includes all the countries with capital markets that have benchmark indices and price data available. Overall statistical results suggest no significant impact of IFRS adoption on capital market integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigate whether and to what extent country‐level board reforms affect audit pricing decisions. We find audit fees are positively associated with board reforms. An increase in audit fees is more pronounced for firms that switched up to Big N auditors following board reforms. After board reforms, firms are less likely to issue restatements, and both analyst forecast accuracy and management forecast frequency increase, indicating improved audit quality and information transparency in the postreform period. Moreover, the positive relation between board reforms and audit fees is more evident for firms in countries that lack institutional governance mechanisms, captured by emerging capital markets, high political risk, weak governmental enforcement actions and low corporate governance quality. Overall, our findings broadly support the view that audit fees increase upon demand for better audit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the capital market has risen. As a result, the goodwill impairment (GI) of listed firms has been frequent. This study empirically examines the association between the foreign‐background characteristics of executives and firm GI risk using data from 2008 to 2020 for A‐share listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen, China. The results show that there is a positive relationship between the foreign background of executives and the risk of GI of firms. Further results show that executives with foreign working backgrounds have a more significant positive impact on GI risk than executives with foreign study backgrounds. In addition, the positive effect of the foreign background of executives of non‐state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) on GI risk is more profound than that of SOEs. However, internal controls and institutional investors' shareholdings weaken the positive association between executives' foreign backgrounds and GI risk. This study provides evidence of the determinants of GI in firms and the economic consequences of the foreign‐background characteristics of executives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether customers' stock price crash risk affects their suppliers' investment efficiency. Using a supply‐chain sample of Chinese A‐share listed firms from 2009 to 2020, we find that suppliers' investment inefficiency is positively associated with their customers' stock price crash risk. Moreover, the impact of customers' stock price crash risk is more pronounced for suppliers with lower investment efficiency, weaker bargaining power, weaker innovation capability, and fewer investment opportunities. Our results suggest that information asymmetry along supply chains deteriorates the investment decision making of upstream firms from the perspective of capital market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence suggests that insurance groups allocate capital to members with better performance or growth prospects and use internal capital markets (ICMs) to protect the franchise value of less capitalized members. We propose and test an additional motivation for the use of ICMs—to manage regulatory scrutiny risk. We show that almost 50% of insurers at risk of facing additional regulatory scrutiny due to failing four Insurance Regulatory Information System (IRIS) ratios received sufficient internal capital to avoid enhanced regulation. Moreover, the likelihood and extent of internal capital allocation are related to regulatory scrutiny risk and the amount of capital allocated is typically just enough to avoid regulatory scrutiny. Time series evidence indicates that groups manage regulatory scrutiny risk by allocating capital toward affiliates when their pre‐capital contribution IRIS ratio failures exceed three, and away from affiliates when they are no longer at risk of additional regulatory scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional investors' site visits may reduce investors' demand for information, resulting in managers' reluctance to disclose earnings forecasts and exacerbating information asymmetry in the capital market. However, institutional investors may also monitor management through site visits, which increases voluntary management earnings forecasts disclosure and thus reduces information asymmetry. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2012 to 2018, we find that firm management is more likely to voluntarily disclose earnings forecasts after the institutional investors' site visits. Specifically, increasing from the 25th to the 75th percentile of institutional site visits is associated with an increase in the odds of voluntary management earnings forecasts by 24%. We use instrumental variables and Heckman two‐step method to address the endogeneity problems and report similar findings. Additional tests show that the governance effect is amplified among firms with severe type I and type II agency problems or firms with no need for refinancing and alleviating stock price synchronicity. Furthermore, we find that voluntary earnings forecasts are more accurate and more precise after site visits, which means institutional investors' site visits in fact improve the quality of management earnings forecasts. Our findings complement the institutional investors' governance effects on earnings forecasts from the perspective of information acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of firm‐level political risk on corporate investments. We find that diversified firms are better able than focused firms in mitigating the impact of idiosyncratic political risk on investments. Diversified firms accomplish this feat via efficient use of the internal capital market that allows segments to alleviate political risk adversity. The effect is working through the channel of exacerbation of financial constraints. When exposed to political risk, diversified firms do not spend more on lobbying and political donations than the focused firms in the subsequent period, implying that diversified firms do not manage political risk politically. Our main findings are robust to a battery of endogeneity tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal bonds are a financial instrument once largely limited to North America. Today, they are appearing in international development reports as a novel best‐practice for closing the world's infrastructure funding gap and for promoting democracy. Critics of financialization have argued that municipal bonds have had the opposite effect: they have deepened austerity, ceded control of democratic municipalities to the global financial industry, and depoliticized public decision‐making. Yet in this article, I observe a relationship between democracy, politics and finance which contrasts with the now common uses of 'financialization' popularized by critical scholars in Euro‐American universities. I argue that, elsewhere in the world, capital markets have come to be understood as an important element of democratization. To make this argument, I develop the concept of 'financial publics'—a group of strangers participating in a reflexive and reciprocal style of address through which they negotiate their financial relationships with one another. Using this concept, I analyze data drawn from over two years of ethnographic research on one of the most noteworthy experiments in municipal finance in the global South: the City of Dakar's failed attempt to issue the first ever municipal bond on the Regional Stock Exchange of West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of capital flow, the study analyses the preference and spatial difference of capital flow of high‐tech enterprises, and uses the Super‐SBM‐DEA model to analyze the capital allocation efficiency. On this basis, the influence of capital flow of financial institutions, capital market, government, and foreign capital flow on capital allocation efficiency is further analyzed. We found the influence of different channels of capital flow on the capital allocation efficiency is heterogeneous. Finally, suggestions are made to optimize capital flow and improve the capital allocation efficiency of high‐tech enterprises in different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debt crises looming in developing countries are being exacerbated by changing debt composition. Declining net foreign exchange earnings have worsened their predicament. As concessional development finance declined, many governments turned to riskier forms of borrowing from international capital markets. Concerted interest rate hikes are supposed to stem inflation; however, given that prices have mainly risen due to supply chain disruptions caused by war, sanctions and pandemic, interest rate increases are likely to trigger more debt crises, much worse than before. Current discourses, for example about China's 'debt trap' diplomacy, distract from urgently needed international and national measures to avert the looming debt crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a model of a longevity risk transfer market with different market players (primary insurers, reinsurers, and capital market investors) and investigate how market dynamics and the market players' roles evolve with progressing market saturation. We find that reinsurers' appetite for longevity risk is the key driver in the early stage of market development. Since diversification benefits with other businesses decrease with every transaction, the reinsurance market is intrinsically antimonopolistic. With the increasing saturation of the reinsurance sector as a whole, its competitiveness shrinks leading to rising expected risk‐adjusted returns for capital market investors. We show that in a saturated market, reinsurers should assume the entire longevity risk from primary insurers, diversify it within their business mix, and subsequently pass on only specific (nondiversifiable) components of the longevity risk to the capital markets. Our findings provide valuable suggestions on how to make the best use of the market's limited risk absorption capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I provide empirical evidence that labour market frictions have an adverse effect on the quality of analyst research. Using the staggered, voluntary adoption of the Protocol for Broker Recruiting (Protocol) since 2004, I show that, without non‐compete agreements, financial analysts produce more accurate forecasts and exert greater efforts in updating their research more frequently. Consistent with the notion that information asymmetry in the capital market are lower in the post‐Protocol period, I provide empirical evidence and argue that the research coverage by Protocol members enables managers to access capital and extend their investment opportunities. My findings suggest that analyst coverage by Protocol members has a favourable effect on investment in innovative projects, production capacity and acquisitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the influence of sustainable institutional investors (SII), based on the signatory status of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), on corporate tax avoidance. Moreover, the moderating influence of corporate sustainability performance (CSP) is analyzed. The analyses concentrate on a European sample consisting of 1689 firm‐year observations between 2014 and 2020 (EUROSTOXX 600) embedded in a stakeholder agency theoretical framework. Correlation, regression, and robustness analyses are conducted. The results are in line with prior studies on equity ownership and tax avoidance and indicate that SII have a negative impact on tax avoidance and that CSP strengthens this negative effect. These results are robust to a battery of sensitivity analyses. SII represent a major monitoring mechanism in promoting responsible tax behavior, which is in line with other stakeholders' interests. Tax avoidance should be integrated into overall sustainability management to realize an increased firm reputation. As the European Commission initiated several regulations on sustainable finance, sustainability reporting, and tax disclosure, the empirical results stress the interdependencies between ownership structure, CSP, and tax avoidance. The study makes a major contribution to prior analyses, as this study is the first to assess the link between SII and tax avoidance and the moderating impact of CSP to urge top management to increase sustainability efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the e‐commerce sales data of A‐share listed firms in China, we explore how e‐commerce sales information affects analyst earnings forecasts. We find that firms' e‐commerce sales information is related to firms' value, increases firms' information transparency, broadens analysts' information channels, and thus improves analyst forecast behavior. Further analysis shows that e‐commerce sales information's positive effect is more significant in firms with high growth ability, low financial information transparency, and without management earnings forecasting. We also find that the positive effect is more salient in the bull market. The findings provide new insights for improving the analyst earnings forecast and offer evidence for the positive significance of e‐commerce sales of alternative data for the capital market in the information era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the DCC‐GARCH model, this study considers distinctive features of China's foreign exchange market to investigate the impacts of RMB internationalization on exchange rates in onshore and offshore markets in different stages during 2010–2017. The results show that policies concerning RMB internationalization, such as interest rate liberalization, exchange rate liberalization, and capital market internationalization, have different impacts on the central parity rate, onshore exchange rate, and offshore exchange rate. In terms of exchange rate liberalization, as the daily trading band was gradually widened in 2012–2015, the onshore exchange rate followed the offshore exchange rate more closely. The central parity rate functioned as a managed floating role. It stabilized onshore and offshore exchange rate fluctuations, while allowing partial marketization. After the exchange rate reform on August 11, 2015, the central parity rate plays a benchmark role based on a more market‐oriented price formation mechanism. It makes the central parity rate regain pricing power in onshore and offshore markets. Further, it promotes exchange rate liberalization and RMB internationalization. Nevertheless, with the slowdown of China's economic growth and the narrowing of the interest rate differential between China and the US, the RMB is under pressure to depreciate, and its volatility increases significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of recurring natural disasters caused by climate change, firms are under enormous pressure to reconsider their environmental footprints. However, whether or not investors reward firms' climate change actions remains a topic of considerable debate. Using a sample of S&P 500 companies over the period 2005–2020, we hypothesise and find a significant negative relationship between climate change actions and the cost of debt, indicating that investors indeed reward corporate climate efforts in the form of lower cost funds. This relationship exists in both environmentally sensitive and non‐sensitive industries and remains negative and statistically significant even after controlling for the impact of the ongoing pandemic (COVID‐19). The findings are robust to the use of alternative measures for our variables, alternative estimation methods and after controlling for endogeneity issues. We interpret our findings within the decision‐usefulness and stakeholder‐agency theories that suggest that non‐financial information on firms' environmental performance is becoming increasingly important when borrowers' creditworthiness is assessed. Our study offers important regulatory and academic policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable development goals are aimed at making humankind aware of the importance of establishing common guidelines relating to three fundamental purposes: eradicating poverty, protecting the planet, and improving people's lives. Sustainable development is linked to financial and business risk, financing is necessary to achieve the SDGs. In this context, the aim of this paper is to analyze the homogeneity in SDG achievement, based on People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership for year 2021. To that end, a cluster analysis is applied, distinguishing between two samples of countries defined by their level of wealth. Furthermore, a synthetic indicator is used to produce a ranking of countries according to their achievement of the SDGs; contingency tables are then created and the χ2 test is used to identify which country risk factors are associated with SDG achievement. The results indicate that the major powers perform similarly in successfully achieving the 5Ps. Also, the χ2 test confirms that a good economic and financial position which allows access to international financial markets at a reasonable cost is linked to optimal SDG achievement in high‐income areas. However, Economic assessment, Access to international capital markets and Debt indicators are not associated with better SDG achievement in the poorest countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the effects of international capital mobility on innovation, growth, and optimal growth policies in a small open economy with R&D‐driven growth. Households can borrow funds from an imperfect international capital market to finance their investment in R&D firms. We show that the economy can reach a higher growth rate if international capital is more mobile. This result is consistent with recent empirical findings. Moreover, we show that the common growth‐enhancing policies, such as patent protection and the R&D subsidies, have an additional negative welfare effect when households can access the international capital market. Accordingly, the optimal patent protection and R&D subsidy should be smaller when the degree of international capital mobility is higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the capital market in China and the growing number of media companies have determined the expansion of ways to finance them: the growth of the financial market is due to the provision of services for the cultural industry, and companies in this sphere need to use the capabilities of the financial market to obtain funds. The use of multiple linear regression for empirical analysis has shown that the following factors demonstrate a significant positive correlation: non‐debt tax shield, growth and ratio of assets to liabilities; company size, growth and long‐term liabilities ratio; company size, volatility and current liabilities ratio. The results of the study are of statistical significance, they are recommended for use in future empirical studies by scientists, for representatives of government bodies in the field of culture and media in China that develop measures to optimize financing of this sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate sources of variation in the output from catastrophe models with emphasis on the epistemic uncertainty in modeled expected losses. Using building data from the 34 buildings that comprised the California Northridge campus at the time of the Northridge earthquake, we explore the sensitivity of estimated average annual losses obtained from a cat model to the quality of model input. Namely, we consider how changes in four key model assumptions—building locations, building height, construction type, and the event catalog—affect cat model loss estimates. We find that accurate information on some input variables is critical (e.g., all steel construction) and the interaction between input variables should not be discounted. Our results have important implications for insurer decisions that are informed by the output of catastrophe models—product pricing, portfolio diversification and underwriting decisions, negotiations and discussions with regulators and similar activities with capital market participants. The financial impact of improving data quality and targeting data related to key model inputs for that insurer when at scale is not trivial. As such, this paper provides an impetus for establishing and improving benchmarks for model inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As external governance factors, institutional investors' governance mechanisms and governance effect have been focus areas of research. Based on the data of A‐share listed companies in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2019, this study discusses the impact of institutional investors' site visits on capital market information efficiency. The study finds that institutional investors' site visits can significantly reduce stock price synchronicity, indicating the potential of site visits to improve capital market information efficiency. Market attention can play an amplifying role in the relationship between institutional investors' site visits and stock price synchronicity, which manifests as their sensitivity enhancement. Further, institutional investors' site visits are more effective for reducing stock price synchronicity in non‐state‐owned enterprises and those in areas with low marketization. Moreover, institutional research increases information asymmetry between investors. This study demonstrates the positive role of institutional research from the perspective of capital market information efficiency and confirms the effectiveness of institutional investors as external governance factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the Shanghai–Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHSC) scheme on voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in China. Using a difference‐in‐differences (DiD) design, we find that companies that participate in the SHSC scheme are more inclined to voluntarily issue CSR reports. This effect is more pronounced for companies that have limited access to international markets and those with weak corporate governance. Additional analyses show that SHSC‐connected firms also produce higher quality CSR reports and achieve a better CSR performance. Our findings imply that capital market liberalisation promotes voluntary corporate disclosure for investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging puts pressure on the financing of pension systems in many developed economies over the long run. Higher fertility would reduce the speed at which a population ages, and thus ease the financing pressure. The positive fiscal externality of childbearing decisions is well known in a single‐country context. I perform a quantitative investigation of this externality in a multi‐country context, to investigate the role of capital markets integration. On a sample of 14 European countries confronted with population aging, I find with simulations that the fiscal gains from a 70‐years increase in fertility are on average 1.3 larger with integrated capital markets than with separated capital markets in 50 years, while the GDP per capita gains are 5.0 larger. Positive fertility shocks indeed depress the capital‐labor ratio, increase the interest rate and thus attract foreign investors, when capital markets are open. Fertility increases and capital markets integration are however not sufficient to deal fully with the public finance challenge generated by population aging. More reforms are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study responds to the call in Vazquez's (2018) by providing more empirical evidence on ethical issues in family business. Drawing from the agency theory, we provide new evidence about the "CSR – stock price crash risk" nexus by examining the moderating effect of family involvement. With a focus on the Chinese capital market, we find that corporate social responsibility (CSR) negatively affects stock price crash risk. Such negative correlation is stronger for family firms as compared with nonfamily firms. Three proxies of family involvement, termly family member as a CEO, lower proportion of variable compensation to CEO, and greater family control, can strengthen the alleviating effect of CSR on crash risk. Nevertheless, a second‐generation successor as executive does not exert any moderating effect. Our findings advance the comprehension of the "CSR‐crash risk" nexus from the family business viewpoint and emphasize the important role of CSR in stabilizing the stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]