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The study empirically investigates the impact of green bonds issuance on listed firms operating in G7 (Japan, UK, USA, France, Germany, Italy, and Canada) economies. The sample consist of monthly data ranges from January 2015 to August 2022. Green bonds issuance data is collected from announcements, press releases, and semi-annual or yearly reports. Additionally, we use the official websites and credit rating agency portals of the particular country to find debt issuance. The subsequent findings imply that the issuance of green bonds cast a positive impact on shareholder wealth maximization moreover, sustainable financing practice increases firm value in a long run and thus is favored by shareholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although corporate insiders face substantial restrictions on stock sales, securing tax deductions through charitable donations of stock is viewed as an attractive alternative. Recent press coverage and growing empirical evidence confirm that insider donations occur frequently and often precede stock price drops. Securities regulators have also taken note, with a recent push for new rules to require rapid disclosure as with insider trades. This paper develops a model of informed stock trading when disposal of stock by insiders takes the form of tax-favored charitable donations rather than direct trading. We demonstrate that charitable gifts by insiders can reflect nonpublic information about firm value and that they do so in a manner that promotes greater market efficiency. Relative to informed trading, insider donations yield greater market liquidity, more efficient equity prices, and superior investor protection. The results suggest that although insider donations deserve scrutiny, they are not equivalent to insider trades. The results also provide a general framework to examine implications of insider donations for tax policy governing philanthropic behavior. This paper was accepted by Ranjani Krishnan, accounting. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4514. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent COVID-19 outbreak and significant increase in resulting global uncertainty poses many challenges to financial sectors. Many regulators took measures to safeguard the resilience of financial institutions by requesting postponements of dividend distributions until uncertainties about further development diminished. Specifically, on 2 April 2020, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority issued a statement requesting that re/insurers suspend all discretionary dividend distributions and share buybacks aimed at remunerating shareholders. Although the goal was to strengthen the overall financial stability of the sector, it may have negatively influenced insurers' equity prices in the short term. Hence, this paper empirically investigates this potential effect using an event study methodology. Although negative drops were observed in some cases, the obtained empirical results suggest that they were not statistically significant for the European insurers' equity market when considering the event windows covering several days after the statement was published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two key issues relating to the interactions among the North American hedge funds industry, the equity and treasury bond markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, we examine the market-timing ability of North America hedge fund managers using eight strategies as well as the composite hedge fund index. Secondly, we analyze both the short- and long-term effects of both the North American equity and bond markets on the performance of the regional hedge funds industry while accounting for the effects of COVID-19 pandemic. Our results show no significant evidence of market return-timing ability of hedge fund managers across all the funds strategies during the pandemic. However, we document a strong evidence of the effects of the pandemic on the performance of fund managers, except for the Managed Futures and the Relative Value funds strategies. Secondly, we demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic may have significantly altered the long-term effects of the North American equity market on the performance of the hedge fund industry while the effects of the bond market is only significant in the short-term. We outlined some crucial implications of these findings for the decision-making process of hedge fund managers, investors as well as market makers during a health crisis-induced financial market turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical exercise explores different aspects of the time‐varying linkage between the commodity and equity markets in India, focusing on base metal futures. The Dynamic Conditional Correlation model (2002) and Diebold–Yilmaz spillover index (2012) are employed to ascertain the presence, pattern, direction, and magnitude of the connectedness between the returns of base metal futures and related equity indices over the period of 2006–2019. The study builds on a less‐studied "input" channel of linkage between the two, reckoning with the economic fundamentals of demand–supply interaction. Our results show that 36% of the return forecast error variance originates from spillovers, to which the contribution of equity indices is minimal. It indicates segmentation between the two markets which offer the scope for potential diversification. Further, base metal futures are the net transmitters and equity indices are the net recipients of spillovers. Positive correlations outweigh the negative correlations, in both frequency and magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Market volatility is subject to good or bad news and even responses to fake news and policy changes. In this piece of work, the authors consider the effects of the recent COVID-19 pandemic event on the global equity market, commodities and FX market, measured in terms of the investors' fear index. Design/methodology/approach: In this empirical work, the authors employ time series-based regression models followed by augmented dummy regressions and growth of the COVID-19. Findings: COVID-19-induced investors' fear appears to be higher in the equity segment for the first time since the market crash of 1987 and the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. Furthermore, this disease outbreak shock has been more pronounced in terms of crude oil prices. Besides, a market participant in the commodity and FX market has paid a disproportionate premium to protect such pandemic development. Findings show that Options act as the best hedge against an uncertainty like COVID-19 and that option-based implied volatility is the best measure of investors' fear and market volatility. Practical implications: This study has practical implications for the financial markets, e.g. (1) Contagious disease outbreak news matters for the equity, commodity, and foreign exchange markets – empirical outcome validates the theory of market efficiency valid for the Options. (2) Option's implied volatility is the best indicator of investor fear measured for the unprecedented economic news. Further implication holds for the policymakers and society, e.g. (1) The unavailability of short-selling could be one plausible reason for increased uncertainty and volatility; hence, policymakers should look upon this issue at the exchange level. (2) Any market needs multiple lines of risk management, effective price discovery and attractive liquidity. Originality/value: The study is novel in terms of presenting market behavior amid COVID-19 across global equity markets and commodities and FX markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to find the influence of various macroeconomic factors on the volatility index, as macroeconomic factors affect stock market volatility, resulting in an impact on the VIX Index, representing the risk in the stock market. To estimate the significance and importance of the U.S. macroeconomic variables on stock market volatility and risk, classification problems from machine learning are constructed to predict the daily and weekly trends of the VIX Index. Data from May 2007 to December 2021 is considered for analysis. The selected models are trained with twenty-four daily features and twenty-four plus nine weekly features. The outcomes suggest that the decisions made by the Light GBM and XG Boost on ranking features can be significantly accepted over logistic regression. It is found from the results that economic policy uncertainty indices, gold price, the USD Index, and crude oil are signified as strong predictors. The Financial Stress Index, initial claims, M2, TED spread, Fed rate, and credit spread are also strong predictors, while various yields on fixed income securities make a little less impact on the VIX Index. The TED spread, Financial Stress Index, and Equity Market Volatility (Infectious Disease Tracker) are positively associated with the VIX. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural finance literature explains that investment decisions are subject to 'investor sentiment' and, consequently, may affect the pricing of various asset classes. Our study examines the 12 major equity markets amid the COVID-19 pandemic disease outbreak in relation to returns and volatility behaviour. Empirical results show that the number of new cases and deaths recorded daily because of COVID-19 has disrupted investors' sentiments globally, and also, the market has experienced an unparalleled negative return. Market connectedness and volatility spillover deliberate on the increased risk of emergent pandemic crises, which has become more pronounced during the first quarter of 2020. Further, after the global financial crisis, the volatility index has appeared at its highest level for the very first time. The unprecedented rise in the volatility index level indicates more significant pressure on put options as a hedge against the pandemic uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper uniquely aims to triangulate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, government financial intervention (GFI) policies and power distance (PD) culture on returns of equity indices during the COVID-19 epidemic in the world's equity markets. Design/methodology/approach: The research employs panel data regression analysis using 1,937 observations from 19 developed and 42 developing countries. The data employed contain daily registered COVID-19 cases, global equity market index prices, financial intervention policies introduced by governments and Hofstede's cultural dimension measure of PD. Findings: The authors find that investors certainly react negatively to the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported, that GFI policies indeed reinforce investors' expectations of policymakers' dedication to stabilize the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic and that equity investors in high PD cultures overreact to GFI news, resulting in more positive stock returns. The authors discover a difference between developed and developing countries in terms of the effect of GFI policies and PD on equity returns. Research limitations/implications: Results suggest that investors react negatively to the daily registered COVID-19 cases. The authors find that financial intervention policies introduced by governments reinforce investors' outlooks of policymakers' commitment to stabilize local stock markets during the coronavirus pandemic. The results confirm that equity market investors in PD cultures overreact to financial intervention news, thus resulting in more positive stock returns. Practical implications: The paper provides three original contributions. First, it helps us to understand the single effect of the COVID-19 and financial intervention policies introduced by governments on returns of the global equity market. Second, it examines the possibility of a two-way joint effect between the COVID-19 and financial intervention policies introduced by governments and the COVID-19 and differences in countries characterized by a PD culture concerning stock market returns. Third, it investigates the possibility of a three-way interaction effect between the COVID-19 contagion, financial intervention policies introduced by governments and culture on returns of equity markets. Originality/value: The authors' findings are valuable to researchers, investors and policymakers. Culture and finance scholars can now observe the role of Brown et al.'s (1988) uncertain-information hypothesis with reference to the effect of the COVID-19 and financial interventions policies introduced by governments on returns of equity markets. This is because the authors' findings underline that since investors' uncertainty declines with daily registered numbers of COVID-19 cases, the introduction of GFI policies function as a neutralizing device to re-establish investors' expectations to equilibrium. Consequently, stock market returns follow a random walk that is free from the negative effect of the COVID-19. The authors' work is likely to advise equity investors and portfolio managers about the extent to which major exogenous economic events such the outbreak of global diseases, financial interventions policies introduced by governments and differences in countries' PD culture can individually and jointly influence the return of the world's equity markets. Investors and portfolio managers can employ the authors' results as a guideline to adjust their investment strategy based on their investment decision strategy during global pandemics. Policymakers aiming to introduce financial intervention policies to stabilize their stock market returns during global pandemics can benefit from our results. They can observe the full effect of such policies during the current COVID-19, and subsequently be better prepared to choose the most effective form of financial intervention policies when the next pandemic strikes, hopefully never. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite of the extensive research being done in developed markets, the empirical studies on Pakistan's equity market are limited. The purpose of this study was to identify the determinants of earning yield and their impact on the Pakistani stock market return (KSE-100 index). Taking earning yield as a dependent variable, six out of ten variables were identified as significant, explaining only 10% of the variation in stock return. With the inculcation of industry effect, the explanatory power however, increased to 20%. The model suggests that earning yield cannot be used to predict stock market returns in volatile markets like Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this study is to examine how international and regional shocks are transmitted to African equity markets using a network methodology introduced and developed by Diebold and Yilmaz (Econ J 119:158–171, 2009; Int J Forecast 23:57–66, 2012; J Econom 182:119–134, 2014) with daily data ranging from January 03, 2007 till September 19, 2019. The main finding is that international and regional market shocks have heterogeneous and time-varying effects on African equity markets, the magnitude of which is explained by the degree of financial exposure and share to the world trade. Bidirectional spillovers reveal that African markets are net receivers for both return and volatility spillovers. Moreover, volatility shocks on these markets spread more vigorously than return shocks to Africa. Episodes of high spillovers emerged during the 2008 global financial and the 2012 European debt crisis. Peaks also appear when structural economic reforms or measures increasing market efficiency intervene on African markets. New to previous works on financial market spillover, we assess spillover channels in Africa employing linear panel regressions. Empirical estimates show that trade and financial exposure do not significantly explain return and volatility spillovers in African equity market. Global factors such as oil and metal prices are the main channels through which foreign shocks spread to African stock markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the role of rare disaster risks in discontinuities (jumps) in the US equity market. To this end, we use data from Dow Jones Industrial Average and International Crisis Behavior database (as a proxy for rare disaster risks) over the period January 1918 – December 2013. We apply a quantile dependence approach in order to detect directional predictability from rare disaster risks to various types of jumps, realized skewness and realized kurtosis risks at different quantiles and lags. We find an asymmetric relationship between jumps and rare disaster risks, as we report a heterogenous dependency across different quantiles and lag orders. Although rare disaster risks can significantly help in the predictability of jumps, large jumps due to large price movements happened in the market do not associate with rare disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study puts forward the increased share of foreign investors as a potential stabilizer for local financial markets, especially equity markets, because domestic investors' weak absorption capacity may create liquidity constraints acting as an obstacle for foreign investor. We pin down the effects of foreign investor dominance based on a detailed stock‐ownership data. Our findings suggest that in emerging financial markets with high foreign investor ownership and low absorption capacity of domestic investors, capital outflows might be staggered, and this phenomenon might reduce the probability of large and sudden depreciation of local currencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the U.S and China equity markets on global equity markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we compare the contagion of global equity markets, their volatility persistence, and the volatility spillover effects from the U.S and China to other countries in pre-pandemic and during-pandemic periods. We find evidence of significant contagion effects from the U.S and China stock markets during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Further, we observe that the nature of stock index volatility does not change and there is weak evidence for volatility spillover effects during the pandemic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the influence of oil market volatility and hand‐picked OPEC meetings data on herding tendency in the Saudi equity market. Our results show the presence of significant herding behaviour in the Saudi market; surprisingly this herding behaviour is independent of oil market volatility. Importantly, we find herding on and around the OPEC meeting days however this is only limited to a period of high global uncertainty that is, during the Global Financial Crisis period (GFC) of 2008–2010. However, when we filter out factor‐based herding in the Saudi equities, we also find persistent herding in the post GFC period. These results are consistent when we assess the impact of OPEC meetings using event windows of one to 5 days before and after the announcement. In consideration of the crucial role of OPEC in determining the oil prices, we explain our results of Saudi market herding on and around OPEC meeting days for the prior announcement ambiguity and corrections before, on and after the announcements on global supply. Our results show that this tendency has originated during the GFC, has persisted in the post‐GFC in the Saudi equities and surprisingly, is largely found absent in the periods when the Saudi equity market witnessed bullish market conditions. Our results are robust after accounting for common factor return variations in equity returns, the unconditional and conditional estimates of the volatility in oil prices and several event windows around OPEC meeting days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a combination of short-selling data made available by Regulation SHO and auditor change data disclosed in companies’ SEC filings, we examine whether short sellers (a) discern between “good news” and “bad news” auditor changes and (b) increase their revenue by trading around auditor change announcements. We find that short sellers systematically increase activity following certain auditor changes, which include auditor downgrades (i.e., change from Big 4 auditor to non-Big 4 auditor), auditor resignations, and auditor changes involving a disagreement between management and the departing auditor. Our results indicate that short sellers are able to generate significant returns by systematically taking short positions pursuant to specific types of “bad news” changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The distinction between the role of systemic risk and the systematic risk remains unclear and is sometimes confusing. In this paper, we exploit three types of systemic risk measurements and examine their role as a systematic risk component in the equity market. We first construct the systemic risk factors by using the portfolio mimicking method. Then we analyse the systemic risk factors through the lens of the empirical asset pricing test to determine whether the factors are systematically priced in the equity market. As a result, we empirically find evidence that the systemic risk factors are systematically priced in the equity market, indicating that the systemic risk is compensated for the higher returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the financing channels for zombie firms in China. We find that equity markets and suppliers provide substantial financing support for zombie firms, while banks and other financing channels are less important. We also find that the amount of investment does not increase accordingly after zombie firms obtain external financing, which indicates an inefficient use of funds by these zombie firms. Our results are robust to various definitions of zombie firms, and also to a propensity score matching method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been twenty years since the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) first announced the Capital Accord. Then, the concept of downsize risk or Value at Risk (VaR) was launched by Morgan (1997), which is a concept that has received significant attention from both investors and market risk management scholars. Furthermore, Polanski and Stoja (2010) apply the parametric density function of three skewed distributions to model VaR. Subsequently, we contribute to current literature by predicting one-day-ahead VaR to backtest the risk measurement performance of six Asian markets that receive less attention in academia. By evaluating the risk modeling performance, the GHD-based model shows more reliable and efficient outcomes in terms of market volatility prediction compared to the NID- and STD-based models. Thus, we believe that this finding is useful for investors who want to minimize their risks before doing investment decisions. In addition, all derived risk forecast models are likely applied in Asian countries, especially in South Korea where has tight financial mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to understand the moderating role of firm size on financial characteristics and Islamic firm value. Then study how the influence of firm size moderation on the relationship of financial characteristics and corporate governance with firm value. This study uses secondary data from financial statements and analyzed by the panel data method for six years. The sample selection is arranged by the purposive sampling method with Islamic index constituent population. Conclusion: leverage, profitability, and efficiency have a significant positive effect on Islamic firm value, but the liquidity and audit committee do not affect. Firm size moderators provide a reinforcing effect for all independent variables so that liquidity and audit committees have a positive effect on firm value. Implications: Islamic firm investors in the equity market should consider the crucial variable, namely firm size, in addition to firm and corporate governance characteristics. These conclusions provide important implications for managers and relevant authorities to enhance financial market information related to firm value and further attention to corporate governance mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper it is assumed that equity markets reflect the development of the overall economy of a country. Equity markets, among other factors, are considerably affected by factors such as inflation or deflation. Therefore, when inflationary or deflationary pressures appear, Central Banks try to manage those pressures in order to minimise their impact on the economy. In this paper, the case of Japan will be examined. Japan can be considered an example of a country which was under extended deflationary pressures for about three decades. In this study, the authors investigate different time frames for the Japan equity market. The research is based on Japan equity market (NIKKEI) returns. The authors aim to answer the question of whether the Japanese market complies with the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) for different time frames, as well as test analytically if Japan's stock market and economy have improved after the implementation of different attempts at Quantitative Easing (QEs), a Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) or a Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) to curb deflationary impacts on the economy. The analysis and obtained results could be useful for risk and portfolio management, and could be extended to other markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the pricing of systematic tail risk measured by tail beta in the Chinese equity market. Using an array of tests, we examine the performance of more than 3,300 stocks for the years 1999 through 2018. Contrary to evidence from developed markets, we demonstrate a strong negative relationship between the tail beta and future returns. The effect is robust to many considerations and cannot be explained by established pricing factors or alternative risk or illiquidity measures. We link our findings to specific characteristics of the Chinese stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expansionary monetary policy is necessary to respond to financial crises. However, if Central Bank asset purchase initiatives are too large or last too long, they can lead to explosive increases in asset prices which add to the risk of a future crisis. This article employs two models including the Campbell-Shiller and Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey Fuller techniques to search for bubbles in the US equity, housing and bond markets over the past eight years. Although, we find that prices in equities and housing have risen following Federal Reserve intervention, there is little indication of asset price bubbles. There is evidence of explosive bond price increases from September of 2011 to February of 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study traces the degree of integration and volatility spillover effect between the Pakistani and leading foreign stock markets by analyzing the Meteor shower hypothesis. Daily data are used from nine worldly equity markets (KSE 100, NIKKEI 225, HIS, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, DOW JONES, GADXI, FTSE 350 and DFMGI) for the period of 2005 to 2014. First, we used the whole data set and after that we split data set into two subsets, First subset of data contains the era of global financial crisis of 2008 from 2005 to 2009 and Second subset is after global financial crisis time period from 2010 to 2014 (The global crisis prevailed till end of 2009). By following the Hamao et al. (1990) technique the univariate GARCH type models are employed to explore the dynamic linkages between Pakistani and leading foreign stock markets. The results from whole data set illustrate that there is mixed co-movements between leading foreign stock markets and Pakistani stock market. The results from both subsets provide an evidence that there is a unidirectional mean and volatility spillover effect from S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, DJI and DFMGI to KSE 100. Also we found bidirectional spillover effect between DFMGI and KSE 100 from both subsets of data. We concluded that there is only one indirect linkage through which may the information transmitted to KSE 100. This linkage is developed due to the co-movement among KSE 100, DFMGI and NASDAQ 100 in crisis period. This integration between these markets may provide a sign of indirect linkage. It also exhibits the volatility in Pakistan stock market returns is instigated through direct effects as well as indirect effects. Our study brings important conclusions for financial institutions, portfolio managers, market players and academician to diagnose the nature and level of linkages between the financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the real effects of primary and secondary equity markets on the post-issue operating performance of initial public offering (IPO) firms.Design/methodology/approach The author utilizes the intended use of proceeds as a proxy variable for the primary market and the investment-to-price sensitivity and the informativeness of stock prices as alternative proxy variables for the secondary market. The compositional data, and non-parametric quantile regressions which are more robust to outliers than standard least square regressions, are employed for Indonesian equity market over the period of 1999-2013.Findings While confirming that firm operating performance can be explained by the firm’s motivation to go public, the author also shows that the operating performance is positively affected by investment-to-price sensitivity and negatively affected by stock price informativeness. The stock prices affect investment decisions by the way that the more liquid a stock is, the more informative its price is, and the more relevant stock prices are in investment decisions. These findings still hold after controlling for ownership structure.Originality/value Departing from the existing literature, the author investigates the role of primary and secondary equity markets for firm performance in an integrated framework because both markets interact closely in reality. The author shows that public listed firms can benefit both from the capital-raising function of the primary market and from the informational role of the stock prices of the secondary market. A measure of stock price informativeness, 1−R2, however, must be understood in the context of thin trading in the sense that the level of liquidity affects the level of stock price informativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate to what extent the geographical and industry composition of the global real economy corresponds to that of public equity markets. We aggregate firm-level data on geographical revenue distribution to determine its geographical exposure, and national accounts data to determine the industrial composition of the real economy. We find that there are substantial differences between both regional and industrial composition of the real economy and equity markets. For example, the US is relatively overrepresented when the value of public equities is compared relative to its share of global GDP. Due to foreign exposures of US-listed companies, the economic exposure to the US of a global equity portfolio is much closer to its GDP than its market capitalization suggests. Similarly, the low share of emerging markets equities in a global portfolio is somewhat misleading, as the economic exposures of global equity markets to emerging markets are close to its weight in global GDP. From an industrial perspective, equity markets seem to be substantially overexposed to consumer goods and underexposed to consumer services compared to real economic activity. However, these industrial differences might also be caused by classification differences between economic and financial agencies. Nevertheless, the differences in composition may contribute to the explanation of the empirical disconnect between economic growth and equity returns. It may also help investors to target regions or industries in private equity that are under - represented in their public equity portfolio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bhatti and Nguyen (2012) used the copula approach to measure the tail dependence between a number of international markets. They observed that some country pairs exhibit only left-tail dependence whereas others show only right-tail. However, the flow of information from uni-dimensional (one-tail) to bi-dimensional (two-tails) between various markets was not accounted for. In this study, we address the flow of information of this nature by using the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC–GARCH) model. More specifically, we use various versions of the DCC models to explain the nexus between the information flow of international equity and to explain the stochastic forward vs. backward dynamics of financial markets based on data for a 15-year period comprising 3,782 observations. We observed that the information flow between the US and Hong Kong markets and between the US and Australian markets are bi-directional. We also observed that the DCC model captures a wider co-movement structure and inter-connectedness compared to the symmetric Joe–Clayton copula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper empirically investigates the relationship between bank, stock market and economic growth in Bangladesh. In investigating empirical relationship , GDP at the current price, private sector credit given by banks and market capitalization are considered as indicators of economic growth, banks’ development and stock market development, respectively. Three possible regression models are estimated to know the relationship between economic growth and financial sector development. The paper shows that bank’s credit to the private sector is both positively and robustly contributing to the economic development of the country when bank credit to private sector entered alone in regression as an independent variable. Besides long-term relationship, contemporaneous change in bank’s credit to the private sector has profound positive short-run feedback effects to the economic growth. In assessing impact of stock market development on economic growth, no significant long-run relationship is found between stock market development and economic growth in Bangladesh. However, net positive subdued short-term effect of stock market development is evident. But when both bank and equity market jointly enter the model to find out the relationship of both variables with economic growth, a long-run relationship has been evident without statistical significance. It indicates that Bangladeshi financial system comprising both banking sector and stock market jointly is not still a strong promoter of its economic growth, although banking development alone is robustly associated with economic development. Bangladesh therefore needs to enhance the efficiency of banks for increasing credit to the private sector. An immediate initiative is also required to make both equity and debt market as regular sources of finance for the economy. In this perspective, ensuring smooth operation of primary and secondary market, increasing financial literacy among investors, minimizing volatility of the market, expanding issuer base, creating both individual and institutional investors, enhancing efficiency of the brokerage house, adding innovative financial services, initiating knowledge based trading, introducing shelf registration system, creating more professional trustee and ensuring authenticate credit rating from the rating agencies are required to be ensured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem is that prior studies examining the impact of monetary policy instruments on the equity market have produced mixed results. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of changes in money supply (M2), federal funds rate (FFR), and federal funds futures on the expected rate of returns of publicly traded companies. We developed and tested a multifactor capital asset pricing model and applied regression methodologies suitable for panel data analysis to analyze the data. The multiple regression results showed positive moderation effect of M2, and negative moderation and mediation effects of FFR and federal funds futures on the expected rate of returns of publicly traded companies. The socioeconomic implication of these findings is that the Federal Reserve decisions on changing M2 is not influenced by changes in the equity prices, but changes in the equity prices are a signal for the Federal Reserve to adjust its decision on changing the FFR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the possibility of financial contagion from the Russian stock market toward 18 global markets as a result of the international sanctions arising from Russia’s actions in Crimea. We develop a dynamic heteroskedastic procedure and use z -transform analysis to determine the potential degrees of contagion and explore possible volatility spillovers. Among our main results, the Russian market substantially decoupled from the vast majority of world markets, irrespectively of the strength of economic ties between Russia and the corresponding countries. Nonetheless, the crisis was characterized by large transmissions of volatility associated with the Russian stock market, particularly in emerging and frontier economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-global financial crisis period, the central banks of the advanced economies pursued unconventional monetary policies, such as the United States (U.S.) Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE). Those policies and their unwinding may significantly affect cross-border capital flows and thus destabilize the financial systems of emerging markets. For example, emerging markets experienced substantial financial instability during the taper tantrum triggered by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s May 2013 announcement of the potential unwinding of QE. In this article, we examine the spillovers from the taper tantrum on emerging markets more rigorously by using econometric analysis to empirically assess the effect on equity markets in emerging markets. Our central finding that virtually all emerging-market equity markets were affected by the taper tantrum highlights the need for emerging-market authorities to remain vigilant about the effects of advanced-economy monetary policies on their financial stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to construct a historical index for the New Zealand stock markets going back to 1899. From these historical returns, the authors can extract the average capital gains and dividend yield. It also allows them to provide an estimate for the equity risk premium (ERP). Design/methodology/approach – The authors collect stock-level data (prices, dividends, etc.) from quote records that are kept at the National Library in Wellington. From the stock-level data, the authors compute a value-weighted market index over the period 1899-2013. Findings – Over the period 1899-2013, the arithmetic mean of equity returns is 10.82 per cent p.a., with a standard deviation of 20.09 per cent. The New Zealand equity market had 92 years of positive returns and 23 years of negative returns during the sample period. The 10-year government bond yield, over the entire period, has an arithmetic mean return of 5.75 per cent. The ERP, on average, is 5.07 per cent. Originality/value – The authors collect the longest available historical data series for the New Zealand equity market. They document statistical properties as well as the long-term ERP over the entire sample period of 115 years and several subperiods. The ERP is a key input in corporate/project valuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the macro-economic determinants of foreign institutional investments (FIIs) in India by employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach on the monthly data for the time period from April 2009 to December 2014. The macro-economic variables, which are based partially on portfolio balance model, include exchange rate, inflation, interest rate, domestic stock market performance, and foreign market performance. The results indicate that the exchange rate share a significant relationship with FII flows both in short run as well as long run. Along with, the presence of the positive and negative feedback trading can also be traced in Indian market for short run and long run, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data for the National Stock Exchange of India, we examine three hypotheses about which trades move prices. The Stealth Trading Hypothesis proposes that cumulative price changes (CPCs) are concentrated in particular trade sizes due to the strategic trading of informed traders. We find that depending on market conditions, from 60% to 80% of the CPC is concentrated in small trade sizes, with almost all of the remaining price change concentrated in medium trade sizes. These results support the Stealth Trading Hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an improved model for estimating life insurer cost of capital with the inclusion of upside and downside risk factors and controlling for life insurer characteristics. Although various asymmetric measures of market risk have been shown to be priced factors for the broader equity market, life insurer realized equity returns include a much larger premium for bearing downside risk, even after controlling for firm characteristics and other measures of risk. Cross-sectional regression analysis finds a positive (negative) premium for downside (upside) betas, conditional on down and up markets, respectively. Coskewness and cokurtosis are also priced factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the January 2011 uprising, Egypt has undergone an ongoing political unrest, which has weighed heavily on the country’s financial markets. This article aims to investigate the existence and nature of first and second moment interdependencies between the stock and currency markets of Egypt before and during the recent 2011 uprising. This investigation is conducted in the context of a bivariate EGARCH framework augmented with cointegrating residuals as an exogenous variable in both the conditional mean and conditional variance equations. The results indicate that during the pre-uprising period, there exist reciprocal mean spillover effects between the equity and currency markets. However, during the in-uprising period, only unidirectional mean spillover effects from the equity market to the currency counterpart is detected. Additionally, over both periods, a unidirectional volatility transmission from the equity market to the currency counterpart is observed. The response pattern of volatility is found to be asymmetric. In general, these results demonstrate the leading role of the stock market with respect to the currency counterpart, lending support to the portfolio balance approach. The evidence presented in this article holds important implications for investors and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After more than 10 years since the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), this paper studies how variances and correlations have evolved in four SCO countries' equity markets (China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia) relative to Japanese, US and EU markets. We focus on the Mongolian equity market. We trace stock market co-movements of Mongolia and SCO member countries to the world market since the inauguration of the SCO in 2001. We also take into account the effects of recent world financial crisis in the region. As compared to the increasing global trend of market integration among countries, we don't find any significant contagion among SCO countries in the first half of sample periods. After 2005, market integrations among SCO countries are evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the Boxing Day tsunami on the world equity markets are investigated in this paper. In particular, this paper examines how the risks and returns of industry and market portfolios are altered as a result of the tsunami. The analysis includes countries that were directly or indirectly exposed to this catastrophe. Both parametric and non-parametric tests are employed to explore the relationship between equity stock returns and the tsunami, and the CAPM is utilised to assess the variation in systematic risks. Given that the literature in this area is at its earliest stage, we draw on economic theories of flooding. In this way, our results are consistent with that of the flooding literature, which would predict that the Boxing Day tsunami would have minimal effects on the risks and returns of equity markets. This paper documents that the tsunami was associated with few abnormal return changes and a general increase in the long-term systematic risk of the equity portfolios in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are the risks and returns of industrial and market portfolios altered as a result of terrorist events? This paper investigates the effects of five international terrorist attacks on equities listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange. It uses an event study methodology to explore the relationship between equity stock returns, terrorist attacks and asset pricing models to assess whether systematic risks change after these events. The evidence demonstrates that strategies such as closing down an exchange during a crisis are ineffective. Furthermore, after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Malaysian equity markets were insensitive to subsequent terrorist attacks in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between book-tax differences (BTD) and earnings management in firms listed on the BM&F Bovespa. The final sample consisted of 485 observations (firm-year) and the analysis included the period from 2005 to 2009. Methodologically, two approaches were employed in this study: (I) frequency distribution and (ii) discretionary accruals -- Modified Jones Model. The findings indicate a directly proportional relationship between BTD and discretionary accruals. There was evidence that the firms manage their earnings in the same direction of the observed signal of BTD, and seek to present the amount of BTD in level and variation around the breakeven and thus avoid a relationship with low earnings quality. Additionally, evidence indicate that the size of firm and the adoption of the tax basis transition are inversely related to the level of discretionary accruals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimators of the quantiles of the normal and log-normal distributions are derived. They are more efficient than the established estimators by a wide margin for small samples and high quantiles of the log-normal distribution. Although their evaluation is iterative, it requires only moderate amount of computing, which is not related to the sample size. The method is also applied to the quantiles of the Pareto distribution, but the resulting estimator is more efficient only in some settings. An application to financial statistics, estimating the return on a unit investment in equity markets over a long term, is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the presence of herd behavior in Latin American stock markets using the methodologies proposed by Christie and Huang (1995) and Chang, Cheng, and Khorana (2000). Daily closing prices and trading volumes from January 3, 2000 to September 15, 2010 from the stock markets of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the United States were analyzed. The US market was studied in order to provide a reference for comparison. The shares for which data was collected in each country were those listed in the most representative stock index for each market. It was not possible to establish evidence of herd behavior in any of the five countries studied using the Christie and Huang (1995) method. However, evaluating the data for the entire period using the method proposed by Chang, Cheng, and Khorana (2000) we detected herd behavior in the Chilean market. These results were not affected by the addition of additional exogenous variables representing the September 11 attacks of 2001 and the subprime crisis, or when the effect of the behavior of US shares on other countries was analyzed. Asymmetric herd behavior was detected in the Chilean, United States, Argentinean, and Mexican markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The adaptive expectations model posits that economic agents’ expectations adjust by constant proportion of previous discrepancy and the forecast for the following period is the same for all the subsequent future periods, if the expectation is a permanent. We apply this hypothesis and event study methodology to examine the impact of five terrorist attacks (New York World Trade Centre, Bali, Madrid, London, and Mumbai) on Japanese industries. Being a watershed event, the negative impact of the attacks in the U.S. was apparent. Our evidence suggests an initial step-change in risk incorporated into expectations after the U.S., Bali and Madrid bombings. The two subsequent attacks had no effect on the market implying no the forecast error in risk expectation in Japan after the initial terrorist attacks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We develop a tractable structural model to estimate a firm''s default probability by modeling its asset and debt behavior. The model incorporates jump factors. For a set of Brazilian large corporations, we compare the structural model results to the default probabilities predicted by a survival analysis applied to the Central Bank debt information database. Our model outperforms other structural models. In a last step, we use a firm''s sector failure probabilities to calibrate the model. This process is executed by adjusting the model jump volatility and it helps to explain the differences between debt and equity market failure probabilities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the dynamic interactions among the equity market, economic activity, inflation, and monetary policy under three monetary policy regimes using bivariate and multivariate vector autoregressive cointegrating specifications. The bivariate results for the real stock returns-inflation pair weakly support a negative correlation in the 1970s and 1980s. While the bivariate findings suggest a weak, negative relationship between real returns and the federal funds in the 1970s and 1980s, the multivariate findings strongly support short-term linkages in the 1970s. There appears to be no consistent dynamic relationship between monetary policy and stock prices in that the relationship differs across monetary regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of equity markets in economic development has been increasingly recognized in recent years. Yet few studies have analyzed the transmission mechanisms between them. This paper looks at this missing agenda by indirectly assessing whether the equity markets fulfill the following roles: (a) financing firms'' investment; (b) improving firms'' corporate governance and, hence, performance; and (c) signaling information regarding issuers to public investors through stock prices––all of which are essential in achieving economic growth for developing countries. This paper assesses the development stages of China''s equity markets by testing whether the above three roles are fulfilled. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We explore a model of time varying regional market integration that includes three factors for the North American equity market, the local Mexican equity market and the peso/dollar exchange rate. We argue that a useful instrument for the degree of integration is the sovereign yield spread. Applying our methodology to Mexico over the 1991–2002 period, we show that the degree of market integration was higher at the end of the period than at the beginning but that it exhibited wide swings that were related to both global as well as local events. We also discover that Mexico''s currency risk is priced. Further, the currency returns process reveals strongly significant asymmetric volatility that is strongly related to the asymmetric volatility of the Mexican equity market returns process. A plausible reason for these results is that currency devaluations in emerging markets like Mexico can cause default-risk crises in local banking systems that mismatch local-currency assets and hard currency liabilities, whereas appreciations produce no such problems. Devaluations that destabilize banking systems are, therefore, more likely than appreciations to increase the volatilities of both the currency''s and the equity market''s returns. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

When the Republic of Korea accepted a $57 billion IMF bailout in December 1997, an era had ended for Korea as well as for international equity markets. Like the other East Asian “Tigers,” Korea began to experience economic difficulty in 1996. The booming growth rates of the previous decades slowed in 1996 and early 1997 saw large-scale bankruptcies of important firms in all sectors of Korea's economy. The severe economic downturn strained Korea's financial sector and serious underlying problems were revealed. By late summer of 1997, foreign portfolio investments were accelerating out of Korea, both instigating and exacerbating the devaluation of the won. As the liquidity shortfalls of the Korean financial sectors reached critical levels, the IMF stepped in and provided $57 billion in loans to Korea in December. This action represented the largest inflow of IMF funds extended so rapidly. This paper presents a summary of the Korean financial crisis, surveying the composition of the Korean Stock Market and trends in foreign investment at the time of the crisis, then turning to causes of the crisis, an overview of major IMF and Korean government mandated policy changes, and finally recommendations for further reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]