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This paper conducts an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 and digital transformation (DT) on the financial performance of European listed companies. Using a panel data regression model from 2015 to 2021, the study analyzed the financial performance of 2179 companies. The sample of companies was chosen based on the availability of financial statements and aimed to examine the effects of COVID-19 and DT on financial performance, as measured by return on assets (ROA). The study used a fixed-effect model and checked for robustness by introducing return on equity (ROE) as a dependent variable. The results indicated that COVID-19 had a negative significant impact on financial performance, while DT had a positive significant impact, consistent with previous research. This study provides valuable insights into the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and DT on the financial performance of listed companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the spillovers, portfolio allocation, and diversification potential of bank equity portfolios from developed and emerging countries in Europe (henceforth, developed and emerging Europe) using a directional spillover index and nonlinear portfolio optimisation methods. Empirical results indicate that in developed Europe the largest spillover receivers and transmitters are the banks from France and Spain, whereas in emerging Europe are those from Greece and Poland. Cross‐country spillover transmission and reception is larger across banks from developed Europe than across banks from emerging Europe. Banks from emerging Europe offer greater diversification potential and have a lower risk for financial resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the riskiness of investments in civil works is an integral part of the decision-making process. The main limitation is the absence, both in the regulatory landscape and in the literature of the sector, of threshold values that can guide the analyst in expressing an assessment on the acceptance of the investment risk. The aim of the paper is to define a risk management model that overcomes this gap by introducing acceptability and tolerability thresholds for project risk. The idea is to jointly use: (i) the As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) logic, from which the concepts threshold of acceptability and tolerability of risk derive, for the first time applied to assess the project risk in the civil field; (ii) the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and statistical methods to define an innovative methodology for estimating the aforementioned threshold values. According to the proposed approach, these risk limit values can be specified according to both the investment sector and the socio-economic context of the project. The implementation of the methodology in the civil company sector in Europe allows to validate the described model. The elaborations show that the financial performance of the project is widely acceptable if the Expected Internal Rate of Return is greater than 7.8%; unacceptable if the expected rate of return is less than 5.6%; and tolerable as an ALARP if the expected rate is between 5.6% and 7.8%. The estimated acceptability and tolerability thresholds can provide the economic operator with a more immediate and consistent evaluation of the triangular balance of risks, costs, and benefits. This allows the decision-making process to become more rational and transparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the value relevance of the Other Comprehensive Income (OCI). Limited literature has focused on the relevance on equity price and return. We go further by including the usefulness of OCI volatility on equity total risk which contributes to the inconclusive debate on how markets perceive different pieces of accounting information. After the adoption of the IAS (1), companies must disclose information about OCI, which shifts the focus from net income to comprehensive income. It shows the return that a company has made on its economic resources, determining a potential support for improving investors' decision‐making process. Contrarily, some studies demonstrated that comprehensive income is not a true performance indicator because it includes nonrecurring items (i.e., unrealized gains and losses related to the change in the fair market value of available‐for‐sales securities). To test the relevance aspects of the OCI, we focus on the European context, and in particular on the analysis of the super sector leaders in Europe, the companies of the STOXX 50 index over the period from 2010 to 2016. We find a weak negative association between OCI and equity price, and it is a firm specific effect. Similar weak mixed relationships with equity return is found and in particular it is a year‐specific effect. In addition, our findings reveal that the volatility of OCI is positively related to equity total risk. Compared to U.S and other international contexts, the findings provide novel insights at the European Union level about the inconsistent valuation usefulness of OCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While higher effort in research is advocated for agriculture, there continues to be a lack of measurement of its impact in economic terms, at least in Europe. This paper seeks to assess the economic impact of public agricultural R&D investments in Europe. Different panel models are applied on 16 European countries, by employing productivity and investment data. Results show positive impacts with returns on public R&D investments on agricultural productivity of between 6.5% and 15.2%, varying according to model specifications and computation techniques. These values confirm that research expenditure in agriculture is well justified in economic terms. However, the results are highly dependent on the analytical approach and limited by the paucity of expenditure data. Further research is recommended to take into account the role of other important determinants of impact, such as climate, spill overs and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). However, a proper consideration of these variables will first require a major improvement of data availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transfer: Zeitschrift für Kommunikation & Markenmanagement is the property of Deutsche Werbewissenschaftliche Gesellschaft and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Prospect Theory's value function suggests that investors would be risk averse in the gain domain and risk seeking in the loss domain—that is, the reflection effect. However, most of the experimental evidence relies on choice tasks in the gain domain between prospects marked in dollar amounts and considering non-mixed lotteries. There is not much work that examines environments with properties typical in investment decisions where the task is fund allocation involving mixed lotteries with outcomes being rate of return. The recent negative deposit rates in Europe demonstrate the importance of this question and, in particular, understanding investment decisions in the loss domain. This paper fills this gap by using a series of laboratory experiments mimicking these properties of investment decisions with a range of investment amounts and with the money to invest either being earned and literally on the table or not. Yet, no matter the settings, we find no evidence for the reflection effect in investment, and behavior is most consistent with maximizing expected return. This holds regardless of the language used (abstract or not), whether we use a two- or a three-state lottery, whether the task is continuous rather than discrete, or the risky portfolio is a mixed lottery. This paper was accepted by Chen Yan, decision analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: In this study, we sought to quantitatively describe the survival outcomes, incidence rates, and predictors of survival after paediatric traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).Methods: We systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, EMCARE, and CINAHL to identify observational or interventional studies reporting relevant data for paediatric traumatic OHCA. The Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tool for prognostic studies was used to assess study quality. We analysed the survival outcomes and pooled incidence rates per 100,000 person-years using random-effect models.Results: Nineteen articles met the eligibility criteria involving 705 Emergency Medical Service (EMS)-attended and 973 EMS-treated traumatic paediatric OHCAs across an estimated serviceable population of 15.2 million. Four studies were conducted in the Asia-pacific region, seven in Europe, and eight in North America. Nine studies were assessed as low quality. Overall pooled survival to hospital discharge or 30-day survival for the EMS-treated cases was 1.2% (n = 6 studies; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.1%, 3.1%; I2 = 26.1%). The pooled rate of return of spontaneous circulation in four studies was 22.1% (95% CI: 18.4%, 26.1%; I2 = 0.0%), and the pooled rate of event survival was 18.8% (n = 3 studies; 95% CI: 15.2%, 22.7%; I2 = 0.0%). The pooled incidence of EMS-treated paediatric traumatic OHCA was 1.6 cases per 100,000 person-years (n = 10 studies; 95% CI: 1.1, 2.2; I2 = 98.1%). No study reported on the impact of epidemiological or clinical factors on survival.Conclusion: Survival outcomes of paediatric traumatic OHCA are poor and existing studies report varying incidence rates. The absence of large prospective and international registry data hinders the development of novel strategies to improve survival rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the relative importance of a culture of cooperation and inclusive political institutions, I divide Europe into 120 km×120 km grid cells, and exploit the exogenous variation in both institutions created by medieval history. I document strong first‐stage relationships between present‐day norms of respect and trust and the severity of consumption risk—i.e. climate volatility—over the period 1000–1600 and between the inclusiveness of present‐day regional political institutions and the factors that raised the returns on elite‐citizenry investments—i.e. terrain ruggedness and direct access to the coast. Building on these first stages, I show that only culture has a first‐order effect on income, even after controlling for country fixed effects, proxies for the alternative roles of the excluded instruments, factors modulating the roles of institutions, and intermediate outcomes. Two possible explanations for these results are that more inclusive regional political institutions might have impeded, in the early modern era, state‐building and market integration, and that in modern representative democracies, they are irrelevant in easing the monitoring of politicians by voters when the latter are not morally compelled to punish political malfeasance or the former have weak civic virtues. Macro and micro evidence supports these ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The counterfactual estimation technique of Pesaran and Smith () is employed to provide an assessment of the impact stemming from the implementation of negative interest rates in three European economies (Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland). The analysis indicates that negative interest rates did not have a significant effect on bank lending growth or inflation in any country. This failure to reject the policy ineffectiveness hypothesis most likely lies in the fact that negative interest rates did not ease the situation for the factors restricting the supply of bank lending, namely bank funding costs and Return‐on‐Equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the presence of foreign multinational business enterprises in the U.S. A table is presented of the revenues generated in North America by Foreign-based multinational corporations in 1991. In contrast to the 1970s, American firms are no longer dominant in foreign direct investment. Investment into the United States has exploded, as the author notes that, by the end of the 1980s, foreign investment in the United States was almost equal to American investment abroad. Multinational corporations from Europe and Asia are providing challenging competition for American firms. The rate of returns based on market value for foreign direct investment in the U.S. is compared to that of the United States' direct investment abroad.

Purpose - People often face constraints such as a lack of time or information in taking decisions, which leads them to use heuristics. In these situations, fast and frugal rules may be useful for making adaptive decisions with fewer resources, even if it leads to suboptimal choices. When applied to financial markets, the recognition heuristic predicts that investors acquire the stocks that they are aware of, thereby inflating the price of the most recognized stocks. This paper aims to study the profitability against the market of the most recognized stocks in Europe. Design/methodology/approach - In this paper, the authors perform a survey and use Google Trends to study the profitability against the market of the most recognized stocks in Europe. Findings - The authors conclude that a recognition heuristic portfolio yields poorer returns than a market portfolio. In contrast, from the data collected on Google Trends, weak evidence was found that strong increases in companies monthly search volumes may lead to abnormal returns in the followingmonth. Research limitations/implications - The applied investment strategy does not account for transaction costs, which may jeopardize its profitability given the fact that it is necessary to revise the portfolio on a monthly basis. Despite the results obtained, they are useful to understanding the performance of recognition heuristic strategies over a comprehensive time horizon and it would be interesting to depict its viability during different market conditions. This analysis could provide additional information about a preferable scenario for employing our strategies and ultimately, enhance the profitability of recognition heuristic strategies. Practical implications - Through the exhaustive analysis performed here on the recognition heuristic in the European stock market, it is possible to conclude that no evidence was found for the viability of exploring this type of strategy. In fact, the investors would always gain better returns when adopting a passive investment strategy. Therefore, it would be wise to assume that the European market presents at least a degree of efficiency where no investment would yield abnormal returns following the recognition heuristic. Originality/value - The main objective of this paper is to study the performance of the recognition heuristic in the financial markets and to contribute to the knowledge in this field. Although many authors have already studied this heuristic when applied to financial markets, there is a lack of consensus in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the long range cross covariances among the stock price returns for the United States, Japan, and the Europe. Empirical results suggest that the stock price returns of these regions have cross covariances of slow moving fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conduct the first comparative analysis of the financial performance of European green, black (fossil energy and natural resource) and conventional mutual funds. Based on a unique dataset of 175 green, 259 black and 976 conventional mutual funds, the investigation contrasts the financial performance of the three dissimilar investment orientations over the 1991-2014 period. Over the full sample period, green mutual funds significantly underperform relative to conventional funds, while no significant risk-adjusted performance differences between green and black mutual funds could be established during the same period. Environmentally friendly investment vehicles display a significant exposure to small cap and growth stocks, while black funds are more exposed to value stocks. Remarkably, the green funds' risk-adjusted return profile progressively improves over time until no difference in the performance of the green and the conventional classes could be discerned. Further evidence suggests that the green funds are beginning to significantly outperform their black peers, especially over the 2012-2014 investment window. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses an empirical analysis of the expected downside risk based asset-pricing model on Central and Eastern European and developed Western European markets. The investigated risk measure applies a nonparametric approach that allows getting rid of any assumption on the distribution of returns, moreover, as presented in this paper, captures risk and expected return with superior performance. Furthermore, we also show that dollar-denominated returns often indicate a better fit than regressions in local currency suggesting that international capital inflow does play an important role in asset prices. This latter finding is particularly significant on Developed European capital markets, which is in contradiction with the belief of international investors having a greater influence on emerging markets compared to developed ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the impact on return and volatility of 8 capital markets (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and US) during three crisis (subprime crisis, global financial crisis and Brexit), that occurred in January, 1st 2007 - August, 26th, 2016 time frame. In order to reduce the initial causal space represented by the returns on CEE markets, we used the Principal Component Analysis. One principal component was identified and placed within a AR(2)-GARCH(1,1) model for return and associated volatility. The results show that the volatility during the global crisis and that related to the Brexit moment are statistically significant, but they present different coefficients: the volatility boosted during the global financial crisis and lowered after the Brexit announcement. This late result can be explained by the prudent stance of the investors who are concerned to evaluate the impact of the Brexit and the consequences for the financial markets of the associated measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interdependence of Greece and other European stock markets and the subsequent portfolio implications are examined in wavelet and variational mode decomposition domain. In applying the decomposition techniques, we analyze the structural properties of data and distinguish between short and long term dynamics of stock market returns. First, the GARCH-type models are fitted to obtain the standardized residuals. Next, different copula functions are evaluated, and based on the conventional information criteria and time varying parameter, Joe–Clayton copula is chosen to model the tail dependence between the stock markets. The short-run lower tail dependence time paths show a sudden increase in comovement during the global financial crises. The results of the long-run dependence suggest that European stock markets have higher interdependence with Greece stock market. Individual country’s Value at Risk (VaR) separates the countries into two distinct groups. Finally, the two-asset portfolio VaR measures provide potential markets for Greece stock market investment diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines lead-lag relationships between monthly index returns from 18 European industries. Several interesting and clear relationships are found that call into question the efficiency of European stock markets. While the Automobiles & Parts sector lags more than half of the other sectors, the Financial Services, Technology, and Telecommunications sectors lead many others. In particular, the leadership of the Technology sector has strengthened in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The goal of the paper is to analyse the determinants of the level of ROE (return on equity) for two groups of banks, interrelated by capital links, and their banking sectors. Methodology: For the case study, we chose companies that, in 2011-2013, were designated by the Financial Stability Board as global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) and their subsidiaries operating in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) as well as their banking sectors. We sought to identify differences in the performance drivers, taking into account bank-specific and country- (or sector-) specific factors. Findings: We found no significant differences in the level of ROE among the analysed groups; however, we identified a different set of determinants and their impact on ROE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial GE has built a fortress balance sheet. Legacy businesses were jettisoned if they were too mature, and declining. The massive finance business's dominance that threatened to overshadow the balance sheet has been reduced, and the associated regulatory burden is being minimized. New industrial businesses have been acquired to deepen the industrial commitment and diversify within it, with major positions in Europe and China. New manageable uncertainties including foreign currency risk have been accepted as part of the 'going global' bargain. An internal hedge against a pure 'brick-and-mortar' strategy has been created in the form of a newly announced 'digital' marketing approach. The purer GE return on equity (ROE) signal should be easier for the market to interpret. The 'upgraded' ROE is engineered to generate a new style of 'GE premium' in the stock price. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of cloud computing is acknowledged both at national and entrepreneurial level. Its potential in business has been already described in many studies (Dillonet al., 2010; Bayraket al., 2011; Nuseibeh, 2011; Repschlaegeret al., 2013). However, many European countries do not exploit it much in spite of many positive responses made by respected consulting companies. The reasons for this are a very low level of changes in companies, ignorance of opportunities of the given technology and, consequently, an inability to count the return of investment. Therefore, the aim of this article is to introduce a tool for the investment evaluation of cloud computing, which corresponds to the needs of the European business environment and to the properties of this technology. Furthermore, the cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) method is explored. This method is adjusted for cloud computing on the basis of companies’ requirements, which were collected from quantitative and qualitative surveys and from the interviews with experts in cloud computing from academic and business environments. In addition, individual stages of the CBA method used in cloud computing are described. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study discusses the operational benefits of integration of the banking and insurance sub-sectors in Europe to formulate policy recommendations for the bancassurance markets in an emerging country, China. When the financial integration of banking and insurance services began in European countries in the 1990s, most banks and insurance companies had already been listed for some time. Thus, we use the monthly stock returns of banks and insurance companies that had not yet been integrated as of 2008 to examine efficient frontier portfolio and pairwise combinations in European bancassurance markets. We find that portfolio diversification is an important benefit of banks integrating with different types of insurance companies. Consistent with the literature, we further show that banks strategically involved in non-life insurance will benefit in terms of enhanced returns and reduced risks. Our results present implications for building a bancassurance market in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply a return-based classification approach on a sample of absolute return funds registered for sale in Europe. The classification process results in eight groups with specific risk and return profiles. Each group can be characterized by two dimensions of an underlying investment style: asset allocation and trading strategy. While the returns of one group are largely determined by the asset allocation, the returns of the seven other groups are driven by different trading strategies. Our estimated classification explains 20 per cent of the in-sample and 13 per cent of the out-of-sample cross-sectional return variation, which is superior to existing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts the robust cross-correlation function methodology developed by Hong (J Econom 103:183-224, ) in order to test for volatility and mean spillovers between Greek long-term government bond yields and the banking sector stock returns of four Southern European countries, namely Greece, Portugal, Italy, and Spain. Its primary focus is on investigating the potential impacts of the recent European sovereign debt crisis. While most previous studies have focused on within-country causalities, we rather assess cross-country transmission effects. The presented results provide evidence of bidirectional volatility spillovers between Greek long-term interest rates and the banking sector equities of Portugal, Italy, and Spain that emerged during the European sovereign debt crisis. We also find significant unidirectional causality-in-mean from bank stock returns in Greece to Greek long-term bond yields during the crisis period as well as significant causality at the mean level from the bank equity returns in Portugal, Italy, and Spain to Greek bond yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the determinants of economic performances in the insurance industry. To this end, we test the impact of several firm characteristics, such as dimension, capital structure and investment policies on economic performance for a panel of non-life insurance firms operating in the main European markets spanning from 2004 to 2012. Empirical findings suggest that various factors contribute to the performance measured by return on equity and return on asset and, additionally, the insurance specific characteristics interact with country institutional features in determining profitability. In particular, the profitability of equity appears to be strongly linked to the profitability of assets, which is therefore investigated separately. The three main areas that constitute the core insurance activity (insurance in its narrower sense, financial and reinsurance activities) strongly influence profitability, but reinsurance does not seem to contribute either positively or negatively to performance. Further investigations are needed and welcome, therefore, to better understand the dynamics of performance and shed additional insight on the insurance industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we want to analyse how efficiency evolves in the European Union 28 over the period 2003 - 2012. This period is selected to highlight the evolution before and after the global financial crisis. We used a sample of over 1000 banks with data available for at least ten years and at least three banks for each country. For measuring bank efficiency, we used two of the most popular financial ratios, Return on Average Assets (ROAA) and Return on Average Equity (ROAE). Our results showed that European Union integration can be improved and further reforms could be implemented and bank are affected differently by the international financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensity of the euro crisis has been reflected in significant increases in sovereign bond yields in the most troubled countries. This has triggered a debate over whether this increase can be attributed solely to fundamental factors or whether part of the increase represents redenomination risk that one or more countries will drop out of the European Monetary Union and reintroduce their own national currencies. Using a novel market-based indicator from the virtual prediction market Intrade, this paper explores whether such systemic risk is present in the yield spreads of nine euro-area countries. We find that redenomination risk has played a role in the determination of sovereign yields, and that this risk is related to the expected valuations of newly introduced currencies: those of Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy are expected to depreciate, while newly introduced currencies of other countries are expected to appreciate following a break-up of the EMU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The returns to education are similar for opportunity entrepreneurs and employees. [•] Necessity entrepreneurs have 3%-points lower returns to education. [•] Pooled estimates hide this heterogeneity, which leads to misguided conclusions. [•] The results may explain Europe–US differences in entrepreneurial returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industry / Industrija is the property of Economics Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines shareholder wealth effects and intra-industry signals of consolidation announcements in the European financial sector over the period 2000 to 2006. Results show that announcements generate strong positive valuation effects for targets that become higher in cross-border and small value deals, and are negatively related to their relative size and prior performance. Evidence of acquirer returns is mixed depending on value size, geographic location and legal status of the deal, while returns of combined entities are mostly positive. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that European consolidation announcements transmit intra-industry signals that may encourage or discourage future takeover deals through the revaluation of other similar European financial institutions that are considered prospective targets ‘rival financial institutions’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper emphasizes the two-way causality between the provision of unemployment insurance and the cultural transmission of civicness. The returns to being uncivic are increasing in the generosity of unemployment insurance; but this generosity is decreasing in the number of uncivic individuals. In this context, I determine the evolution of preferences across generations and show that cultural heterogeneity is sustained over the long-run. The dynamics of cultural transmission can generate a long lag between the introduction of unemployment insurance and an increase in people's willingness to live off government-provided benefits. Hence, it offers an explanation to the 'European unemployment puzzle' due to the coexistence of generous unemployment insurance and low unemployment in the 1950s and 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Assessing sustainability of agricultural systems is complex. [•] We used Data Envelopment Analysis to assess sustainability of 252 European regions. [•] Partitioning into subset of DEA-efficient and subset of non-efficient regions. [•] Implementation of scenarios via balancing constraints. [•] Impact of constant versus variable returns to scale and input versus output orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether the stock markets price changes in operating efficiency as a result of bank mergers and if the premiums paid by the acquiring banks also reflect these changes. The sample covers mergers and acquisitions consummated in the US and Europe during the period of 1997 to 2003. Changes in cost and profit efficiency are calculated using the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method 1 year prior and 3 years following the merger announcement. Evidence suggests a significant relation between the announcement-period abnormal returns and the post-merger profit efficiency changes. Results also indicate that bank managers are likely to pay a higher premium for those M&A transactions that can bring about greater efficiency gains, particularly on the profit side. Further, although acquirer shareholders in the US and Europe appear to react differently to the announcement of a bank merger, our results for target shareholders suggest that regional differences might be less important than the degree of capital market development in explaining wealth effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the performance and persistence in performance of style-consistent European equity mutual funds between 1988 and 2010. Using a large survivorship bias-free sample for six European countries, we document strong evidence of persistence in benchmark-adjusted returns over 1-year time periods as well as over longer periods. We find statistically and economically significant performance persistence for time horizons of up to 36 months, although persistence is much more pronounced for the top and bottom performers. Thus, past performance of European mutual funds have explanatory power for future performance and investors can obtain useful evidence from past performance data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We investigate the properties of the returns of the main emerging stock markets from Europe by means of complex networks. We transform the series of daily returns into complex networks, and analyze the local properties of these networks with respect to degree distributions, clustering, or average line length. We further use the clustering coefficients as quantities describing the local structure of the network, and approach them by using multifractal analysis. We find evidence of scale-free networks and multifractality of clustering coefficients. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The long-range dependence (or long memory) in stock market returns has many implications for modern financial economics. The existent empirical studies on long-range dependence in stock market returns, however, do not examine it on a dynamical basis. In this article we applied a rolling window approach to prove that long-range dependence parameter for eight European stock market returns is time-varying. Our findings show that sharp, but temporary, increases of long-range dependence parameter for investigated stock market returns in the period October 1999 to April 2011 coincided with the major financial market disruptions in the world and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses responsible investing in Europe. It mentions that responsible investors need to look for the aspects such as social, environmental and governance (ESG) in their decision making to secure their investment and obtain higher financial returns. It mentions that during the reign of former United Nations (UN) secretary Kofi Annan in 2006, the term for responsible investing was social investing. Furthermore, Norwegian Govemment Pension Fund Global (GPFG) is one of the investors that promote ethical standards and obligation in their decision-making. INSETS: Impact;Ethical Controversies in Farmland investing.

The article presents a study which examines the effect of determinants of capital formation on the growth and development in transition economies. The study evaluates traditional determinants including rate of return, saving rate, and cost of acquiring new capital in transition economies, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. Results in the study found that capital formation and degree of openness, policy soundness, inflation, and saving rate are strongly correlated.

This paper develops a model of optimal pricing under information uncertainty for fixed-odds betting markets. The model suggests that bookmakers require a premium for quoting the odds several days before an event. This premium reflects the uncertainty of public information that can be exploited by expert bettors. The model predicts that when bookmakers set optimal prices, expected returns to bettors increase as a monotonic function of winning probabilities. In this manner, an information-based explanation is given for the celebrated favourite-longshot bias in fixed-odds. Using an extensive data-set of football odds from two major European bookmakers, we estimate the probability of informed betting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies show that the price transmission between foreign stocks and their American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) relies not only on current but also on past information such as individual stock returns, market returns and changes in exchange rates. In addition to these factors, this study investigates whether changes in trading volume and macro events affect the price transmission between European stocks and their ADRs. The results show that changes in domestic volume of several European countries on the same calendar day do affect subsequent ADR returns, implying that volume contains incremental information not in prices. We also find that the announcements of several EU agreements have significant impacts on the price transmission between UK domestic stocks and their ADRs, but not on that of other European countries. Since UK does not use the euro currency, investors may expect changes in future UK pound value and thus revalue stock prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the financial crisis, the IASB issued on 13 October 2008 an amendment to IAS 39 which enables entities to reclassify non-derivative financial assets held for trading and financial assets available-for-sale. This paper examines the influence of this controversial amendment on the 2008 financial statements of 219 European banks which apply IFRS. I find that approximately one-third of the sample banks have taken extensive advantage of these reclassification opportunities. The mean reclassification amount is 3.9% of total assets and 131% of the book value of equity, respectively. I further document that reclassifying banks avoid substantial fair value losses, and hence, report significantly higher levels of return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), book value of equity and regulatory capital. In particular, the mean ROE switches sign from a negative ROE of -1.4% to a positive ROE of 1.3% due to gains from reclassifications. Overall, this paper documents a substantial impact of the amendments on banks' financial statements and suggests analysing these reclassifications with particular caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper re-examines the issue of the robustness of the weekday effect. Specifically, by utilizing a quantile regression approach, the homogeneity of observed day-of-the-week anomalies is monitored and tested over different parts of the conditional return distribution. The day-of-the-week effects are measured for conditional returns as well as for conditional volatilities. The model applied accounts for asymmetry in first-order autocorrelation in both moments. The weekday patterns in the returns on the European market index and 18 European country indexes are analyzed for the time period from January 2000 through December 2006. Generally, the sign of the estimated weekday effects in both the conditional mean and volatility seems to be very robust over the return distribution. However, about one half of the country-specific indexes exhibit significant variation or asymmetry in the day-of-the-week coefficients across the quantiles of the conditional return distribution. Only in a few cases, the significant day-of-the-week effect is clearly driven by extreme events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional measures of mutual funds persistence are based on measures like Jensen's alpha, factor models and so on. As expected, their results on a broad data-set of European mutual funds show a small, but relevant, amount of persistent funds, depending on the method of estimation used. We go further in our analysis and, by using a multiple hypothesis testing methodology, find that those measures overstate the performance on the sample across countries, signalling persistence in situations where the positive results are due to luck. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze how bidder shareholders value the announcement of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As), examining the influence of the legal and institutional environment of the firms. On average, European bidder shareholders obtain a positive abnormal return of 1.41 % around the announcement date of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]