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This paper investigates the presence of spatial dependence in the non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio of small Italian cooperative banks. As these financial intermediaries operate in a delimited area, the strategies they adopt to recover NPLs can produce spatial spillover effects on the ability of neighbouring banks to recover credit. Furthermore, small banks’ reliance on the relationship lending technique to select and monitor borrowers suggests a similar ability to identify underperforming borrowers, which may have a negative impact on the community in which those banks operate. Our empirical estimations provide strong evidence for both spatial and spatial–temporal variables driving impaired loans in local banks. The results indicate different effects of the spatial terms, showing a direct positive effect of the contemporaneous spatial lag variable and a negative effect of the space–time autoregressive coefficient. Whereas the former effects can be ascribed to changes in the macroeconomic cycle, the latter confirms the insight that the recovery capacities of local banks can be harmed by neighbouring banks’ credit recovery policies.

Purpose This study aims to propose a non-linear model to describe the effect of macroeconomic shocks on delinquency rates of three kinds of bank loans. Indeed, a wealth of literature has recognized significant evidence of the linkage between macro conditions and credit vulnerability, perceiving the importance of the high amount of bad loans for economic stagnation and financial vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach Generally, this linkage was represented by linear relationships, but the strong dependence of bank loan default on the economic cycle, subject to changes in regime, could suggest non-linear models as more appropriate. Indeed, macroeconomic variables affect the performance of bank’s portfolio loan, but such a relationship is subject to changes disturbing the stability of parameters along the time. This study is an attempt to model three different kinds of bank loan defaults and to forecast them in the case of the USA, detecting non-linear and asymmetric behaviors by the adoption of a Markov-switching (MS) approach. Findings Comparing it with the classical linear model, the authors identify evidence for the presence of regimes and asymmetries, changing in correspondence of the recession periods during the span of 1987–2017. Research limitations/implications The data are at a quarterly frequency, and more observations and more extended research periods could ameliorate the MS technique. Practical implications The good forecasting performance of this model could be applied by authorities to fine-tune their policies and deal with different types of loans and to diversify strategies during the different economic trends. In addition, bank management can refer to the performance of macroeconomic conditions to predict the performance of their bad loans. Originality/value The authors show a clear outperformance of the MS model concerning the linear one.

This paper examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects bank efficiency in a sample of large commercial banks across 22 countries over the 2013–2017 period. We used a one‐step model of stochastic frontier analysis for panel data to estimate bank profit efficiency and found that the greater the activities in the social and environmental dimensions of CSR, the lower the level of efficiency, whereas activities in the corporate governance dimension are generally not relevant. This result supports the relevance of agent perspectives for these firms. However, we also found that institutional context moderates this baseline result. Specifically, all CSR activities have a positive impact on bank efficiency in common law countries and countries where the effectiveness of stakeholder protection is high. This supports the view that contexts that favor firms' sustainable behavior also increase bank efficiency.

This paper aims to identify the relationship between the output-oriented technical efficiency of Italian private hospitals and their ownership structure. Using the one-step Stochastic Frontier Anal...

Several studies have explored the linkage between non-performing loans and major macroeconomic indicators, using a wide variety of methodologies, sometimes with different results. This occurs, we argue, because these relationships are generally derived in terms of correlation coefficients evaluated in certain time spans, which represent a sort of average level of correlations. However, such correlations are necessarily time-varying, because the relationships between bank loan indicators and macroeconomic variables could be stronger during particular periods or in correspondence with important economic events. We propose an empirical exercise using dynamic conditional correlation models, with constant and time-varying parameters. Applying these models to quarterly delinquency rates and an array of macroeconomic variables for the US, for the period 1985&ndash, 2019, we find that the correlation is often negligible in this period except during periods of economic crises, in particular the early 1990 crisis and the subprime mortgage crisis.

Internet Service Providers technical support needs personal data to predict potential anomalies. In this paper, we performed a comparative study of forecasting performance using raw data and anonymized data, in order to assess how much performance may vary, when plain personal data are replaced by anonymized personal data.

Franco Andrea Bonelli, a disciple of Lamarck, was one of the few naturalists who taught and disseminated transformism in Italy in the early nineteenth century. The explanation of the history of life on Earth offered by Lamarck’s theory was at odds with the Genesis narrative, while the issue of man’s place in nature raised heated debates. Bonelli sought to reconcile science and religion through his original interpretation of the variability of species, but he also focused on anthropological subjects. Following Blumenbach’s studies, he investigated the differences within the human species and explored the topic of humans’ alleged superiority over animals. The origin of human beings, their history, and their relationship with the rest of life were thus read in light of transformism. According to Bonelli, such questions would not do irreparable damage to the new theory. On the contrary, he considered evolution not only acceptable but even necessary to protect the Holy Texts from certain dangerous trends in anthropological and zoological research.

This paper analyzes the drivers of financial distress that were experienced by small Italian cooperative banks during the latest deep recession, focusing mainly on the importance of bank capital as a predictor of bankruptcy for Italian nonprofit banks. The analysis aims to build an early-warning model that is suitable for this type of bank. The results reveal non-monotonic effects of bank capital on the probability of failure. In contrast to distress models for for-profit banks, non-performing loans, profitability, liquidity, and management quality have a negligible predictive value. The findings also show that unreserved impaired loans have an important impact on the probability of bank distress. Moreover, the loan–loss ratio provision on substandard loans constitutes a suitable antibody against bank distress. Overall, the results are robust in terms of both the methodology (i.e., frequentist and Bayesian approaches) and the sample used (i.e., cooperative banks in Italy and euro-area countries).

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of ownership structure on bank performance in EU-15 countries. Specifically, it examines to what extent shareholder type and the degree of shareholder concentration affect the banks’ profitability, risk and technical efficiency.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a sample of 1,459 banks operating in EU-15 countries from 2011 to 2015. It constructs a set of continuous variables capturing the ownership nature, the concentration and their interactions, and estimates an instrumental variable random effect (IV-RE) model. In addition, a panel data stochastic frontier analysis is conducted to estimate the time-varying technical efficiency for profitability and costs.FindingsThe empirical analysis shows that bank performance is affected by shareholder type. When regressed against the entrenchment behavior of the controlling owner hypothesis, banks with large-block shareholders are more profitable, less risky and more profit efficient. Further, ownership concentration reverts the negative effect related to the institutional, bank and industry ownership.Research limitations/implicationsThe results support the hypothesis that concentrated ownership helps to overcome agency problems. They also confirm that managerial involvement in banks’ capital enhances a bank’s profit and its volatility.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to consider the ownership nature, the concentration and their interaction using continuous variables, which allows for more precise inferences. The results provide new evidence that bank profitability, cost efficiency and risk are affected by the type of direct shareholders.

This paper analyzes the relationship between the likelihood that Italian firms implement bank debt restructuring and the trade credit. It uses a sample of 2377 Italian firms over the period of 2010–2014. The empirical analysis shows that the amount of payables and the unexpected delay in the payment of trade credit are strictly related to the firm’s financial distress. Specifically, the findings suggest that companies in financial distress have used trade credit extensively and suffer from the deferment of receivables. This result supports the hypothesis of a potential credit contagion channel in the supply chain with a cascading effect between buyers and suppliers.

The question of whether it pays to be green has been addressed by many studies, but despite the growing number of works, the debate about the relationship between environmental performance, environmental disclosure, and banks’ performance is still unresolved, and mixed results have been found. This work explored the relationship between environmental disclosure, environmental performance, and financial performance by using a sample of 57 EU15 listed banks. Moreover, by applying the value relevance methodology, we analyzed the relationship between market values, environmental disclosure, and environmental performance. Our findings reveal strong evidence of the value relevance of environmental disclosure.

The goal of this paper is to identify the characteristics of firms that drive the adoption of energy efficiency investments. Particular attention is given to the distortive effect of the adoption of fixed-term job contracts on firms’ orientation toward the investment in energy savings. From a panel data analysis, three regularities emerge. First, extensive use of job flexibility determines a lower incentive for firms to make an energy efficiency investment. Second, firm performance significantly ameliorates the expenditure in energy savings. Third, substantial differences in energy efficiency investment are present within sectors, international regions, regional areas, and firms of differing size.

According to the established literature, banks undertake social investment to compensate for the benefits enjoyed by the society. At first glance, one could expect more involvement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) from banks that have greater monopolistic power. However, this perspective would differentiate between banks and non-financial firms, since the latter use CSR engagement as a competitive lever. Thus, it follows that greater market pressure boosts a firm’s CSR investments. This conundrum has triggered the present analysis which, after estimating a Lerner index and then running a system-GMM regression, verified the impact of a firm’s monopolistic competition based on three scores pertaining to the listed banks’ CSR commitment. Our results support the view that the level of social responsibility of the banks’ management is affected by their markup on price.

Medecins sans Frontiere, an international non-governmental organization, initiated a mental health program for Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. To evaluate the impact of the program after its completion, focus groups were conducted with three target groups: (1) patients, (2) staff, and (3) local community stakeholders. Participants voiced overall satisfaction with the program. The program provided easy access, good quality care, decreased stigma, as perceived by participants, and revealed a sense of community contentedness. In addition, several short-term outcomes were achieved, such as increasing the numbers of patients visiting the center/ receiving mental health treatment. However, lack of planning for sustainability and proper procedures for hand-over of the program constituted a major downfall. Program discontinuation posed ethical dilemmas, common in provisional interventions in underprivileged refugee communities.

BackgroundStudies have shown high levels of distress and mental disorder among people living in refugee camps, yet none has confirmed diagnosis through clinical reappraisal.AimsTo estimate the prevalence of mental disorders, related disability and treatment gap in adult refugees living in the Burj el-Barajneh camp.MethodRandomly selected participants were screened by household representative (n = 748) and individual (n = 315) interviews; clinical reappraisal was performed on a subset (n = 194) of 326 selected participants. Weighted prevalence estimates and 95% confidence intervals were calculated.ResultsThe prevalence of current mental disorders was 19.4% (95% CI 12.6–26.2); depression was the most common diagnosis (8.3%, 95% CI 4.4–12.2) and multiple diagnoses were common (42%) among the 88 persons with mental disorder. Lifetime prevalence of psychosis was 3.3% (95% CI 1.0–5.5). Mental disorders were associated with moderate to severe dysfunction (odds ratio = 8.8, 95% CI 4.5–17.4). The treatment gap was 96% (95% CI 92–100).ConclusionsA range of mental disorders and associated disability are common in this long-term refugee setting. Combined with an important treatment gap, findings support the current consensus-based policy to prioritise availability of mental health treatment in refugee camps, especially for the most severe and disabling conditions.

This paper aims at investigating the presence of extra profits for the factoring companies operating with health sector credits. Using a panel data sample representative of Italian factoring companies, the analysis also examines, along with other factors, the determinants of corporate financial performance relating to capital structures and management. Among the main results, it was shown that these Italian intermediaries act within a context which is a far from being a perfectly competitive market structure. Finally, it was found that financial structure, productivity index, and risk components have a significant impact on corporate profitability.