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Purpose: This study investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on corporate sustainability [environmental, social and governance (ESG)] performance and aims to explore whether uncertainty-induced sustainability performance is influenced by the firm's life cycle (LC). Design/methodology/approach: The study uses data from European non-financial firms listed during the period from 2002 to 2022 to extend the nascent literature regarding EPU and sustainability performance while applying a dynamic panel data regression analysis (Generalized Method of Moments - GMM System) on 11,462 firm-year observations of 1,869 European firms. Findings: The authors find overwhelming evidence that policy uncertainty affects the sustainability performance of European firms. The firms restrict their environmental and governance-related activities and address immediate issues to survive during periods of high EPU. Conversely, the firms increase their social engagements to decrease uncertainty-induced information asymmetry. The authors' results show that the intensity and type of sustainability performance are also influenced by the firm's LC. The results imply that board gender diversity (BGD) increases while power concentration with the chief executive officer (CEO) decreases sustainability performance. Practical implications: These findings have important implications for policymakers, potential investors, firm management and other stakeholders given the firms' access to resources and preferences to encounter uncertainty vary across different LC stages. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the role of the firm's LC in the relationship between policy uncertainty and sustainability performance in the European context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising degree of integration among different countries around the world calls for the examination of cross‐country connectedness across equity markets. Moreover, the interconnection among some countries – bound by their common economic policies, treaties and agreements, such as Eurozone countries – is stronger than among others. Strong inter‐country ties may cause an intense connectedness among their financial systems. This study examines the returns and volatility connectedness among the equity markets of the Eurozone countries. Using the TVP‐VAR model, we document strong connectedness among their stock markets. The net transmitters of shocks are the most developed Eurozone stock markets, while Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia are among the most vulnerable to risks from the more developed Eurozone economies. Thus, for any event that triggers risk transmission across the Eurozone equity markets, equity investors in less developed countries will be more vulnerable to risks from the nine more developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a multi‐asset allocation framework to analyse the short‐term and long‐term desirability of listed infrastructure investments in an investor's portfolio. We employ 14 infrastructure indices encompassing six regions and eight sectors. The asset menu of the investor comprises traditional financial asset classes (stocks, bonds and bills) and infrastructure. We calculate the welfare losses due to ignoring the demand for infrastructure for various levels of risk aversion. In addition, we calculate the portfolio weights across various levels of risk aversion. Our results show that infrastructure is a desirable addition to the portfolio of traditional financial asset classes for both short‐run and long‐run investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]