Legislative pressure and credit rating agency behavior

This study investigates whether legislative pressure influences credit rating agency (CRA) behavior. It covers a time period in which the European Union moves from exerting minimal to intense legislative pressure on CRAs, providing an almost ideal context for analyzing if and how CRAs are affected by this pressure. Two possible outcomes are discussed: 1) more timeliness in the flow of information and 2) more stickiness in the flow of information. The analysis is based on an examination of market reactions following CRA announcements between 2000 and 2019. The results show that the market reactions after CRA announcements decrease when legislative pressure increases. The interpretation is that as legislative pressure increases, the flow of information from CRAs becomes stickier. This confirms that legislative initiatives that put pressure on CRAs have an effect, evidence that legislators’ intention to change behavior by threatening or initiating new regulations works, which confirms assumptions underlying the theory of legislative threats (Halfteck, 2008). A reasonable interpretation of legislators’ push for changes in this context is that they want to see a faster flow of information. The results, however, show the opposite. A plausible explanation for this is increased caution on the part of CRAs because if in retrospect, the information in an announcement turns out to be wrong or misleading, the ensuing criticism could lead to additional pressure.

The impact of IFRS mandatory adoption on KPIs disclosure quality

The aim of this study is to investigate context, the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the Key Performance Indicators’ (KPIs) disclosure quality in the United Kingdom (UK). We used the UK listed firms FTSE 350 in the stock exchange market during the pre-IFRS period and the post-IFRS period (2003 to 2004, and 2006 to 2013). In particular, we examine special events such as the emergence of the 2006 UK Accounting Standard Body (ASB) Guidelines for KPIs best practice, the 2010 IFRS Management Commentary, and the phenomenon of the 2008 financial crisis. The results of this paper show that the UK’s mandatory adoption of IFRS has had a positive and significant effect on the KPIs’ disclosure quality. The results demonstrate, also, that together with the emergence of the 2006 UK ASB Guidelines, the 2008 financial crisis, and the 2010 IFRS Management Commentary have had a positive and significant influence on the quantity and quality of the KPIs’ disclosure.

The impact of regulation governance on financial system efficiency: The importance of consumer behavior

This study focuses on the value structure that correlates improvements in the financial services consumer’s decision-making quality with the development of their autonomy. The discussion is based on the concepts of ceremonial and instrumental values, according to Bush (1987). We anchor our analysis on the premise that there is still room for enhancing the results within the National Financial System – NFS – by broadening the scope of initiatives on financial services consumers’ education and protection (von Borowski Dodl, 2020). Strengthening this perspective, we emphasize the consumer’s role as an agent and the relevance of taking decisions according to their life plans. The analysis is undertaken through the institutional literature lens, considering both schools of thought: Original Institutional Economics (OIE) (drawing on Tauheed, 2013a, 2013b) and New Institutional Economics (NIE) (focusing on North, 1990). From the conjunction of the theoretical apparatus and the applied analysis, we propose a governance policy within the NFS aimed at increasing its efficiency. Effective communication between stakeholders and consumers’ participation in the structuring of institutions – by publicly evincing their political power – hold the potential for promoting governance effectiveness. Additionally, although the approach taken focuses on the NFS, the diagnosis process carried out in this study can be easily reproduced in other contexts.

The impact of the intellectual capital components on firm’s performance in emerging markets

The objective of this research is to review, analyse, and provide empirical evidence about the impact of the intellectual capital (IC) characteristics on the firm performance on listed 26 companies in Tunisian Stock Exchange for the years 2010–2019. 260 companies were taken as a sample of this research using the purposive sampling method. The efficiency of intellectual capital was measured using the value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) method developed by Pulic (2000). The research method used was multiple linear regression analysis. Our empirical analysis substantiates the fundamental role of IC components in improving the financial and stock market performance of listed Tunisian companies. The results obtained on the human capital efficiency variable contribute to improving the market of Tunisian listed companies and confirm the role attributed to human capital in the knowledge economy and even the basic hypothesis of the VAIC method. Investors do not place any importance on the following variables: structural capital, human capital and the efficiency of structural capital during market valuation. Future research is suggested to use cross-country companies as the sample.

Book review: “Innovation in financial restructuring: Focus on signals, processes and tools”

This review analyses the book titled "Innovation in financial restructuring: Focus on signals, processes and tools" co-authored by Marco Tutino and Valerio Ranciaro (Virtus Interpress, 2020; ISBN: 978-6-177309-10-8). The review highlights the original approach of the book to financial restructuring management and turnaround process. It describes in detail the structure of the book and content of chapters within the book. The review indicates that the book provides indications that will help academics, regulators and professionals to better manage the financial restructuring and prevent financial crisis.

Global fintech entrepreneurship and its influencing factors: An evolutionary economic analysis

Fintech entrepreneurship has already influenced financial markets and their players worldwide in a disruptive, but also a risky way (Thakor, 2020; Zeranski & Sancak, 2020). In this context, it seems worthwhile to analyze which factors drive the design and development of global fintech entrepreneurship. Thus, the paper takes fintech-related research a step further by exploring the drivers of fintech evolution in different countries and continents that display different levels of fintech activity. For this purpose, first economic, technological, legal, and cultural factors influencing the development of fintech entrepreneurship are examined from an evolutionary point of view, and second, a generalized linear mixed model is used in order to evaluate the statistical relevance of these factors on fintech entrepreneurship more comprehensively. The analyzed data period from 2000 to 2017 also makes it possible to assess the influence of the dot.com bubble and the financial crisis on fintech entrepreneurship. The results of the empirical analysis suggest that the gross domestic product (GDP), regulatory burden, government tech procurement and the degree of individualism are important drivers of fintech startup activity. These findings help gauge the present and future market position of fintechs, leading to implications for entrepreneurs, competitors, and regulators alike.

An empirical analysis of the FDI and economic growth relations in Albania: A focus on the absorption capital variables

Over the past three decades, Albania has had positive and increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows that have brought significant changes in many economic sectors. The paper’s purpose is to analyze the dynamic relationship between FDI and economic growth, particularly emphasizing absorption capital variables. The research question is if the human capital development level, technological development, trade openness, public expenses, and financial system development in Albania help or hinder the materialization of the expected positive effect of FDI on economic growth? We used empirical analyses to evaluate these relationships based on the model created by Borensztein, De Gregorio, and Lee (1998). We changed a few variables in the model, and we used the multivariate vector autoregressive (VAR) model and the vector error correction model (VECM) to analyze the variables’ causal relationships. Some of the results achieved are consistent with other authors’ findings, so human capital is considered an essential element of host countries’ absorptive capacity. In the long run, in Albania, the FDI’s impact on economic growth positively affects human capital development, especially on knowledge and expertise and financial system development. However, the technological difference index gives a negative long-term impact on economic growth, and trade opening is statistically insignificant.

Liquidity risk: Intraday liquidity and price spillovers in euro area sovereign bond markets

The purpose of this paper is to determine the cross-market liquidity and price spillover effects across euro area sovereign bond markets. The analysis is carried out with the constructed minute frequency order-book dataset from 2011 until 2018. This derived dataset covers the six largest euro area markets for benchmark 10-year sovereign bonds. To estimate the cross-market spillover effect between sovereign bonds, it was decided to use the empirical approach proposed by Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) and combine it with the vector error correction model (VECM). We also employed the panel regression model to identify why some bond markets had a higher spillover effect while others were smaller. The dependent variable was the daily average spillover effect of a particular bond. As the spillover effects vary highly across different bonds, country-specific fixed effects were used, and the clustered standard errors were calculated for robustness reasons. Lastly, the cross-market spillovers were analyzed daily to compare them with the results of the model with intraday data. The analysis was performed with rolling 100-day window variance decompositions and a 10-day forecast horizon for six sovereign bonds and the overnight indexed swap (OIS) market. The results of the created time-series model revealed that intraday cross-market spillovers exist but are relatively weak, especially in the case of liquidity spillovers. As the cross-market linkages became much more robust with the model using daily data, the liquidity or price disbalances between different markets are usually corrected on longer intervals than minutes. Distance between countries is the most important explanatory variable and is negatively linked to the magnitude of both liquidity and price spillovers. These findings should be of particular interest to bond market investors, risk managers, and analysts who try to scrutinize the liquidity and price transmission mechanism of sovereign bonds in their portfolios.

Cluster analysis of share price: How firm characteristics relate to accounting metrics

The purpose of this paper is to improve our understanding of the relationship between share price and accounting information. Much of the literature utilizes the earnings number to reflect firm value. However, the revenue number seems more relevant for high tech firms (Xu, Cai, & Leung, 2007), and cash flow figures are more informative for internet companies (Romanova, Helms, & Takeda, 2012). We build on this notion that share price may map out to different accounting numbers for different firms. We collect 629 accounting metrics for 3,365 firms in the U.S. and estimate their correlation with the firms’ share price. We analyze these correlations and find that many firms exhibit a low correlation between share price and earnings. Other accounting numbers are important for these firms, including book value of net assets, retained earnings, stock options, gain or loss items, special or non recurring items, and dividend rates. We are curious to learn what causes firms to anchor onto different metrics, therefore perform a cluster analysis to group similar firms together along three key accounting metrics. We examine the composition of each cluster and find that capital structure, dividend patterns, the persistence of operations, age, and industry can influence which accounting number is correlated with firm value. We encourage other researchers to continue this exploration as there are many interesting questions to answer.

Cryptocurrencies in hyperinflationary Venezuela

This literature review covers hyperinflation in Venezuela, from the 1980s to the present. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of cryptocurrency in the country and how the Venezuelan government has been using crypto, specifically the Petro, as a means to avoid further blunders with hyperinflation. From Hugo Chávez and “Socialism of the 21st Century” to the current regime of Nicolás Maduro, Chávez’ successor, the printing of money in Venezuela has sky-rocketed to the point of the government needing cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, as a means of circumventing inflation to fund the government’s ambitious social projects. A key element in its success, however, will be whether the Venezuelan people will opt to use the government-backed Petro, or whether they will opt to use a different, decentralized alternative digital currency to avoid the perils of hyperinflation. The paper will examine this issue from several diverse points of view: specifically, the Austrian School (Echarte Fernández, Hernández, & Zambrano, 2018), the neo-Keynesian school (Pagliacci & Barráez, 2010), and public policy and institutional perspective (Corrales, 1999). The use of cryptocurrencies by governments, in particular socialist governments, is a new occurrence and merits much attention for the future of public and monetary policy in those countries.