Similarities and Differences in the European Entrepreneurial Activities

Entrepreneurship is a key activity in the economy as it influences in the economic performance by creating new products, new solutions, new methods, new processes and new jobs. High levels entrepreneurship in economies have a positive impact on productivity and competitiveness. According to data from Eurostat (2018), in 2018 in Europe, 3.3 million jobs were created thanks to the 2.5 million companies that were created. Moreover, in 2018, there were a total of 25.3 million active enterprises employing a total of 131 million people. Some of the most relevant entrepreneurial hotpots in Europe are Estonia, Sweden, Latvia and the Netherlands (World Economic Forum, 2017). The main objective of this work is to identify and compare the different European geographical areas and evaluate the characteristics and variables that promote entrepreneurship from the experts' point of view. The GEM database was utilized to extract data for analysis in this research. The results obtained show differences between the Northern and Southern countries for the two analysis perspectives used.

Effect of Social and Environmental Disclosure on the Performance of Listed Consumer Goods Producing Companies in Nigeria

Information is power; its presentation, processes and utilization can make or mare circumstances. One of the strategies of bridging information asymmetry is to disclose relevant information required by stakeholders in taking crucial decision. The impact of social and environmental disclosure on the performance of Nigeria consumer goods’ producing companies was examined in this paper, using multiple regression analysis while the sample constitute 16 out of 20 companies listed as consumer goods sector. The study found that social and environmental disclosure had significant effect on return on assets while firm size and age had no significant control in the effect of social and environmental disclosure on ROA. Also, social and environmental disclosure had insignificant effect on earnings per share (EPS) but firm size and age had significant control in the effect of social and environmental disclosure on EPS. The study concluded that social and environmental disclosure has significant impact on the performance of manufacturing companies in Nigeria. It was opined that managers should ensure that information about their social practices is well communicated in an understandable manner to the stakeholders, and thus the stakeholders would be able to comprehend, value and process it in taking meaningful decision about the firm, and that disclosure should be country-specific; every country should design the benchmark, rules and guidelines befitting their environment for such to be impactful.

The Effects of Currency Protectionism on the Exports of the Trade Partners - A Composite Index

The competitive exchange rate devaluation (or currency protectionism) is a phenomenon of global political economy, which goes hand in hand with trade activities. The causes, consequences and effects of monetary protectionism for the concerned countries have been thoroughly analyzed on the basis of existing literature. An important element of analysis is the different effects of the implementation of protectionist policy measures on trading partners. An example of currency protectionism nowadays is the currency competition between the US and China. Although the US is the "hegemon" of the modern international economic-political system, China's continuous, upward and rapid economic course has weakened the primacy of the US, with consequences that are perceived in the global economic system. Of course, China has been accused of practices of economic "mercantilism." On the basis of these mercantilist accusations, a kind of war broke out with the US. But the main question is this: how are the exports of trading partners affected by this currency competition? To be able to answer this question more fully, a quantitative tool should be created that can interpret the effects of currency competition on trading partners. This study will try answering this question by using the case study of U.S. - China currency competition. The methodology applied is the creation of a Composite Index.

Digitization and Blockchain in Finance, The Netherlands in 2020 and 2021

The exploratory research in 2020 received a lot of attention in trade journals in the Netherlands and in the international context of academic journals, webinars and conferences. This led to this research in 2021, including a reorientation on the structure of the research. Due to the further development of the faculty in 2020 and 2021, the questions from the research were further professionalized, peer reviewed by experts and supplemented. In addition, it is interesting and scientifically important to place the research more in both a national and international perspective, both with regard to professional groups and with regard to other studies, such as that of Controllers Magazine, After various inventorying discussions at the end of 2020, whether or not at the request of the stakeholders, this led to a reorientation on the conducting of the research. At the beginning of 2021, the study was therefore extended almost simultaneously to: (a) all members of the Working field commission (Werkveldcommissie; WVC) of the Accountancy (AC), Finance, Tax and Advice (FTA, formerly Fiscal Law and Economics) and Finance & Control (FC) programmes of the Academy of Finance, Economics and Management (FEM) at Saxion University of Applied Sciences, (b) all members of the foundation of collaborating chartered accountants and accounting and bookkeeping firms (SRA), a network organization of 375 independent audit firms with 900 branches in the Netherlands, and (c) international sister universities of Saxion University of Applied Sciences.

The Differences in Mean and Volatility Shock Transmission among Bitcoin, Currencies from Developed Countries, and Currencies from Emerging Countries

This paper studied the mean and volatility transmission among Bitcoin as the most prominent cryptocurrency, exchange rates from developed countries/regions, and exchange rates from emerging countries/regions. Using daily returns between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2018, and Bivariate VAR - Diagonal VECH models. The empirical results suggest there was no mean transmission between USD/EUR and USD/BTC. However, there was a unidirectional mean shock transmission link from USD/CNH, USD/MAD, and USD/IDR to USD/BTC. The results also suggested the existence of a bidirectional cross-volatility persistence link between bitcoin and all the exchange rates, except for USD/IDR and a bidirectional cross-volatility spillover link between USD/BTC and USD/CNH. A critical implication of these results is that they will be of use to investors, speculators, risk managers, and policymakers in understanding the degree of integration in terms of volatility and return among Bitcoin, currencies from developed, and currencies from emerging countries.

How and What Influences from COVID-19 Have Impacted Stock Prices and Exchange Rates? the Case of Japan

This study reports the empirical analyzes of the COVID-19 on stock prices and exchange rates of Japan. Newly confirmed cases and death cases have significantly positive impacts on Japanese stock prices. One reason is that Japanese stock prices recently move together with U.S. stock prices. Under this situation, the U.S. could recover from the damage of COVID-19 ahead of other countries and its stock prices have increased hugely, so the effects on Japanese stock prices have been quite large. The rising of the U.S. stock prices have had a big influence so as to deny the adverse effects by COVID-19 in Japan. The other reason is that although the stock prices of tourism, food service, and so on were damaged in Japan, other industry stock prices have been increasing. The coefficients of declaration of the state of emergency/anti-infection measures are positive which denotes that the stock market may have taken the measure favorably. However, they are positive, but they are also insignificant. For the exchange rates, the newly confirmed case is significant and positive which means that it promotes depreciation of the Japanese Yen. It seems natural because if the situation of COVID-19 becomes serious, market participants consider investment in Japan as risky. Finally, both of the cases of confirmed cases and death cases of COVID-19 are negatively and significantly related with the flow of people. The coefficient of declaration of the state of emergency/anti-infection measures is negative, however, they are not significant to the flow of people.

Determinants of Spot and Forward Interest Rates in Brazil in an International Liquidity Scenario: An Econometric Analysis for the Period 2007-2019

Over the last 25 years, Brazil has been among the countries with the highest interest rates globally. High interest rates have been necessary during several recent times, such as in the period from 1997 to 1999, due to the repeated international financial crises that have plagued the country. From 1999, a sustained path of interest rate reduction begun. With the outbreak of the 2008 international financial crisis, the Brazilian monetary authorities promoted a new round of falling domestic interest rates in response to the recessive effects and the threat of a systemic crisis that could hang over the national financial system. In 2012, a set of interventionist nature policies led to a decrease in the Selic rate. Thus, looking at the last 25 years, it appears that many factors have started to influence the trajectory of Brazilian interest rates. In this context, the present work aims to identify, based on empirical research, the determinants of spot and future interest rates. As a methodology, the research uses a multivariate econometric vector autoregressive model (VAR) with error correction (VEC). The analysis covers the years 2017 to 2019, corresponding to the period in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008. The results evidence that both the spot rate and the DI future can be determined by the fluctuations in the level of inflation and by the level of activity and the real exchange rate, in addition to the effects of the lagged variables themselves.