Teaching financial literacy in a co-curricular service-learning model

The current economic environment has brought to light the financial literacy epidemic in this country. A lack of personal financial education has contributed to the increase in consumer credit debt, a trend evident for many college students who often have significant credit card debt. One way to combat this problem is through financial literacy education. This paper describes a service-learning project implemented through a Beta Alpha Psi chapter, which fulfills the educational objectives of the accounting curriculum and addresses an educational need. The project provides reciprocity of learning between members of Beta Alpha Psi and their audience, college underclassmen. The results indicate that the project is successful in educating both presenters and audience members on basic financial knowledge as well as developing technical and communication skills of Beta Alpha Psi members. The project outline presented in this paper provides a framework for others to use.     

Bank regulation and international financial stability: A case against the 2006 Basel framework for controlling tail risk in trading books

In attempting to promote international financial stability, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (2006) provided a framework that sought to control the amount of tail risk that large banks around the world would take in their trading books relative to their corresponding minimum capital requirements. However, many of these banks suffered significant trading losses during the recent financial crisis. Our paper examines whether the Basel framework allowed banks to take substantive tail risk in their trading books without a capital requirement penalty. We find that it allowed banks to do so and that its minimum capital requirements can be notably procyclical. Hence, focusing on the way the Basel framework sought to control the amount of tail risk in trading books relative to their corresponding minimum capital requirements, our paper supports the view that it was not properly designed to promote financial stability. We also discuss alternative regulatory frameworks that would potentially be more effective than the Basel framework in preventing banks from taking substantive tail risk in their trading books without a capital requirement penalty.     

金融稳定有关问题研究综述

金融稳定是一个古老而又现代、历久而又弥新的课题,其引起广泛关注是与 20世纪90年代以来世界各国频仍发生、带来惨重损失的金融危机及由此引发的社会动荡联系在一起的。金融稳定方面的理论研究在国內外尚处于起步的阶段。本文综述了国际上对金融稳定几个主要问题的研究进展状况,重点就金融稳定的框架、货币政策和金融稳定与中央银行和金融稳定等问题梳理、分析和评述了现有文献,以便促进金融稳定研究的进一步深入。     

Financial stress and economic contractions

This paper examines why some financial stress episodes lead to economic downturns. The paper identifies episodes of financial turmoil in advanced economies using a financial stress index (FSI), and proposes an analytical framework to assess the impact of financial stress – in particular banking distress – on the real economy. It concludes that financial turmoil characterized by banking distress is more likely to be associated with deeper and longer downturns than stress mainly in securities or foreign exchange markets. Economies with more arm's-length financial systems seem to be more exposed to contractions in activity following financial stress, due to the greater procyclicality of leverage in their banking systems.     

Structuring financial statement analysis projects to enhance critical thinking skills development

This paper documents a method of structuring financial statement analysis projects to enhance the development of students’ critical thinking skills. The project is structured in a cooperative learning framework in which a student accesses financial statement information from the World Wide Web, performs a financial statement analysis, and then engages in an exercise with other students who have analyzed firms in the same industry. Both the individual and team phases of the project offer opportunities for students to develop several important critical thinking skills.     

Financial reporting of European banks during the GFC: a pitch

This short paper applies the pitch template developed by Faff (2015a), for a proposed accounting research project on financial reporting of European banks and the global financial crisis. I begin by giving a brief background to writing the pitch. I then give a brief commentary on my pitch, followed by a few key personal reflections on the pitch exercise itself.     

Fair Value Accounting and the Financial Crisis: Messenger or Contributor?*

This commentary discusses how fair value accounting (FVA) affects the nature of financial reporting, especially for financial institutions that were deeply affected by the 2007‐9 financial crisis. Toward that end, I address four questions. First, I review FVA's role in financial reporting, emphasizing its development over time. While the commentary's focus is on the interface between financial instruments and FVA, its reach extends well beyond financial instruments. Thereafter, I discuss the measurement and valuation challenges that arise from the use of FVA in financial reporting. Then, I analyze the evidence, analytical and empirical, on the role that FVA may have played in the financial crisis of 2007‐9. Since, to some extent, the crisis is still unfolding, there is limited yet very insightful empirical evidence on this issue. The evidence does suggest that FVA, in combination with its use by regulators, may have severely undermined the financial condition of some institutions. The effect was amplified for institutions holding assets in markets that saw their liquidity dry up during the crisis. In other words, FVA may have amplified the crisis. Finally, I discuss some implications that we can draw from the crisis about the merits and risks underlying FVA. For instance, I conclude that, in a search for relevance, the use of FVA in financial reporting may accelerate its disconnection from a firm's business reality.     

Do accounting measurement regimes matter? A discussion of mark-to-market accounting and liquidity pricing

Using a model with banking and insurance sectors, Allen and Carletti show that marking-to-market interacts with liquidity pricing to exacerbate the likelihood of financial contagion between the two sectors. In this discussion, I lay out the main ingredients of their model and explain how they interact with liquidity pricing to generate financial contagion. I then discuss some limitations of their model and propose an interesting extension.     

The nexus of macroprudential supervision,monetary policy,and financial stability

I discuss changes to bank supervision and regulation since the financial crisis. Microprudential supervision promotes the safety and soundness of individual institutions, while macroprudential supervision focuses on emerging risks to financial system stability. I highlight tools for implementing this macroprudential approach to promoting financial stability, and discuss the interactions and proper relationship between monetary policy and financial stability. While macroprudential tools should be the first line of defense against emerging financial imbalances, in cases where those tools proved to be inadequate to limit risks to financial stability, monetary policy should be considered as a possible defense.     

Regional Financial Arrangements: A Survey of the Literature and Recent Developments

This article summarizes recent studies on regional financial arrangements (RFAs) and examines the role played by global multilaterals and RFAs in emerging crises. We also review the major RFAs with regard to their basic organizational structure, activities, legal framework, and lending facilities. Finally, we discuss the attributes needed for the sustainable development of RFAs and we look at how they can expand their role for economic cooperation in the associated regions.     

Incorporating financial literacy into the accounting curriculum

Financial literacy education, or the lack thereof, has received much attention in recent years. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed the dot com bubble, corporate scandals that stirred the market, and a large recession. Because many individuals turn to accountants for financial advice, it is now more important than ever for professionals to possess a strong foundation in basic financial literacy to better serve their clients. While the responsibility of financial literacy education does not lie with one institution or one individual, multiple efforts have been put in place to provide financial literacy education to the public. The purpose of this paper is to describe how financial literacy education was successfully incorporated into the accounting classroom to provide tomorrow’s professionals with a strong foundation in financial literacy.     

金融政策与经济低碳转型——基于增长视角的研究

在“碳中和”目标背景下,本文基于经济“增长”视角,从理论上分析金融政策在经济低碳转型中能够发挥的作用。我们构建了一个包含清洁(绿色)与非清洁(非绿色)生产部门、定向技术进步、金融约束与金融政策的内生增长模型。通过基于模型的理论证明与数值模拟,我们发现:(1)清洁部门相对非清洁部门更强的金融约束会推迟经济低碳转型过程、导致环境恶化,绿色金融政策能够缓解清洁部门的金融约束。(2)绿色金融政策能够增加清洁部门的产量,在一定条件下,还能促进经济实现低碳转型并阻止环境恶化。(3)通过金融政策推动经济低碳转型,相比部分财政政策具有成本效益优势;两类政策存在组合搭配的空间。(4)在疫情冲击后加大绿色金融政策力度,将有益于实现“绿色复苏”,并有可能以相对平时更低的成本,加快“碳达峰”与经济低碳转型的进程。     

金融发展、产业升级与跨越中等收入陷阱——基于新结构经济学的视角

本文在引入结构转型的内生增长理论框架下,重点考察了金融发展(包括金融深化和金融结构)对于产业升级促进作用的动态变化。研究发现,给定一国的发展阶段,不仅存在最优技术进步方式和最优产业结构,还存在一个对于金融深化程度的“最低要求”,低于这一临界值的国家将难以实现下一阶段的产业升级。另一方面,产业升级对金融深化程度的要求并非一成不变,而是随着经济发展呈现出先快速上升、在达到中等收入水平后缓慢递减的特征。在资本积累相对有限的约束条件下,中等收入国家要实现经济增长方式从模仿驱动转向创新驱动,需要首先实现金融深化程度的提升,并推动金融结构转型和制度完善,以实现对创新型产业的有效金融支持,否则很可能陷入“模仿陷阱”,长期徘徊在中等收入水平。本文从新结构经济学的视角,为金融发展与经济发展之间关系的动态变化提供了理论基础,并揭示出跨越中等收入陷阱是一个产业升级、金融发展和制度完善“三位一体”的转型过程。     

Financial stress transmission between the U.S. and the Euro Area

This paper examines financial stress transmission between the U.S. and the Euro Area. To better understand the linkages between financial stress in the two regions, we construct a financial stress index for the U.S. similar to the Composite Indicators of Systemic Stress (CISS) that has been developed for the Euro Area with a focus on systemic risk. Using weekly data from 2000 to 2021 and Granger predictability in distribution test, we analyze stress transmission in “normal” times as well as under unusually high and low stress episodes. While we document unilateral transmission from the U.S. to the Euro Area under normal conditions based on the center of the distribution, tail dependence tests and impulse response analysis show significant bilateral transmission, particularly in unusually high financial stress episodes. This holds true for aggregate indices as well as the subindicators of financial stress in various financial markets. As such, there must be global efforts to contain financial crises and ensure a strong and resilient financial system.     

Financial intermediation and the supply of liquidity

I study the role of financial intermediaries in supplying liquidity to the real economy. Firms hold liquid assets to meet unanticipated expenses. Financial intermediaries supply liquidity by pooling partially liquid assets, but their ability to commit future funds depends on their capital. When liquidity is scarce, there is a positive liquidity premium and investment is inefficiently low. Bank losses raise the liquidity premium and reduce investment. I analyze the optimal supply of public liquidity and find that when private liquidity is scarce the government should issue bonds for their liquidity properties, providing justification for countercyclical budget deficits.     

How do corporate political connections influence financial reporting? A synthesis of the literature

A large stream of research has analyzed the effects of corporate political connections (CPCs) on firms, including first evidence on their effects on financial reporting behavior. However, the evidence so far is inconclusive, and attempts to explain the causality of effects on reporting are limited. In this article, we present the results of a systematic review of the literature on CPCs. We draw on findings in the accounting, finance, and economics literature and derive a framework that identifies four channels through which CPCs affect financial reporting. Our review of the literature suggests that effects of political connections tend to be more ambiguous than suggested by individual studies that often offer directional hypotheses. We also identify eight distinct types of political connectedness and discuss their interrelations and the proxies used in the literature to measure them.     

Accounting and prudential regulation: from uncomfortable bedfellows to perfect partners?

Recent initiatives to improve the public information about individual firms have brought to the fore significant differences in perspective between accountants and prudential regulators. We examine the reasons for these differences and propose ways in which they could be reconciled within a broader framework aimed at identifying the type of information conducive to the proper functioning and stability of the financial system. We argue that such information should concern three characteristics: estimates of current financial condition; estimates of risk profile; and measures of the uncertainty surrounding those estimates. So far, efforts have mainly focused on the first characteristic, with the second having drawn attention only recently and the third having been largely neglected. We propose a strategy to reconcile different perspectives based on two principles: first, in the long-term, the “decoupling” of the objective of accurate financial reporting by the firm from that of instilling the desired degree of prudence in its behaviour; second, a “parallel transition” process towards that objective so that at all points the prudential measures can neutralise any undesirable implications of changes in financial reporting standards on financial stability.     

Money laundering—a global obstacle

One of the biggest obstacles to maintaining an effective operating international financial system is money laundering. A global phenomenon and international challenge, money laundering is a financial crime that often involves a complex series of transactions and numerous financial institutions across many foreign jurisdictions. In addition, money laundering is also extremely difficult to investigate and prosecute. In this paper, I present a clinical examination of the money laundering process, the international extent of the problem and global efforts to introduce anti-money laundering measures and regulation in recent years.     

Evidence-based financial reporting regulation

In this introductory paper at the Abacus Forum on International Financial Reporting, I contend that it is difficult to argue that financial reporting and disclosure regulation around the world is evidence-based. Anecdotes and references to more systematic research and surveys of research are used to demonstrate this. 'Evidence-based' is a term that I borrow from medicine. There the term stands for basing medical patient care and health policy choices on the 'current best [scientific] evidence'. I contend that financial reporting and disclosure regulation (and perhaps practice as well) are currently not evidence-based in the specific sense of not being based on the current best scientific evidence available about accounting and auditing. Next I discuss possible causes of this state of affairs and look at future possibilities for financial reporting and disclosure regulation to become (more) evidence-based. The discussion ends by providing a link with the papers that follow in this issue.     

Introduction to recent research topics in banking and finance

This note introduces a set of papers that have been presented to the third International Symposium on Computational Economics and Finance (ISCEF), organized in Paris on April 10–12, 2014, focusing on topics in banking and financial markets. This selection of papers emphasizes the role of the development of research in quantitative finance that benefited from the progress in econometric modeling and the availability of high frequency data. These studies carried in the context of the global financial crisis provide different interesting findings enabling to better understand financial market dynamics and banking sectors. We briefly analyze in this note their methodologies and discuss their empirical findings.