Firm credit risk in normal times and during the crisis: are banks less risky?

Bank solvency was a major issue during the financial crisis of 2007–2009, but bank credit default swap (CDS) spreads were almost always below nonbank CDS spreads. What is the reason for this gap? Are banks perceived to be less risky? This study empirically decomposes CDS premia for 45 major banks and 167 large industrial firms from Europe and the US. It turns out that expected losses are usually somewhat lower for banks than for nonbanks, but expected losses contribute relatively little to the observed CDS premia. CDS spreads for banks and nonbanks differ mainly because market participants require a lower compensation for bearing bank credit risk. The quite persistent difference in the credit risk premia for banks and nonbanks disappears only temporarily during the crisis.     

Does ownership concentration affect banks’ credit risk? Evidence from MENA emerging markets

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of ownership concentration on banks’ credit risk. The study employs a dynamic panel approach using data from 98 banks listed in the 10 Middle East and North African (MENA) emerging stock markets between 2003 and 2016. To better understand the nature of the relationship between ownership concentration and bank credit risk and how this relationship is shaped by the recent financial crisis, we conducted a pre- and postcrisis analysis. Our findings document a positive relationship between ownership concentration and nonperforming loans in the precrisis period, which surprisingly reverses during the postcrisis period. We argue that the reversal of this relationship is driven by changes in controlling shareholders’ risk aversion, behavior, and attitude prompted by the financial crisis. Given that central banks are entrusted with forestalling banks’ failure, incorporating ownership concentration, as a fundamental determinant of banks’ credit risk, is crucial to anticipate future financial calamities. Our findings highlight the gravity of agency problems in emerging MENA markets. Reinforcing firm-level as well as country-level governance mechanisms is crucial to restore a sound banking system, enhance markets’ integrity, and increase investors’ confidence.     

Risk Appetite,Home Bias and the Unstable Demand for Emerging Market Assets

Home bias arises when the actual portfolio of an investor consists of a smaller proportion of foreign assets than that predicted by standard portfolio theory for the observed set of risks and returns on available assets. The existence and persistence of home bias undermines the theoretical case for the efficiency of international capital markets. In this paper we use data on UK pension fund portfolios to measure home bias, and find that this is doubly acute in the case of emerging market equity—a bias against overseas assets as a whole being further magnified by a bias against emerging markets within the foreign equity class as a whole. Moreover, contrary to the conventional assumption that risk aversion is both relatively low and stable over time (canonised in neoclassical theory by the derivation of constant relative risk aversion from the utility function itself) our finding that home bias fluctuates over time suggests that risk aversion is in fact time‐variant and path‐dependent. We sketch an alternative Keynesian approach in conclusion.     

Typology for flight-to-quality episodes and downside risk measurement

We propose a total return-based framework to measure downside risk associated with phenomenon of capital outflows from riskier to safer financial markets. The proposed method consists of three elements: (i) the general definition of the flight-to-quality (FtQ) phenomenon, (ii) the typological classification of the flight-to-quality occurrences for associating them with the phases of the business cycle and (iii) the automated technique to diagnose the time frames and to measure the impact of flight-to-quality on financial instruments. The proposed framework is applied to analyse the global-scale capital inflows/outflows from emerging markets public debt to the US Treasuries and vice versa. The results show that different phases of business cycles and GDP growth rates, including turning points, could be associated with flights-to-quality of different types and causality origins. Addressing downside risk crystallizations in flight-to-quality occurrences, new perspectives of integrated interest rate risk and credit risk management are discussed. For strengthening financial stability, we suggest the use of flight-to-quality windows as scenarios for stress testing, both for banks and financial institutions.     

Sovereign risk and deposit dynamics: evidence from Europe

The unprecedented expansion of sovereign balance sheets since the beginning of the global crisis has given a new meaning to the term sovereign risk. Developments in Europe since early 2010 revealed new challenges for the functioning of private banks in an environment of heightened sovereign risk and may have contributed to deleveraging. The article uses an innovative way of measuring the perception of sovereign risk and its impact. Using an extension of a common market discipline framework, it shows that exposure to sovereign risk may have limited the ability of banks in Europe to collect deposits. Potential identification issues between deposits and bank efficiency are controlled by using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The results are robust to inclusion of conventional measures of bank performance and the sector-wide holdings of foreign sovereign debt.     

中国金融安全指数的估算与实证分析:1998-2007

随着中国金融市场的不断扩大开放,国家金融安全问题日益突出。当前的国际金融危机再一次警示我们,在金融业发展、开放与创新中,必须高度重视金融安全问题。结合中国实际,选择微观、宏观和国际市场三大类17个金融经济指标,采用主观赋值与主成分分析法确定指标权重,对中国1998-2007年金融安全指数进行估算,并在此基础上,选择影响金融安全的主要风险变量对中国金融安全进行的实证分析发现:银行的违约风险(不良贷款)和国际游资风险构成了中国金融安全的主要威胁;资本市场风险与中国金融安全状况同方向变动;而利率风险、汇率风险、通胀风险对中国金融安全的影响并不显著。     

金融市场的复杂性与金融风险管理——一个基于非线性动力学视角的分析原理

迄今为止,对金融市场的研究与分析基本上是在经典资本市场理论的线性分析范式下展开的.然而,经典资本市场理论的线性化分析方法有其内在的局限性,它不能解释现实金融市场资产价格的变化,更不能用来分析美国股市\"1987年股灾\"等市场突变行为.在这样的背景下,金融市场的研究出现了从线性转向非线性分析,从均衡走向演化的新趋势.本文在考察金融系统的非线性本质与作为虚拟经济系统的内在特性的基础上,提出了金融市场的非线性动力学分析原理,并形成了风险管理的整体观、内生观与过程观.这些原理将为研究金融市场与风险管理理论提供新的方向.     

外资银行监管法律制度的完善

随着金融的国际化以及我国加入WTO后金融市场的逐步开放,外资银行大量抢滩国内市场,这对我国金融乃至整个经济运行将产生深远影响,并使加强对外资银行的监管显得尤为必要。为此,作者在分析对外资银行监管的必要性的基础上,针对我国外资银行监管法律制度的不足,借鉴国际经验,从监管目标入手,阐述了我国外资银行监管法律制度的完善。     

信用衍生品的信用风险转移对金融稳定性的影响

银行信用风险转移激励与监管当局提高金融稳定性的目标是一致的,监管当局应该通过鼓励金融机构之间的总信用风险转移,使得信用风险转移的收益最大化;研究还发现,随着跨部门之间信用风险转移的出现,为了使得个体激励与提高信用风险管理中金融机构稳定性的社会目标相一致,应该鼓励部门之间的差异化监管。     

开放条件下国际资产定价模型的解析与检验

随着经济全球化的不断深入，国际资本市场的一体化程度也在不断加强，敌对国际资产定价问题的探讨显得颇为重要。尤其对开放条件下的国际资产定价理论与实证研究进行系统的梳理与分类，并对该领域现有研究中存在的问题提出未来研究的方向，更有学术价值。     

中央银行独立性与货币、金融稳定政策协调

当今,金融危机给经济发展带来了极大的危害,为此,金融稳定是当务之急.审视中国的金融现状,我们必须加强金融体系各组成部分内部及其相互之问的有效风险配置、资源配置等核心功能,将中央银行独立性、货币稳定政策及金融稳定政策纳入统一框架之下,有效协调货币、金融稳定政策,提高金融机构风险管理水平.     

Dynamic correlation and equicorrelation analysis of global financial turmoil: evidence from emerging East Asian stock markets

This study investigates the dynamic conditional correlations (DCCs) between eight emerging East Asian stock markets and the US stock market and analyses the dynamic equicorrelation among these nine stock markets. We find a significant increase in the conditional correlations and equicorrelation in the first phase of the global financial crisis. We refer to this finding as contagion from the US stock market to the emerging East Asian markets. We also find an additional significant process of increasing correlations and equicorrelation (herding) in the second phase of the global financial crisis. Further, we employ two new models, namely DCCX-MGARCH (a DCC Multivariate GARCH model with exogenous variables) and DECOX-MGARCH (a dynamic equicorrelation multivariate GARCH model with exogenous variables), to identify the channels of contagion. We find that an increase in the VIX Index increases the conditional correlations and equicorrelation, while increases in TED spreads decrease the conditional correlations of six emerging East Asian countries with the USA. We compare the accuracy of the conditional correlation estimates of the DCC and DCCX models (or DECO and DECOX models) by constructing a loss function. We find that the DCCX (DECOX) model provides more accurate conditional correlation estimates than the DCC (DECO) model by extracting additional information from exogenous variables.     

The effect of family ownership on corporate hedging: the case of Thailand

We explore how corporate hedging decisions are affected by family ownership and control in Thailand. One crucial advantage of investigating this issue in Thailand is that hedging instruments became available only recently, long after families established their presence in the firm. Thus, endogeneity is much less likely. The evidence shows that family ownership by itself does not have a significant impact on the firm’s propensity to hedge. However, when family members have a presence on the board of directors, the firm is significantly more likely to engage in hedging activities. Furthermore, we find that the presence of institutional blockholders also increases the likelihood of hedging significantly. Our study is the first to examine the impact of family ownership and control on corporate hedging behaviour in an emerging market.     

Does the stock market affect investment by Chinese firms? Some new evidence

During the 1990s, the Chinese government increasingly relied on the stock market as the major tool for state‐owned enterprise (SOE) reform and for the allocation of investment resources. This paper investigates the impact of stock market development in China on firm‐level capital investment by using a panel data set constructed by the author of all Chinese listed firms for the period 1992 to 1999. The results show that stock market valuation, as measured by Tobin’s q, has a highly independent, significant and positive influence on listed firms’ investment decisions, particularly during the stock market boom from 1996 to 1999. Given the sizable real effects of the stock market, deviations of stock prices from fundamentals can have substantially negative consequences. As a result, this study suggests that sensible regulation of the Chinese stock market is needed in order to enhance the efficiency of stock prices and facilitate an effective channeling of investment funds.     

中国商业银行金融风险预警指标体系研究

当前,中国金融体制改革日益深化,商业银行的隐形风险也在日趋增加。根据2008—2010年中国商业银行的实证检验结果显示,中国商业虽然尚处于基本安全区域,但部分指标给出了风险信号。在中国金融市场不断与国际接轨的情况下应尽快建立全面的商业银行金融风险预警体系,并加强对商业银行金融风险的即时检测,以保证中国金融市场的安全。