Do alternative energy markets provide optimal alternative investment opportunities?

This paper investigates diversification opportunities for investors among different alternative energy markets. We sample six alternative energy markets namely World, Developed, Emerging, EU, BRIC and G7 with daily data ranging from January 2006 to December 2017. For estimations, we use wavelet multiple correlation and wavelet multiple cross correlation proposed by Polanco-Martínez and Fernández-Macho (2014) to find pairwise correlation at different investment horizons. Our work contributes in measuring integration level among alternative regional energy markets across different investment horizons. Our results highlight that World, Developed, Emerging, EU markets offer maximum diversification when included with either Emerging or BRIC energy markets in a portfolio. Furthermore, diversification benefits are more prominent under intra-week to monthly investment horizons for all portfolio combinations. We also rank different pairs of alternative markets based on their integration level which carry important implications for portfolio diversification and risk management.     

Do short selling restrictions destabilize stock markets? Lessons from Taiwan

Short sellers have been routinely blamed for triggering, or exacerbating, stock market declines. The experience of Taiwan provides an interesting case study of the impact of short selling bans on stock returns volatility in a time series framework due to the length of time the short selling ban was in place there. Estimating several variants of an asymmetric GARCH model and a Markov switching GARCH model we find robust evidence that short selling restrictions raise stock returns volatility. The only qualifier is that the impact of short sale bans is a feature of the expansionary phase of business cycles. During recessions this effect dissipates.     

Do cryptocurrencies provide better hedging? Evidence from major equity markets during COVID-19 pandemic

Using the five-minute interval price data of two cryptocurrencies and eight stock market indices, we examine the risk spillover and hedging effectiveness between these two assets. Our approach provides a comparative assessment encompassing the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 sample periods. We employ copula models to assess the dependence and risk spillover from Bitcoin and Ethereum to stock market returns during both the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the risk spillover from Bitcoin and Ethereum to stock market returns. The findings vis-à-vis portfolio weights and hedge effectiveness highlight hedging gains; however, optimal investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum have reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the cost of hedging has increased during this period. The findings also confirm that cryptocurrencies cannot provide incremental gains by hedging stock market risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Do stock markets discipline US Bank Holding Companies: Just monitoring,or also influencing?

This paper presents evidence that bank managers adjust key strategic variables following a risk and/or valuation signal from the stock market. Banks receive a risk signal when they exhibit substantially higher (semi-)volatility compared to the best performing bank(s) with similar characteristics, and a valuation signal when they are undervalued relative to the average bank with similar characteristics. We document, using a partial adjustment model, that bank managers adjust the long-term target value of key strategic variables and the speed of adjustment towards those targets following a risk and/or negative valuation signal. We interpret this as evidence of stock market influencing. We show that our results are unlikely to be driven by indirect influencing by regulators, subordinated debtholders, retail or wholesale depositors. Finally, we show that the likelihood that banks receive a risk and/or valuation signal increases with opaqueness, managerial discretion and specialization.     

Does faith move stock markets? Evidence from Saudi Arabia

This paper investigates the effects of religious beliefs on stock prices. Our findings support the viewpoint that the religious tenets have important bearing on portfolio choices of investors. It is found that Shariah-compliant stocks have higher return and volatility than their non-Shariah compliant counterparts.     

Are regulations the answer for emerging stock markets? Evidence from the Czech Republic and Poland

Does the emergence of a stock market require a well-developed legal and/or regulatory system? Although historical work by Neal and Davis [Neal, L., & Davis, L. (2005). The evolution of the rules and regulations of the first emerging markets: The London, New York, and Paris stock exchanges, 1792–1914. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 45, 296–311] and Stringham [Stringham, E. (2003). The extralegal development of securities trading in seventeenth century Amsterdam. Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 43, 321–344] suggests that securities markets have successfully developed with little government oversight, numerous authors [including Black, B. (2001). The legal and institutional preconditions for strong securities markets. University of California Law Angeles Law Review, 48, 781–855; Coffee, J. (1999). Privatization and corporate governance: The lessons from securities market failure. Journal of Corporation Law, 25, 1–39; Frye, T. (2000). Brokers and bureaucrats: Building market institutions in Russia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; Glaeser, E., Johnson, S., & Shleifer, A. (2001). Coase versus the Coasians. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116, 853–899; Mlčoch, L. (2000). Restructuring of property rights: An institutional view. In L. Mlčoch et al. (Eds.), Economic and Social Changes in Czech Society After 1989. Prague: The Karolinum Press; Pistor, K. (2001). Law as a determinant for equity market development – the experience of transition economies. In Peter Murrell (Ed.), The Value of Law in Transition Economies (pp. 249–287). Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press; Stiglitz, J. (1999). Whither reform. Ten years of the transition. Keynote Address, Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, Washington, DC, April 28–30, 1999; Zhang, X. (2006). Financial market governance in developing countries: Getting the political underpinnings right. Journal of Developing Societies, 2, 169–196] argue that the Czech Republic and other Eastern European governments need more regulation for their newly created stock markets. They maintain that the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which is seen as more regulated, has outperformed the Prague Stock Exchange which is seen as largely unregulated. Thus increased regulations are a key to increased performance. This article, however, maintains that the evidence from the Czech experience has been misinterpreted. This article provides an in depth case study of the Czech stock market and finds that (a) Czech capital markets have been hindered by government intervention from their beginning, (b) that the evidence on Poland's superior performance is not as strong as suggested, and (c) that Czech regulators seem to be unqualified, lack the proper incentives, and are unlikely to benefit the market. Under these circumstances it appears that Neal and Davis (2005:311) are correct that increased government involvement is unlikely to improve the situation.     

Are the stock and real estate markets integrated in China?

This paper examines the dynamic short-run and long-run co-movement between the real estate and stock markets in China by employing a continuous wavelet method. We use gross domestic product and M2 (broad money supply) as control variables to eliminate the common factors of the two markets and to identify the real nexus between them. The empirical results show that the co-movement between real estate and stock prices is weak in the short run, except during the financial crisis period. Since the stock market is highly volatile, while real estate prices are relatively stable, the two markets are less correlated in the short run. The results also show that real estate prices affect stock prices in the long run, which supports the existence of a credit-price effect in China. Real estate prices remained very high in most time periods. Enterprises and individuals can obtain funds from bank loans to invest in the stock market, thus raising stock prices. These findings indicate that the two markets are generally segmented in the short run but are integrated in the long run. The stabilization of the real estate market is critical for stability in the stock market, but not vice versa. Additionally, investments in the two markets may not provide a high level of risk dispersion in the long run in China.

     

Risk spillovers and hedge strategies between global crude oil markets and stock markets: Do regime switching processes combining long memory and asymmetry matter?

This paper investigates risk spillovers and hedge strategies between global crude oil markets and stock markets. In the paper, we propose a multivariate long memory and asymmetry GARCH framework that integrates state-dependent regime switching in the mean process with multivariate long memory and asymmetry GARCH in the variance process. Our results first show that there are linear risk spillovers running from the US stock markets to the WTI oil market in the short term. However, the linear risk spillover effect running from the oil market to the US stock market can only exist in the long term. In addition, there is a bidirectional linear risk spillover effect between the European stock markets and the Brent oil market in the short and long terms. Furthermore, there is no linear risk spillover effect between the Dubai oil market and the Chinese stock market. Second, the nonlinear risk spillovers running from the WTI oil market to the US stock market can be found in the tranquil regime. Moreover, there is also a nonlinear risk spillover effect running from the European stock markets to the Brent oil market in the tranquil regime. In addition, the nonlinear risk spillover effect running from the Brent oil markets to the European stock market can be found in the crisis regime. Furthermore, there is bidirectional nonlinear Granger causality between the Dubai crude oil market and the Chinese stock market in the tranquil regime. Finally, dynamic hedge effectiveness shows that the regime switching process combined with long memory and asymmetry behavior seems to be a plausible and feasible way to conduct hedge strategies between the global crude oil markets and stock markets.     

When do high‐level managers believe they can influence the stock price? Antecedents of stock price expectancy cognitions

Stock based rewards are often used to motivate high‐level managers to take actions to increase the stock price of the firm. However, numerous constraints may weaken the perceived link between individual effort and stock price appreciation for many recipients. This study introduces a new construct, stock price expectancy, which we define as individuals' perceptions of influence over their firm's stock price. We examined its antecedents in a sample of 349 high‐level U.S. managers and found that employment at corporate headquarters, firm size, hierarchical level, and contact with investment analysts predicted stock price expectancy perceptions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Can sustainable investments outperform traditional benchmarks? Evidence from global stock markets

To contribute to overcoming global sustainability challenges, investors have been increasingly interested in making sustainable investments and incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into their portfolio selection decisions and managerial activities. However, these investors and other agents interested in sustainable investment need updated and robust information to support their decision making. We analyzed the performance of several Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSIs) and compared them with their respective market benchmarks from 2013 to 2018. The indices comprise the following regions and countries: the world, the Asia‐Pacific, Europe, emerging markets and the US. The analysis was conducted based on both classic and modern portfolio metrics. The results suggest that sustainable investment performance is still heterogeneous worldwide, but there is a promising opportunity for investors to obtain superior risk‐adjusted returns in certain regions while incorporating sustainable investment practices. The findings are of utmost importance to financial market practitioners, business managers, academics and other stakeholders interested in promoting investments, corporate practices and scientific knowledge to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).     

Global restructuring—a place for ecology?

This introductory article summarizes the discussions and results of the Fifth Annual Greening of Industry Conference, Global Restructuring—A Place for Ecology?, held in Heidelberg, Germany, November 25–27, 1997. The Greening of Industry Network is concerned with the transition of industry towards sustainable production as an essential part of achieving a sustainable society. The Network conferences, held at different locations around the world, promote this goal by bringing together participants from different regions and with different backgrounds (academia, industry, governments and NGOs). The conferences are venues for information exchange, learning and dialogue about different aspects of the greening of industry and possible pathways to a sustainable society. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Sovereign default risk in OECD countries: Do global factors matter?

We study the determinants of sovereign default risk for a group of 23 OECD countries using quarterly data spanning the period between 2000:Q1 and 2016:Q3. Applying the recently developed panel dynamic heterogeneous common correlated effects estimator of Chudik and Pesaran (2015) our study innovates in considering potential endogeneity issues and cross-sectional dependence. We control for both global risk appetite and monetary policy stance, as well as country risk ratings. The results show that common factors are the main drivers of solvency risk for our set of countries. Specially relevant, we find that macroeconomic determinants are not significant predictors of long-term sovereign spreads.     

Do actively managed mutual funds exploit stock market mispricing?

Constructing a proxy for mispricing with 15 well-known stock market anomalies, we examine whether actively managed mutual funds exploit mispricing. We find that, in the aggregate, mutual funds overweight overvalued stocks and underweight undervalued stocks relative to a passive benchmark, and this tendency is explained by the ill-motivated trades of agency-prone fund managers. In addition, we find that mutual funds with the highest weights in undervalued stocks outperform those with the highest weights in overvalued stocks by an annualized three-factor alpha of 2.12% (t = 2.38), implying that slanting portfolios based on our proxy helps mutual funds improve performance.     

Do MNCs spur financial markets in corrupt host countries?

This study investigates how MNCs can sway the growth of financial markets in the developing countries with prevalent political corruption. Using annual data of panel of 22 developing countries and applying dynamic generalized method of moment (GMM) technique, we find foreign firms can spur financial markets in the developing countries through direct investment. Furthermore, our results indicate the stimulus effect of foreign investment on financial development is stronger in the more corrupt countries.     

Modelling and forecasting value at risk and expected shortfall for GCC stock markets: Do long memory,structural breaks,asymmetry, and fat-tails matter?

This paper addresses the question whether dual long memory (LM), asymmetry and structural breaks in stock market returns matter when forecasting the value at risk (VaR) and expected shortfall (ES) for short and long trading positions. We answer this question for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stock markets. Empirically, we test the occurrence of structural breaks in the GCC return data using the Inclan and Tiao (1994)’s algorithm and we check the relevance of LM using Shimotsu (2006) procedure before estimating the ARFIMA-FIGARCH and ARFIMA-FIAPARCH models with different innovations’ distributions and computing VaR and ES. Our results show that all the GCC market's volatilities exhibit significant structural breaks matching mainly with the 2008–2009 global financial crises and the Arab spring. Also, they are governed by LM process either in the mean or in the conditional variance which cannot be due to the occurrence of structural breaks. Furthermore, the forecasting ability analysis shows that the FIAPARCH model under skewed Student-t distribution turn out to improve substantially the VaR and the ES forecasts.     

Do option-like incentives induce overvaluation? Evidence from experimental asset markets

One potential reason for bubbles evolving prior to the financial crisis was excessive risk taking stemming from option-like incentive schemes in financial institutions. By running laboratory asset markets, we investigate the impact of option-like incentives on price formation and trading behavior. The main results are that (i) we observe significantly higher market prices with option-like incentives than linear incentives. (ii) We further find that option-like incentives provoke subjects to behave differently and to take more risk than subjects with linear incentives. (iii) We finally show that trading at inflated prices is rational for subjects with option-like incentives since it increases their expected payout.     

Do size and unobservable company factors explain stock price reversals?

We use daily price data from the Egyptian stock market and a Loser portfolio of 20 IPOs from the late 1990s that experienced dramatic 1-day price falls in the period 2004 to 2007 to estimate a 2-way fixed effects model of CARs. Observable covariates are company size and turnover growth and unobservables company and period fixed effects. Our results provide evidence of significant price reversal over the first 40 post-event days. Firm size is negatively correlated with post-event CARs, consistently with the argument that small firms have a stronger tendency to price-reverse due to greater informational opacity. But permanent, unobservable company-specific factors, account for a much larger percentage of post-event variation in stock prices and indicate an underlying heterogeneity in investor responses to initial price falls not uncovered before in the literature. Strong negative company effects following a price fall are found to presage reinforcing ‘long term’ price falls and strong positive company effects to presage countervailing ‘long term’ price reversals. At the extremes these company effects are sufficiently large to suggest that a trading strategy based on them would be profitable.     

Has recent financial crisis changed permanently the correlations between BRICS and developed stock markets?

The paper finds recent financial crisis has changed permanently the correlations between BRICS and developed U.S. and Europe stock markets. 70% of BRICS stock markets⿿ conditional correlation series demonstrate an upward long-run trend with the developed stock markets. Our results provide convincing evidence that the reducing diversification benefits are a long-run and world-wide phenomenon, especially after recent financial crisis.     

Does bank capitalization matter for bank stock returns?

We examine US bank capitalization and its association with bank stock returns, and find that the book- and market-based capital ratios show different patterns. Fama-MacBeth regressions and portfolio analyses suggest that banks’ market-based capital ratios are negatively associated with banks’ stock returns during the (tranquil) 1994–2007 period while book-based capital ratios are positively associated with banks’ stock returns during the (turbulent) 2008–2014 period. These results suggest that the effect of bank capitalization on bank stock returns depends on the capital measure used and the period considered.     

Do chief information officers matter for sustainable development? Impact of their regulatory focus on green information technology strategies and corporate performance

This study proposes and empirically tests a model delineating the relationships among a chief information officer's (CIO's) dominant regulatory focus, the corporate practice of green information technology (IT) strategies and corporate performance. It also examines the moderating role of regulatory stakeholder influence (RSI) in this model. Findings based on sampled firms operating in China have provided support for all the hypotheses. Specifically, they highlight that CIOs with a dominant promotion focus are more prone to practice green IT strategies than those with a dominant prevention focus. Moreover, RSI is found to positively moderate the impact of dominant regulatory focus on the practice of green IT strategies. This strategic practice is also found to enhance corporate performance. Last, the empirical findings reveal that a CIO's dominant promotion focus exerts a direct and positive influence on corporate performance, which suggests that this focus also serves as a direct driver for corporate performance. In sum, these findings not only enrich the extant literature on environmental management and information systems, but also provide useful insights into fine-tuning firms' CIO selection criteria and policy makers' regulatory measures to advance corporate sustainability.