When Do Listed Firms Pay for Market Making in Their Own Stock?

A recent innovation in the equity markets is the introduction of market maker services procured by the listed companies themselves. Using data from the Oslo Stock Exchange, we investigate what motivates issuing firms to pay to improve the secondary market liquidity of their listed shares. By examining the timing of market maker hirings relative to corporate events, we show that hirings are more likely when the firm will interact with the capital markets in the near future. Futhermore, a typical firm employing a designated market maker is more likely to raise capital, repurchase shares, or experience an exit by insiders.     

Do Changes in Industrial Policy Affect Allocation of Financial Resources Among Subsidiaries?

This study explores how enterprise groups adjust the allocation of financial resources among subsidiaries after the industrial policy is amended. Results show that compared to subsidiaries experiencing minimal impact due to changes in industrial policy, a higher inflow of financial resources from enterprise groups is witnessed by subsidiaries experiencing a positive impact than those experiencing a negative impact. From the specific channels of allocation of financial resources, subsidiaries experiencing a positive effect obtain more equity investment from the parent company and pay fewer cash dividends. Contrarily, subsidiaries experiencing a negative impact obtain less equity investment and have minimum cash adequacy ratio.     

When Do International Operations Lead to Improved Performance? An Analysis of Property‐Liability Insurers

In recent decades, insurers have been increasing their exposure to international markets. This article seeks to investigate the relationship between property-liability insurers' international operations and their risk-adjusted returns using cross-section and time-series data for the years 1992 through 2000. Our findings indicate that the relationship between international operations and performance is contingent upon the degree of product diversification. Insurance companies with focused operations in terms of product lines achieve higher risk-adjusted performance as they increase their exposures to international markets. However, insurers who are highly diversified across product lines face declining returns with greater exposure to international markets.     

Do Islamic Bond (Sukuk) Prices Reflect Financial and Policy Uncertainty? A Quantile Regression Approach

We studied the relationship between Islamic bond (sukuk) prices and financial and policy uncertainty conditions using a quantile regression approach. Our empirical results for the period 2010–2014 show that US bond prices had a negative impact and causality effects on sukuk prices, whereas European Monetary Union bond prices only co-moved with sukuk prices. We also show that financial uncertainty had a negative effect that was limited to intermediate sukuk quantiles; moreover, sukuk prices were not affected by economic policy uncertainty or stock market returns. Therefore, although Islamic bonds are distinctive assets, their price dynamics are dependent on other bond-related asset prices and so incorporate financial market uncertainty.     

Trade in International Maritime Services: How Much Does Policy Matter?

Maritime transport costs significantly impede internationaltrade. This article examines why these costs are so high insome countries and quantifies the importance of two explanations:restrictive trade policies and private anticompetitive practices.It finds that both matter, but the latter have a greater impact.Trade liberalization and the breakup of private carrier agreementswould lead to an average of one-third lower liner transportprices and to cost savings of up to US$3 billion on goods carriedto the United States alone. The policy implications are clear:there is a need not only for further liberalization of governmentpolicy but also for strengthened international disciplines onrestrictive business practices. The authors propose an approachto developing such disciplines in the current round of servicesnegotiations at the World Trade Organization.     

International variations in ESG disclosure – Do cross-listed companies care more?

We study the quantity of ESG disclosure of 1,963 large-cap companies headquartered in 49 countries. Using the Bloomberg ESG disclosure score as the measure of disclosure quantity, we find that firm characteristics explain most of the variation in firms' ESG disclosure, whereas variations in country factors such as corruption and political rights explain less. We empirically examine and extend the theoretical framework of the liability of foreignness in capital markets. Our results support the notion that cross-listed firms disclose more ESG data than those only listed in their home market to mitigate the liability of foreignness in external capital markets. We also find that an increased percentage of foreign ownership does not augment ESG disclosure. Companies which opt to increase foreign equity ownership at home do not encounter the challenges of foreignness. Our findings suggest that cross-listed status is likely to reduce the importance of country factors for variations in ESG disclosure quantity.     

How Important Is Money in the Conduct of Monetary Policy?

I consider some of the leading arguments for assigning an important role to tracking the growth of monetary aggregates when making decisions about monetary policy. First, I consider whether ignoring money means returning to the conceptual framework that allowed the high inflation of the 1970s. Second, I consider whether models of inflation determination with no role for money are incomplete, or inconsistent with elementary economic principles. Third, I consider the implications for monetary policy strategy of the empirical evidence for a long‐run relationship between money growth and inflation. And fourth, I consider reasons why a monetary policy strategy based solely on short‐run inflation forecasts derived from a Phillips curve may not be a reliable way of controlling inflation. I argue that none of these considerations provides a compelling reason to assign a prominent role to monetary aggregates in the conduct of monetary policy.     

Do economic institutions matter for trade liberalization? Evidence from China’s Open Door Policy

Trade liberalization can promote export by inducing better resource allocation and more advanced technologies. Although the literature emphasizes the mechanism of geographic proximity, this paper identifies an institutional effect. Using infant mortality rate as an instrument that is irrelevant to export and geographic effects, we confirm that the openness due to China’s Open Door Policy promotes firm exports. We further document that the positive relationship between openness and firm exports is mediated by property rights protection and corporate autonomy, either of which reflects institutional quality at the constraint on the government’s strategic behavior. In particular, our estimates are robust to different samples, different estimation methods, and endogeneity bias.     

Do Declines in Bank Health Affect Borrowers’ Voluntary Disclosures? Evidence from International Propagation of Banking Shocks

I examine whether declines in banks’ financial health affect their borrowers’ disclosures. Prior studies indicate that, in relationship lending, banks and borrowers rely on private communication, rather than public disclosures, to resolve information asymmetries. When banking relationships are threatened, borrowers must turn to new funding sources, inducing them to reconsider their disclosure policies. This paper predicts that borrowers, whose banking relationships are threatened by declining bank health, change their public disclosures of forward‐looking information. Using the emerging‐market financial crises in the late 1990s as shocks to the health of certain U.S. banks, I find that affected banks’ U.S. borrowers increase both the quantity and informativeness of their management forecasts following these shocks compared to borrowers of unaffected banks. The results are similar using conference calls or the length of the Management's Discussion and Analysis section as alternative proxies for voluntary disclosure. Overall, these results provide new insights into the impact of availability of relationship lending on firms’ disclosure choices.     

Do differences in financial reporting attributes impair the predictive ability of financial ratios for bankruptcy?

This study explores the effect of cross-sectional and time-series differences in financial reporting attributes on the predictive ability of financial ratios for bankruptcy. We identify proxies for discretion over financial reporting, the importance of intangible assets, the comprehensiveness of the accounting model and recognition of losses. Each of our proxies for financial reporting attributes is associated with financial ratios that are less informative in predicting bankruptcy. Furthermore, our time-series tests reveal a decline in the predictive ability of financial ratios for bankruptcy and document that this decline is associated with our measures of financial reporting attributes.     

When is cash king? International evidence on the value of cash across the business cycle

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Precautionary-motive theory implies that corporate cash holdings should be valued at a premium during recessions when uncertainty is high. However,...     

What Accounts for the Changes in U.S. Fiscal Policy Transmission?

Using vector autoregressions on U.S. time series for 1957–79 and 1983–2004, we find government spending shocks to have stronger effects on output, consumption, and wages in the earlier period. We try to account for this observation within a DSGE model featuring price rigidities and limited asset market participation. Specifically, we estimate the structural parameters of the model for both periods by matching impulse responses. Model‐based counterfactual experiments suggest that most of the changes in fiscal policy transmission are accounted for by increased asset market participation and the more active monetary policy of the Volcker–Greenspan period.     

Monetary Policy Stress in EMU: What Role for Fundamentals and Missed Forecasts?

This article reexamines the problem of monetary policy stress in the EMU. In addition to estimating the amount of stress in particular countries, we investigate its sources by breaking it down into its “fundamental” parts, covering how it is a result of country-specific macroeconomic divergences and the EMU-wide “non-fundamental” component, with special attention given to the role of missed forecasts. Our results confirm that peripheral countries were exposed to risks emerging from low interest rates while the “core” countries did not suffer from much monetary policy stress. Interestingly, the bulk of it was non-fundamental, i.e., not caused by inflation and output gap differentials between countries. We show that missed forecasts did make an important contribution to this part of the stress and were mainly responsible for pushing the interest rate below its rule-consistent level.     

Unconventional Monetary Policy in the Eurozone: A Lack of Forward Guidance?

From July to December 2011, the three-month EURIBOR-OIS and EURIBOR-Repo spreads quadrupled and reached 100 basis points due to a stabilization of the EURIBOR and a decrease in the overnight index swap (OIS) and Repo. Using a specific monetary policy announcements and financial indicators database, we find that the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) unconventional measures did not systematically have a calming effect: Asset buyout announcements decreased market strains, whereas interest rates and liquidity provision announcements did not. Moreover, liquidity provision seems to have a stressing effect. Our findings are consistent with the theoretical underpinnings according to which forward guidance crucially determines the effectiveness of unconventional monetary policies.     

Who You Going to Call? Performance of Realtors and Non-realtors in a MLS Setting

This study attempts to shed some light on the extent of non-realtor broker listings on the MLS and their resulting price and time-on-the markets effects. Using duration, probit and selling price models, this study empirically examines whether the REALTOR designation provides a signal of quality that is reflected in the price and time on the market for sellers. Results indicate that properties listed by non-realtors on the MLS setting sell at lower prices, take slightly longer to sell, and are less likely to sell than properties listed by REALTORs in a MLS setting. Working with a REALTOR in a MLS setting appears to be advantageous to the seller.

Do the crude oil futures of the Shanghai International Energy Exchange improve asset allocation of Chinese petrochemical-related stocks?

The Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) facilitates both local and international investment in Chinese petrochemical-related stocks through local crude oil futures. This study investigates whether the Chinese emerging market can better aid investors' risk hedging and asset allocation compared to two major international developed markets–the Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures markets—and examines the pairwise risk hedging effects and multi-asset allocation performance of INE and petrochemical-related stocks. The results show that INE has higher hedge effectiveness than Brent and WTI under pairwise hedging. Further, in multi-asset allocation, the portfolios containing INE outperform other portfolios. Overall, INE results in a better diversification effect and volatility reduction than the use of WTI crude oil futures to construct multi-asset allocation with Chinese petrochemical-related stocks. However, INE performance is inferior to Brent's in terms of constructing portfolios with oil or energy stocks. Finally, our results are robust to the five factors proposed by Fama and French (2015) in asset pricing.     

International Outsourcing of Services: What Role for Central and East European Countries?

Central and East European countries (CEECs) that have recently acceded to the European Union are increasingly emerging on the map of global companies as possible locations for outsourcing services. Starting from the assumption of labor cost differentials in favor of the CEECs, the paper explores the CEECs' capacity and potential to supply outsourcable services to the EU-15. We analyze trends in trade flows and foreign direct investment in computer services and other business services. Although the available statistical data are deficient and excessively aggregated, the scattered evidence suggests that the CEECs are important suppliers of outsourcable services to the EU-15. Apart from labor cost differentials, other factors, such as the availability of skilled workforce as well as geographical and cultural proximity, might also contribute to EU-15 companies' preference for the CEECs when deciding on the location for international outsourcing of services. Increased specialization within the enlarged European Union could bring greater benefits from the international outsourcing of services, provided the European Union improves the functioning of labor markets and the competitiveness of the service sector, including the efficient implementation of the internal market for services.     

Contracts for dummies? The performance of investors in contracts for difference

Investors widely use contracts for difference (CFDs) to leverage and short sell underlying financial assets. We investigate the after cost performance of investors in Australian Securities Exchange listed share CFDs, and find that market order CFD trades earn small positive returns at the daily horizon, with negative returns reported for one month to one year horizons due to financing costs. Market orders also net sell positions, which suggests that investors use CFDs for shorting opportunities. Overall, we find that liquidity demanders in CFDs obtain favourable execution, which is inconsistent with the view that CFDs are used by naive individuals.     

Do capital importing countries pay higher prices for their imports of goods?

We examine the effects that a country's net capital flows have on the (border) prices that a country pays for its imports of goods. Using data from 2000 to 2009 for 11 euro area countries we utilize a pricing-to-market specification to study exporters' pricing behavior to the rest of the countries in the sample, at the industry level, for 900 goods disseminated at the 4-digit Standard International Trade Classification level. This allows us to construct a panel dataset which contains observations across exporters, importers, industries and time. We find a strong positive influence of the importing country's net capital inflows on the border prices of its imports of goods. This result is robust across different specifications of the underlying model, as well to different sample dis-aggregations across types of capital flows, product categories, and exporters.