Can the Islamic bank be an emerging leader? A panel data causality analysis

This short note investigates the ability of Islamic banks (IBs) to play a leading role in revamping and driving conventional banking. To this end, we used a panel of 10 major conventional banks (CBs) and 10 IBs over the period 2006–2013. We applied panel regression tests and carried out a panel causality analysis. Our findings identified no significant causality effect from IBs to CBs and indicated that IBs are not able to play a role of leader.     

Mobilizing moral boundaries: the politics of derivatives reform in the US

This paper explains the reform of derivatives markets in the US by stressing the influence of moral distinctions on financial market regulation. The results show that business and consumer groups outside finance activate boundaries between legitimate risk management and illegitimate speculative practices. This categorical distinction delegitimised certain practices within the financial industry and affected both the relative power of interest groups and the political agenda. First, the mobilisation of moral boundaries strengthened the position of legitimate groups and weakened that of the financial industry in negotiations. This forced the latter to alter its lobbying strategies. Second, by highlighting inappropriate speculative practices, groups outside the financial sector changed policy-makers’ perception of problems. Policy-makers adopted a position which is congruent with broader moral understandings. The study is based on data from Congressional hearings, interviews, media articles, letters and interest group publications. The process tracing analysis advances our understanding of the social mechanisms linking moral perceptions and institutional change in financial markets.     

中国产粮大县的利益补偿——基于粮食生产和县域财政收入的视角

利用2001—2013年中国2000多个县的数据,探讨了产粮大县粮食生产的贡献以及其与非产粮大县在经济发展水平上的差距,实证分析了粮食生产对县域财政收入的影响,并提出了对产粮大县进行利益补偿的基本思路。结果表明:目前"产粮大县,财政穷县"的现象依然存在;粮食生产比较效益低下是导致产粮大县财政收入低下的重要原因;2003—2013年产粮大县的粮食增产拉低了其财政收入的9.98%。     

金融中介职能、会计质量与债券违约风险——海龙短期融资券案例分析

利用案例分析方法分析了短期融资券11海龙CP01的发行和兑付过程,发现债券发行公司在发行债券前后均存在会计质量、公司运营以及内部治理等方面的问题,包括评级公司、承销商和会计师事务所在内的金融中介机构并未对这些问题及时披露,而这不利于信用风险市场化体系的建立,阻碍了债券市场的长期健康发展。     

欧盟碳期货风险量化——基于GED-GARCH模型和VaR模型

以欧盟碳期货合约为研究对象,针对其反映的市场风险特点,采用GED-GARCH模型进行参数估计。结果显示:到期日的因素使得欧盟碳期货合约收益率序列的条件方差与历史信息之间存在联系;碳期货合约的到期日越久,其条件方差越依赖于历史信息,表明欧盟碳期货市场为弱式有效市场;欧盟碳期货合约收益率序列的波动会逐渐衰减,表明最终合约价格能够起到价格预示作用。再利用GARCH模型的参数估计结果,计算出不同置信水平下收益率序列的在险值,夯实实证研究结果。针对欧盟碳期货合约风险的量化研究表明,欧盟碳期货与碳现货的关系呈现出新兴市场的分割局面特征,进一步导致欧盟碳金融市场逐渐走向虚拟化。因此,在中国碳市场的建设中,应做到碳期货与碳现货交易相协调,做好碳金融市场上风险的量化和控制。     

京津冀协同发展背景下的金融聚集与经济收敛——京津冀城市群与长三角城市群的对比分析

利用2000—2014年京津冀城市群和长三角城市群的38个城市的空间面板数据,从金融聚集和经济收敛的视角,探讨了京津冀城市群的经济和金融发展失衡的深层次原因以及一体化背景下的协同发展路径,并将京津冀城市群和长三角城市群进行了对比分析。结果表明:两城市群的经济和金融呈不同的空间辐射模式;具体而言,京津冀城市群的金融效率和金融规模存在显著的σ收敛和β收敛,但是经济增长的σ收敛和β收敛不仅未呈现出趋同效应,反而表现出发散特征,表明河北在信贷投入不足的情况下仍存在严重的金融资源流失现象,金融对当地经济贡献微弱;与之形成鲜明对比的是,长三角城市群的金融效率和金融规模的σ收敛呈发散趋势,但其β收敛和经济增长的σ收敛和β收敛均呈现出趋同效应,表明长三角城市群金融聚集的溢出效应促进了邻近区域的经济增长。     

Do women borrowers augment financial performance of MFIs?

There is some consensus that depth of outreach and financial performance of Microfinance Institutions (MFI) are positively correlated. A majority of microcredit borrowers are women and since the prevalence of female borrowers is even greater among the very poor, there should be a positive correlation between female borrowers and financial performance. Most of the MFIs target women as preferred borrowers. However, no study to date has investigated the relationship between targeting women and MFI’s sustainability with respect to profitability and yield. Utilizing a panel of 892 MFIs over a period of 10 years, this study shows that increased proportion of women borrowers has a statistically significant positive impact on yield and financial performance of MFIs. Consequently, this article also analyses the implication as to whether female borrowers have better repayment rate than male borrowers.     

Investing against the wind: contagion during the recent financial crisis

This article examines the effect of Warren Buffett’s investment in Goldman Sachs on 24 September 2008, during the subprime mortgage crisis. Although this event is arguably perceived to be the biggest expression of confidence in the financial market during the crisis, by conducting event studies, we do not find the major counterparties of Goldman Sachs displayed positive abnormal returns. Moreover, the abnormal return is not significantly related to the counterparty connection. We have similar findings on these financial institutions’ default probabilities using credit default swap.     

The U.S. health care expenditure: evidence from 2001 to 2009

This study utilizes state-level data from 2001 to 2009 to estimate the impact of the 2007 financial crisis upon health care expenditures. Higher death rates are consistently found to have a positive and statistically significant impact on health expenditures. While mental health and COPD are not generally found to impact expenditures, increases in the percentage of the population diagnosed with cholesterol and obesity tend to increase health expenditures. Increases in health expenditures slowed considerably after the financial crisis. Even though recessions (high unemployment rates) are generally found to have a positive impact on health expenditures, the post-financial crisis time period is estimated to have much lower health expenditures than in other time periods. Our results can be used to give insight into the conditions under which the slower rate of increase in health expenditures can be expected to increase. More research will be needed to be able to more completely explore not only the reasons for these changes in health expenditures but also whether they are likely to continue into the future.     

Absorptive capacity and firm performance: an integrative framework of benefits and downsides

Research underscores the important role a firm's absorptive capacity plays in developing knowledge, promoting open innovation, managing alliances, facilitating organisational learning, creating strategic variety, and enhancing financial performance. However, prior research often overlooks how absorptive capacity could increase a firm's costs associated with building this capacity, perpetuate and even increase inertia because of reduced variety and limited organisational search, handicap internal knowledge development, and complicate knowledge sharing. Research also ignores the growing complexity of absorptive capacity, a factor that could reduce a firm's gains from exploiting external knowledge. Our discussion builds on the knowledge-based view to provide an integrative framework for the performance effects of absorptive capacity. Based on different benefits and downsides of absorptive capacity at multiple levels of analysis, it points to an inverted U-shaped relationship between absorptive capacity and a firm's financial performance, highlighting several promising avenues for future research.