International Journal of Finance & Economics最新文献

Despite the extensive research on board gender diversity (BGD), questions persist regarding its impact on firm performance and the mechanisms through which it operates, especially in emerging economies. This research enhances our understanding of how the attributes of female directors contribute to firm performance. Using data from large, listed firms in Vietnam over the period 2014–2020, we find a positive effect of BGD on firm performance, with a significant impact when at least two women serve on the board. Notably, our results show that women executive directors exert a stronger positive influence than women independent directors. We also demonstrate the importance of women directors' age, rather than their education level, in shaping firm performance. Our findings are robust across various tests. Overall, this study provides compelling evidence that, in the context of emerging economies, BGD's impact on firm performance is driven by older (more experienced) women executive directors.

We aim to identify robust determinants of current account imbalances in 87 emerging and developing countries in the context of model uncertainty and selection bias, from 1980 to 2017. The uncertainty arises from the diversity of competing theories and the contradictory findings of empirical works, while the systemic unavailability of current account data causes selection bias. To overcome these issues, we extend Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) approach to HeckitBMA in order to address model uncertainty in the presence of selection bias. We find that out of 21 potential determinants, only 10 are robust determinants. However, these determinants differ according to country groupings, and since the 2008 financial crisis, some determinants have gained importance, such as inflation targeting, macroprudential policies, and income inequality. Finally, we find that the determinants of current account surpluses are not strictly the same as those of deficits. Our results shed more light on how policy makers can manage current account imbalances and which levers to use.

The rise of ESG investment has stimulated the development of ESG ratings, while there is substantial ESG rating disagreement among different rating agencies, which creates a major obstacle to sustainable investment. This study empirically examines the impact of ESG rating disagreement on the quality of analysts' forecasts based on the data of Chinese listed companies from 2015 to 2021. It is found that the ESG rating disagreement significantly improves the quality of analysts' forecasts. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that ESG rating disagreement can enhance the quality of analysts' forecasts by increasing analysts' attention. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the observed effect is more pronounced in companies with low information quality and those with star analysts. These findings not only objectively assess the impact of ESG rating disagreement, but also emphasise the crucial role of analysts in improving the capital market information environment.

This study examines the relationship between bank de-branching and profitability in Russian regions depending on the region's internet infrastructure development and financial digital literacy. Using data from 84 Russian regions from 2010 to 2020 and panel data analysis techniques, we test whether the adequacy of internet infrastructure for online banking and financial digital literacy are positively related to bank de-branching and whether they add to bank de-branching efficiency in terms of bank profitability. We show that a higher degree of the region's internet infrastructure development and higher levels of financial digital literacy are positively related to bank de-branching. We observe that banks closing their branches in regions exhibiting higher levels of internet development and financial digital literacy gain more profit from de-branching. This study adds to the literature by being the first to examine whether financial digital literacy and the development of internet technologies enhance the positive effect of bank de-branching on bank profitability.

Does Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending, a digital FinTech platform, show resilience in response to COVID-19 shocks? We examine this question by considering both the absorbing and adapting abilities based on psychological perceptions and objective infection cases. We collect data on infection cases, the Baidu search index, and 54,166 textual news articles to propose a novel perspective that incorporates both subjective psychological perceptions and objective infection cases to measure the response of P2P lending firms to COVID-19 shocks. We calculate the extent of P2P lending's resilience using four metrics: maximum loss, total loss, recovery periods, and net impacts from local projections impulse responses. Our findings demonstrate that P2P lending displays resilience, as its total trade volume, new investors, and new investments initially decrease slightly and then rebound in response to the COVID-19 shock. Psychological perception of COVID-19 shocks, rather than objective infection, elicits a more pronounced response in the performance of P2P lending firms.

This paper investigates whether and how the chief executive officer (CEO)'s inside debt holding influences a firm's investment policy. Our evidence on a sample of US S&P 1500 firms indicates that CEO inside debt can significantly improve investment efficiency and help to overcome both over-investment and under-investment, suggesting that the CEO's higher positions of inside debt can lead to optimal investment decisions. The results are robust when we use PSM, entropy balancing, the Heckman two-stage method and the lagged value of the independent variables to mitigate the endogeneity concerns and other robustness checks. Furthermore, we document that the effectiveness of the CEO inside debt on investment is not sensitive to agency problems, as well as financial constraints. Overall, we confirm the importance of investigating the effect of managerial inside debt holdings on corporate capital investment and provide new insights into how inside debt mitigates agency problems.