International Journal of Finance & Economics最新文献

In this study, we provide the first attempt to relate economic policy uncertainty (EPU) to firms' access to finance. Using data from 26 countries and the news-based index from Baker et al. (2016), we provide evidence that EPU significantly increases financial constraints and decreases firms' access to finance. Our main inference is robust to alternative measures of financial constraints, alternative samples, alternative model specifications, and several approaches that control for potential endogeneity. We further show that the EPU-financial constraint relationship is driven by both the demand and supply sides of financing. Additional analyses suggest that the impact of EPU on firms' financial constraints is moderated by board characteristics (i.e., gender diversity, independence, and duality). They also highlight the moderating roles of government effectiveness, the rule of law and control of corruption. Collectively, our findings provide novel theoretical and practical contributions in relation to EPU and the firms' setting.

Corporate governance attributes have varying effects on risk taking when variables are examined separately. We study the effects of a large range of corporate governance attributes on risk taking using a comprehensive US sample. Our findings confirm that although there are certain characteristics that drive this positive effect such as compensation structure, there are those which have the opposite effect such as board-level attributes. Our paper contributes to the broader literature on the relationship between corporate governance and risk in financial institutions, which are often overlooked in traditional studies. We shed light on the importance of studying corporate governance at a granular level rather than using a single index. The findings offer insights to regulators in determining suitable corporate governance frameworks to ensure the protection of investors rights in financial institutions.

Life insurance enhances households' capacity to absorb financial shocks and protects against personal risks that no one likes to contemplate. This is even more important in times of economic hardship such as now, when many Europe countries and particularly Spain are going through difficult times due to rising inflation, the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Although previous studies have analysed the driving forces of life insurance demand, the influence of the individual's financial planning horizon, financial knowledge, and financial self-control have been underexplored. This study analyses the influence of personal financial attributes on life insurance demand and, in so doing, explores whether the effects of such attitudes differ across different generational cohorts (i.e., the silent generation, baby boomers, Gen Xers, and millennials). The data, taken from the Survey of Financial Competences, comprises 7245 Spanish individuals. Evidence from multivariate analyses reflects the relevance of standard sociodemographic characteristics in explaining individuals' decisions to become life insurance holders. In contrast, evidence does not support a statistically significant relationship in the case of behavioural variables such as financial self-control and the financial planning horizon.

In response to the potential green swans event in the future, China is adopting market-oriented means to encourage green development, specifically through carbon emission trading schemes. At the same time, under the outbreak of the current global pandemic, it is equally important to consider the impact of black swan events. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the fluctuations in carbon emission trading prices under green and black swan events by utilizing daily data from seven carbon emission exchanges in China from 2017 to 2020. The analysis includes the construction of multiple regression models, PVAR models, and panel threshold models. Additionally, the study addresses the endogeneity problem by using instrumental variables. The findings of the study indicate that: (1) Rising temperatures will drive up the carbon emissions trading price, and this impact will persist over time. On the other hand, increased humidity levels and sunshine hours will reduce the carbon emissions trading price. Furthermore, there is a positive correlation between the increase in the price of primary energy and the increase in the carbon emissions trading price. (2) The spread of COVID-19 has a restraining effect on the increase in temperature and will have a long-term negative impact on the carbon emissions trading price. (3) The threshold effect concerning the prevalence of pandemics is recognized, which implies that the impact of the epidemic is staged and nonlinear. Overall, the results of this article highlight the importance of a reasonable response to both black swan and green swan events in order to enhance the efficiency of the current emission trading scheme.