European Financial Management最新文献

This paper empirically investigates the role of financial markets (FM) and their development in promoting hydrogen adoption as a component of green and just transition. Hydrogen can play a significant role in the energy transition, especially for sectors that are otherwise hard to decarbonize. Utilizing a twofold methodology, we demonstrate that well-developed FM significantly drive hydrogen production. Moreover, the findings highlight the connection between individual hydrogen Exchange Traded Funds and high-tech stocks, while actual hydrogen pricing is connected to oil and gas. Policy implications highlight the need for clear regulatory frameworks, communication and blended financing support for hydrogen adoption.

Digital finance promises to reduce barriers in financial markets, yet its inclusiveness remains uncertain. This paper examines individual investors in equity crowdfunding (ECF) using data from 20,209 registered users on Italy's largest ECF platform. We analyze gender, age, location and ethnicity in investment decisions. Our findings challenge traditional finance views: women and ethnic minorities invest more and in larger amounts, while younger individuals invest less, contradicting assumptions about digital finance appealing to youth. No significant differences emerge between rural and metropolitan investors, suggesting that digital access alone does not eliminate geographic barriers.

Green loans, costlier than sustainable bonds, are mainly used by smaller firms. This study examines 439 green loans issued to 299 nonfinancial firms during 2016–2023, assessing whether they signal environmental commitment or generate impact. Findings support both Signalling and Impact Investing theories. Share prices show abnormal returns around announcements, especially for subsequent loans. Post-loan, firms see a 1.1%–1.2% rise in operating income relative to assets and a 0.11–0.13 kg CO₂ reduction per $1000 revenue. Loan size has limited impact, while loan conditions matter more. Green loans offer both financial and environmental benefits, reinforcing their role in sustainable development.

This study examines factors influencing full (FP) versus partial (PP) privatization and how markets respond to government control in PP and FP firms. Exploiting China's 2005 NTS reform as a natural experiment, we find that treated PP firms experienced significantly lower post-reform performance, driven by persistent private benefits of control, failure to adopt value-maximizing behaviour, and unchanged liquidity and information asymmetry. In contrast, FP firms eliminated all NTS, maximized value; showed higher stock market liquidity and lower information asymmetry, improved market performance; and gained market confidence in the post-reform period. These findings challenge the effectiveness of China's authoritarian approach to private sector development.

This study investigates how overconfident cryptocurrency traders influence the connection between returns and risk premia, proxied by option-adjusted credit spreads. Using daily data from January 2021 to February 2025, we uncover asymmetry and state dependence: returns decline when spreads widen, particularly during crashes, yet they do not recover when spreads narrow. Equity indices exhibit more balanced co-movements. The asymmetry strengthens in high-volatility periods and persists after we control for broad market returns and after we substitute a composite crypto index for individual cryptocurrencies. These findings indicate a distinctive pricing mechanism in cryptocurrency markets shaped by overconfident behaviour and credit-spread dynamics.

Given the scale of ESG ratings disagreement, we examine its impact on trading behaviour and find that a one standard deviation increase in disagreement leads to a 1.3% decline in abnormal trading volume, suggesting ESG disagreement introduces uncertainty rather than belief divergence. This effect holds across various robustness tests and is stronger for firms with low ESG performance, limited analyst coverage, or high volatility. The relationship becomes more pronounced after 2016 and is driven by norm-constrained institutional investors. Disagreement is also associated with wider bid-ask spreads, indicating reduced information efficiency.