Emerging Markets Review最新文献

Through a proprietary dataset of listed firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, we establish a positive link between firms' financial technology (Fintech) business and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Such a link can be more pronounced among firms of stronger political connections, lower agency costs, and better internal control. Enhanced supply of bank loans, internal capital market, public scrutiny, and firms' strategic differences are underlying the link. Fintech business may also effectively curb firms' corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) behaviour. Fintech business may have become a strategic endeavor to sustain long-term economic growth in the digital age.

This paper investigates the relationship among trade liberalization, the degree of trade openness (DTO) and regional foreign direct investment (FDI) using Chinese data for 2001–2018 by hand collection. We apply the fixed effect model and find that both trade liberalization and regional DTO have a significantly positive relationship with regional FDI. Furthermore, a variable coefficient model is used to prove that the effects of trade liberalization on regional FDI are heterogeneous across regions. Finally, we use the threshold model to prove the significant threshold effects of DTO on the relationship of trade liberalization and FDI. This paper provides theoretical and policy support for countries with obvious regional differences to attract FDI.

We investigate whether and how banks adjust their financial positions in the wake of labor strikes. Using hand-collected data at the bank-municipality level in Brazil during 2006–2016, we find that banks significantly increase loan loss provisions, reduce loans disbursed, and hold less liquidity just before the bank labor strikes. These results are consistent with a bargaining hypothesis, suggesting that banks account for fewer current earnings, reduce expected cash flows, and reveal less cash and cash equivalents to labor unions before the anticipated strikes to counter the rent-seeking behavior of unions and strengthen their bargaining power in upcoming wage negotiations.

Our paper examines how large shareholders manage goodwill impairment to inflate earnings as well as the role of audit functions in this setting. The influence of large shareholders on corporate decisions is well documented, however, overlooked in goodwill literature. Using data from China, we find that a higher ownership percentage held by large shareholders associates with a lower likelihood of recording goodwill impairment as well as a reduced impairment amount, suggesting that goodwill impairment is intentionally avoided or decreased by large shareholders. We further find that the presence of big4 auditors mitigates such relationship.

This study investigates the impact of the expanded audit report on IPO underpricing. Using the sample of A-share listed firms in China from June 2014 to November 2021, we find that the expanded audit reports can reduce the speculative behavior of investors in the initial phase of IPOs, resulting in lower IPO underpricing and consecutive rising limits. The channel tests suggest that the disclosure of key audit matters reduces value uncertainty and alleviates investors' local bias. Our results are consistent to a series of robustness tests. Further analyses show that the negative relation between expanded audit reports and IPO underpricing intensifies when the legal environment is weak and firms' information transparency is low. Additional tests uncover positive market reaction after the mandatory disclosure rule in the long run. Overall, our study adds new insights to the information effects of the expanded audit reports in emerging markets.

I find a crackdown on shadow banking has real effects. For identification, I exploit a policy — the “New Regulations on Asset Management” (NRAM) — that restricts the issuance of wealth management products (WMP) in China. I show firms with high WMP exposure experience a decline in investments. The effects are pronounced for firms that are more profitable, have higher revenue growth, and are more financially constrained. Exploration of the possible channels of these effects shows a decline in the credit supply of banks that relied more on WMPs, driven by the fall in their shadow banking activities.

This paper examines the effects of foreign exchange (FX) communications on FX markets in Colombia and Mexico. Our estimations follow the calendar-time portfolio approach using daily data between 2000 and 2019 on exchange rates and known risk factors. We find an asymmetric effect of such communications: while there is strong evidence indicating that communications aimed at weakening the local currency affect the exchange rate level in the intended direction, there is no evidence of impact when examining communications intended to strengthen it. These results are consistent with fear of appreciation and with previous evidence from developed economies.

In this paper, we examine the impact of stress in the global supply chains on inflation and monetary policy in Mexico, a representative emerging market economy. Using non-linear local projections, we estimate the degree of monetary policy tightening required in a high-stress supply chain environment and compare it to that in a low-stress environment. We instrument the monetary policy shocks with shocks to the federal funds rate. Results suggest that in a high-stress regime, the effect of an increase in the monetary policy interest rate on inflation over a one-year period is reduced considerably. We argue that this reduction is due to the slow response of inflation expectations to a monetary policy tightening in a high-stress regime. Furthermore, raising the interest rate has an effect on producer price inflation, a channel that is absent in a low-stress regime. This finding highlights the role of monetary policy in stabilizing inflation when facing supply shocks that are not necessarily permanent.

This paper explores China's endogeneity of economic policy uncertainty (EPU). Previous studies have disagreed on the causal relationship between uncertainty and the business cycle. By using shock-based restrictions, we identify structural shocks and investigate the endogeneity of China's EPU index. The findings suggest that an increase in EPUs is more likely to cause fluctuations in the Chinese economy than the reverse. The paper also uncovers spillovers of China's EPU on the US EPU, indicating a national strategy at play. In the long run, EPU shocks in China account for at least 22% of China's economic activity variation and 30% of the US EPU variation. These findings remain consistent when accounting for the COVID-19 period, adopting heteroskedasticity identification schemes, and using alternative EPU indexes.

Does the degree of finance dependence, defined as firms' reliance on external finance for regular production activities, determine exporters' heterogeneous responses to real exchange rate shocks? This paper develops a stylized model to illustrate the role of finance dependence in shaping exporters' pricing decisions when the bilateral real exchange rate fluctuates. The model features distribution costs, endogenous markup, and firm heterogeneity. In the model, finance dependence can impact firms' export pricing decisions in a way isomorphic to firm productivity but in the opposite direction: firms with high finance dependence have a high demand elasticity and a low price elasticity to exchange rate fluctuations. Therefore, in response to real exchange rate shocks, financially more dependent firms exhibit lower exchange rate pass-through into export prices denominated in home country currency (RMB). To assess the model prediction, I develop a firm-destination-year-specific measure of finance dependence based on the basket of goods that firms export and employ the Chinese manufacturing firm export data from 2000 to 2006 for analysis. The empirical test is carried out at the most disaggregated firm-product-destination level and confirms the model prediction.