Emerging Markets Review最新文献

We investigate the relationship between functional subsidies, selective subsidies, and investment efficiency through meticulous compilation of information on government subsidies, and the implementation of an innovative categorization methodology based on the nature and timing of funds (ex-ante versus ex-post). Our findings suggest that the effects of subsidies exhibit asymmetry by alleviating underinvestment while exacerbating overinvestment, and functional subsidies exert a stronger influence compared to selective subsidies. Financial constraints are found to serve as the major mechanism, and firms with easier access to financing may not effectively utilize subsidies, while those facing severe financial constraints are less prone to misusing them.

This study explores how foreign competition impacts the capital structure of domestic firms. While existing literature reveals that import competition is associated with a decrease in domestic firms' leverage, we propose a novel perspective concerning the positive effect of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on leverage. FDI competition can boost demand for debt via productivity spillover to domestic firms, and also increase supply of debt by inducing lenders to herd toward foreign investors. Using Chinese firm-level data, we find that the positive effects of industry inward FDI on domestic firms' leverage are more pronounced in high-tech industries, industries with higher productivity growth, and industries where foreign investors exhibit a higher degree of herding behavior. Our instrument variable approach, employing industry exchange rates and import tariffs, supports these findings. Additionally, we reveal that the positive effect of FDI on local firms' leverage is amplified when the firms have stronger absorptive capacities, receive foreign capital, and experience more human capital transfers from foreign rivals.

Several bond markets in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are defaulting due to hiking spreads amid the stressed states introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the geopolitical risk tensions from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Are there controllable factors that drive these markets? We investigate the dynamic connection shared by SSA bond markets and assess the role of investor sentiment measures, focusing on the risk aversion sentiment of international investors. Our results, across different trading horizons, are expected to aid in the formulation of policies for regulating and developing bond markets of emerging economies, particularly SSA. In terms of both return and volatility of SSA bonds, we find risk aversion sentiment an important transmitter of spillover for all investment horizons.

Based on linear and non-linear threshold modeling, we show that improving governance in all its dimensions is a factor in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change on macroeconomic stability in ten African countries. This result is a contribution to the existing literature that focuses primarily on the effect of governance and climate change on economic activity, with the addition of indirect and threshold effects. It also sheds new empirical light on this issue in a sample of African countries that are particularly exposed to climate change, cyclical fluctuations, and poor governance; countries that have not been sufficiently considered in existing empirical literature.

This study examines innovation spillovers within business groups, focusing on Korean chaebols. We find that an affiliated firm's innovation is affected positively by both within- and outside-group innovation spillover pools. Specifically, the impact of the within-group pool is more pronounced than that of the outside-group pool. We further find that within-group spillovers are stronger for affiliates with closer internal business relationships and for those whose controlling shareholders have higher group- or firm-level equity stakes. Finally, we show that greater within-group innovation spillovers lead to higher group-level innovative performance. Overall, our study suggests a pivotal role of business groups in promoting corporate innovation via effective innovation spillovers. (JEL G15, G30, O32, O33).

We examine the role of regulatory arbitrage via wealth management products (WMPs) in the determination of lending rates in China. We find WMP yields are positively associated with lending rates whereas the effect of WMP scale varies across bank size. For the big-5 state-owned banks, the negative “transfer-effect” of high-risk high-yield loans into shadow bank credit dominates the positive “funding-cost-effect” of banks becoming more dependent on wholesale funding. For smaller banks, the positive funding-cost effect dominates. Our study provides insights into the role of regulatory arbitrage on asset structure and profit margins in the interest of banks and the regulators.

China adopted amendments allowing companies to redact filings without prior approval in 2016. Leveraging this change as a quasi-nature experiment, we explore whether managers utilize redacted information to withhold bad information in the more lenient regulatory environment. Our investigation uncovers a significant shift in managerial behavior: Since 2016, managers incline to employ redactions to obscure negative news rather than safeguarding proprietary data. Furthermore, we find that the poorer firm performance and a higher cost of equity are associated with the redacted disclosures after 2016, suggesting that investors perceive an increase in firm-specific risk attributed to withholding bad news through redactions.

We posit that geopolitical events that elevate investor risk prompt equity investors to shift capital from emerging markets to safer mature markets, raising the cost of equity capital for firms in emerging economies. Using a sample of 55,900 observations spanning 19 economies from 1987 to 2018, we find that higher geopolitical risk increases the cost of equity capital, on average. We further find that this effect is moderated by country-level institutional context (constraints on the executive branch of government and regulatory arrangements) and firm-level factors (cross-listing in the U.S. and foreign sales).

This study examines whether analysts' informativeness and activities change following regulatory reforms strengthening market surveillance in Korea. Only star analysts provide firm-specific information, particularly for firms with characteristics favored by fund managers. However, such information provision is only significant before the equity market reforms. After the reforms, star analysts tend to cover more financially stable firms with larger sizes, higher earnings, higher stock liquidity, and lower leverage. Difference-in-differences analyses confirm that the synchronicity of chaebol firms with brokerage firms is lower than those without brokerages, indicating that the reforms' effect is mitigated for those with chaebol-affiliated analysts.

We examine the association between board centrality and corporate environmental disclosure using hand-collected data from Chinese-listed firms in heavily polluting industries. We find that board centrality has a positive effect on corporate environmental disclosure. We also show that this positive effect emanates from the critical role of the board in monitoring and resource distribution, and its incentive to promote information transparency. Our results, which are robust to a set of robustness checks, have important implications for both regulators and investors.