Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance最新文献

We study the asset allocation of an investor with prospect theory (PT) preferences. First, we solve analytically the two-asset problem of the PT investor for one risk-free and one risky asset and find that the reference return and the level of risk aversion or risk seeking (diminishing sensitivity) affect differently less ambitious and more ambitious investors: the less ambitious investor decreases her exposure to the risky asset when increasing her reference return or the level of diminishing sensitivity, while the more ambitious investor increases her exposure to the risky asset when increasing her reference return or the level of diminishing sensitivity. However, both less and more ambitious investors decrease their exposures to the risky asset when increasing their degrees of loss aversion. In a comprehensive sensitivity analysis, we investigate how different aspects of the PT investor’s preferences contribute to her risk taking, performance and happiness. We observe, for instance, that the investor’s happiness decreases with her increasing level of ambition. Second, we perform simulations to examine concrete solutions of the theoretical two-asset problem for different types of the PT investor and for different characteristics of the risky asset and find that the assumption of skewness, as opposed to symmetry, changes the optimal investment in the risky asset. Third, we empirically investigate the performance of a PT portfolio when diversifying among a stock market index, a government bond and gold, in Europe and the US. We focus on investors with PT preferences under different scenarios regarding the reference return and the degree of loss aversion and compare their portfolio performance with the performance of investors under mean–variance (MV), linear loss averse and CVaR preferences. We find that, in the US, PT portfolios significantly outperform MV portfolios (in terms of returns) in most cases.

There has been a lot of scholarly interest in investigating the relationship between investment determinants and environmental sustainability. The objective of this study is to utilise meta-analysis to combine 43861 observations from 82 studies that look at how environmental sustainability determinants (Carbon emission, greenhouse gas emission, climate change) and investment determinants, such as foreign direct investment, trade openness, international trade, globalisation, and green innovation, connected. The findings show that there is a significant and positive association between environmental sustainability and Foreign direct investment, trade openness, international trade, and globalization. Additionally, the association between carbon emission and green innovation was found negative. Also, institutional quality, regulatory quality, and market type moderate the relationship between investment determinants and environmental sustainability. Studies show that introducing institutional quality as a moderator for Foreign direct investment and trade openness negatively affects carbon emissions. The present study also stipulates policy implications for countries to reduce carbon emissions.

Recent technological innovations and changes in governmental regulations both affect information dissemination; within this context, we use this paper to reassess the role of information asymmetry in corporate spin-off decisions. Analyzing spin-off deals from 1980 to 2017, we find that information asymmetry does not significantly influence spin-off decisions. Specifically, there is neither substantial disparity in levels of information asymmetry between spin-off firms and their counterparts, nor marked improvements after breakups. This remains true even when we account for events such as the Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) and the types of spin-offs themselves. Additionally, no evidence exists to suggest that firms with greater information asymmetry are more inclined to spin off. Contrary to findings in the literature, information asymmetry does not explain observed positive abnormal returns around spin-off announcements; instead, the misvaluation of spin-off firms correlates more closely with their pre-spin-off investment efficiency. These findings suggest a shift in primary drivers behind corporate spin-offs: a diminished focus on information asymmetry and stronger attention instead to investment inefficiencies and misvaluation in response to evolving market conditions.

This study investigates the feasibility of including the sustainability performance of firms in the asset pricing problem. The data of 500 firms from the NIFTY 500 index are used for this study. The stock prices and financial data are downloaded from the CIME database. The sustainability factor is computed using the ESG scores from the Bloomberg database. In order to test the influence of the sustainability factor, the Fama–French Five-Factor model is extended by including the sustainability factor as an additional factor. The dependent variables are the excess returns on 36 size and book-to-market ratio sorted portfolios, 36 size and operating profitability sorted portfolios, and 36 size and investment sorted portfolios. The impact of the sustainability factor on excess portfolio return is tested using the Fama–MacBeth two-pass regression and the Fama–French methodology. The results show that the price of ESG risk (or ESG risk premium) is positive, indicating that firms with lower ESG performance yield more returns than those with higher ESG performance. About one-third of the portfolios witness the significant impact of the sustainability factor on their returns. However, the insignificant relationship in two third of the portfolios between the sustainability factor and excess portfolio returns conveys that in the Indian market, corporate investors have the flexibility to decide on ESG investment. Smaller firms are exposed to a higher ESG risk, and Firms which do not integrate environmental and social costs into their strategies may bear a higher cost of equity.

The current method of calculating nominal bank output in the national accounts has significant shortcomings. Discussions to remedy this have been ongoing for several years. We propose a new method that addresses the flaws of the current approach of the System of National Accounts. We implement a simple model-free method that removes the ’pure’ credit risk premium from the production of banks while keeping the liquidity provision as part of the total nominal bank output. Using both local projections and autoregressive distributed lag models, we show that our method produces nominal bank output estimates that are consistent with the evolution of the economic activity and that remain always positive including during periods of financial stress. This method satisfies the four conditions set by the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on National Accounts. Furthermore, our method reveals that the nominal banking output of the eurozone is overestimated by approximately 40% over the period 2003–2017.

State-contingent debt has the potential to eliminate costly debt crises. Yet, markets for this type of debt remain essentially closed. This paper uses a simple model to show conditions under which specialized risk-averse foreign lenders prefer non-contingent debt to state-contingent debt. Borrowers always prefer state-contingent debt as non-contingent debt increases the probability of default and reduces investment and output. However, lenders face a trade-off between the total surplus generated by the investment project and the share that they appropriate through the financial trade. Even though total surplus is smaller with non-contingent debt when compared to state-contingent debt, the share of the surplus that goes to lenders is larger under non-contingent debt. The paper then characterizes environments where state-contingent debt is more likely to be preferred by both borrowers and lenders under risk aversion.

We investigate the impact of family ties on the performance of family firms in East Asia. To measure family ties, we used both objective and subjective indicators from the World Value Survey. Our findings indicate that family firms that are nurtured in a society with strong family ties tend to have better performance compared to family firms that operate in a culture with weak family ties. Furthermore, family firms that have strong familial relationships are more likely to gain a competitive advantage over nonfamily firms. Conversely, family firms with weak ties tend to underperform nonfamily firms. Our results are robust across various measures of firm performance, classifications of family firm, considerations of heteroskedasticity and endogeneity, and different econometric methods.

The environmental courts represent institutional innovation in the judicial system independent of administrative regulations, this study examines whether and how environmental courts promote corporate green innovation by breaking collusion in Chinese heavily polluting listed firms from 2003 to 2020. Based on a staggered difference-in-difference analysis, our findings show that environmental courts have a stronger stimulating effect on green innovation quality and no effect on low-quality green patents. This effect is particularly more pronounced for firms with lower risk-taking ability, higher green agency costs, and state-owned firms. We also confirmed that environmental courts enhance authoritative judicial constraints on local governments, thereby curbing collusion and forcing them to implement environmental protection subsidies and administrative penalties to optimize corporate green innovation structure. Our fine-grained analysis indicates that independent green patents are more sensitive to environmental courts than collaborative ones. However, corporate green R&D efficiency does not improve following the establishment of environmental courts. Overall, our study underscores the importance of strengthening environmental justice as an effective mechanism for facilitating a just transition to a low-carbon green economy.

In this paper, we investigated the effect of network structures on stock’s systemic risk contribution, which measures the connection characteristics of investment network from different aspects. Firstly, we find that network centrality increases systemic risk contribution, and empirical results hold even after controlling for other factors and are also robust to alternate measures. Secondly, this paper further proposes two possible explanations. Specifically, investment network connection could increase the possibility of collusion with firms, facilitate the relevant institutional investors to hollow out the listed company, and firms at the center of network can amplify the sentiment of market participants through the generation and dissemination of information, thereby increasing stock’s systemic risk contribution. Besides, economic policy uncertainty (EPU) could strengthen the positive effect of network centrality on stock’s systemic risk contribution. Finally, we document that other important network features (including structural holes, clustering coefficients, and core-periphery structure) can also increase stock’s systemic risk contribution.

In this paper I estimate the impact of Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO) on the evolution of lending amounts and rates in Slovenia, with a specific focus on distinct effects of TLTRO-I and II. I use a combination of difference-in-differences and instrumental variable approach, which together with detail credit register data enable the identification of supply side effects of the TLTRO policy. The results show a supporting impact of targeted operations on bank loan supply, resulting in higher credit growth and lower rates. I find that the TLTRO-I was supportive through both the quantity and price channels, whereas the TLTRO-II only shows a significant impact on the credit amount. Further, I find the transmission of TLTRO-I was higher through better capitalized banks, whereas both policy waves supported lending to safe and stable firms with higher credit ratings.