International Review of Economics & Finance最新文献_第2页

Funding diversification, governance autonomy, and higher education resilience 资金多元化、治理自治和高等教育弹性

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-23 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105144

Zheng ShaoXin , Li Ming

引用次数: 0

The risk-mitigation effects of artificial intelligence adoption: Evidence from executive misconduct 采用人工智能的风险缓解效应：来自高管不当行为的证据

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105130

Jie Wu , Siyuan Tang , Zhipeng Zhou , Zexuan Qi

{"title":"The risk-mitigation effects of artificial intelligence adoption: Evidence from executive misconduct","authors":"Jie Wu , Siyuan Tang , Zhipeng Zhou , Zexuan Qi","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105130","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105130","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Executive misconduct poses a persistent challenge to corporate governance, and the rapid diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how firms monitor, detect, and deter such behavior. Yet, traditional governance mechanisms often suffer from information asymmetry, limited internal oversight, and weak external constraints, leaving misconduct relatively concealed and difficult to discipline. Using Chinese A-share firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2023, we construct a firm-level AI application index and examine whether and how AI adoption mitigates executive misconduct, as well as its economic consequences. We find that AI application significantly reduces executive misconduct, with robust effects across the incidence of misconduct, the frequency of violations, and the monetary amount of penalties. Mechanism analyses suggest that these risk-mitigation effects operate through four channels: lowering agency costs, strengthening internal control capacity, increasing financial risk exposure, and enhancing external monitoring. We further show that improved governance associated with AI adoption leads to a lower cost of debt financing and higher total factor productivity. This study integrates AI into the corporate governance framework and contributes to the literature on digital technologies and governance by documenting both the governance and real economic benefits of AI. Overall, AI serves not only as a risk-mitigating governance tool but also as a technological foundation for firms’ high-quality development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 105130"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147600650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Understanding the green-growth: Which pathways cities undertake in their climate programs 理解绿色增长：城市在其气候计划中采取哪些途径

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-25 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105160

Simona Bigerna, Maria Chiara D’Errico, Paolo Polinori

{"title":"Understanding the green-growth: Which pathways cities undertake in their climate programs","authors":"Simona Bigerna, Maria Chiara D’Errico, Paolo Polinori","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105160","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105160","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The aim of this study is to identify the most appropriate pathways cities should follow when designing their climate mitigation programs, considering their specific characteristics, including their sector-wise CO2 emission profiles. Accounting for more than 50% of global population and the 70% of global emissions cities are on the forefront of the climate change mitigation policies and have a pillar role in meeting global targets. The role of cities for a sustainable economy has become more urgent with the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting that cities cannot go back to business as usual. While urban governments can deploy a wide range of climate actions, their effectiveness is shaped by multiple contextual factors, including socio-economic conditions, spillover effects, and the structure of local emission profiles. Drawing on data from the CDP-ICLEI Unified Reporting System 2020 and the Global Human Settlement Urban Centre database, this study employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify the combinations of city- and program-specific characteristics that are associated with higher levels of emissions reduction ambition. By revealing these distinct pathways, the study contributes to bridging the gap between case-based insights and cross-sectional approaches, and provides a more deep understanding of how cities can accelerate their transition toward carbon neutrality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 105160"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147600655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Female leadership and corporate carbon emissions: Economic mechanisms and institutional contingencies 女性领导与企业碳排放：经济机制和制度突发事件

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-17 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105087

Mianmian Chen , Lu He , Zhuoran Li

{"title":"Female leadership and corporate carbon emissions: Economic mechanisms and institutional contingencies","authors":"Mianmian Chen , Lu He , Zhuoran Li","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105087","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105087","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the economic relationship between gender diversity in corporate leadership and environmental performance using evidence from China. We first document substantial gender differences in environmental preferences, with female respondents exhibiting significantly stronger preferences for environmental protection relative to economic growth. We then analyze whether these individual-level preference differences aggregate to influence firm-level outcomes using panel data from Chinese listed firms over 2008–2022. Employing two-way fixed effects models, we find that greater female representation in management is associated with lower carbon emissions and higher ESG scores. These effects are economically meaningful and robust to alternative specifications. Critically, the relationship exhibits substantial temporal heterogeneity, becoming statistically and economically significant only after the 2015 Paris Agreement, suggesting that female managers’ environmental preferences translate into corporate action primarily when institutional pressures make environmental performance economically consequential. Our findings contribute to understanding how heterogeneous managerial preferences influence corporate externalities and have implications for corporate governance policy, environmental regulation design, and investor portfolio construction in the context of climate transition. The results suggest that board gender diversity may generate positive environmental externalities without destroying shareholder value, particularly in institutional environments with strong climate governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 105087"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147600649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Reconciling interpretability and accuracy: Evidence from categorical factors 调和可解释性和准确性：来自分类因素的证据

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105116

Yu Zhao , Sen Lin , Ao Kong

{"title":"Reconciling interpretability and accuracy: Evidence from categorical factors","authors":"Yu Zhao , Sen Lin , Ao Kong","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105116","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105116","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Linear models have long been favored in asset pricing for their interpretability in low-dimensional settings. In the contemporary high-dimensional landscape, however, non-linear machine learning models often deliver superior predictive accuracy, albeit at the expense of interpretability due to their “black-box” nature. This paper proposes and evaluates a novel type of explanatory variable, categorical factors, to reconcile this fundamental trade-off between interpretability and accuracy. These factors are constructed by first classifying a broad set of firm characteristics into distinct groups based on their financial nature and then extracting a single representative factor from each group using tailored feature selection techniques. Using US stock market data, we demonstrate that incorporating these categorical factors significantly enhances the predictive accuracy of linear models. Particularly, when the factors are extracted using non-linear feature selection methods, the performance of linear models can be elevated to a level comparable with or even better than that of advanced machine learning algorithms. As these categorical factors directly linked to distinct aspects of intuitive economic information, this key finding underscores their potential to integrate interpretability with predictive accuracy, thereby advancing both objectives in asset pricing. To further guide practitioners, we provide a framework for analyzing the relative importance of these factors, offering a practical tool for quantitative portfolio management. We also demonstrate how this framework can be used to track the temporal evolution of the factors’ predictive power, which is critical for adapting investment strategies to evolving market regimes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 105116"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147600654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

On the optimal equity ratio: Pinning the anchor 论最优权益比率：锚定

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-24 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105155

Dirk Loehr

{"title":"On the optimal equity ratio: Pinning the anchor","authors":"Dirk Loehr","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105155","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105155","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper develops a theoretically grounded and empirically tested model to identify the optimal equity ratio of firms. The ratio is determined by two binding conditions: minimizing the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) and fully covering “critical assets”—such as equity participations, liquid assets, and land—with equity capital. This provides the first integrated model linking a WACC minimum with a structural equity-coverage boundary.</div><div>The optimization is derived using a Lagrange–Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) framework, where the multiplier represents the shadow cost of relaxing the structural constraint. Empirical validation draws on 91,000 German firm balance sheets (1997–2022) from the Deutsche Bundesbank, employing equivalence and regression tests to link capital costs with balance sheet composition.</div><div>Results show that most firms operate at the structural lower bound defined by “critical asset” coverage rather than at an interior WACC minimum, while large corporations approach the cost-efficiency optimum. The optimal equity ratio thus emerges as a hybrid construct: part efficiency, part structural necessity.</div><div>The model provides a normative benchmark for assessing sustainable leverage and highlights an endogenous stabilizing mechanism in corporate balance sheets, offering implications for both firm-level financing and macroprudential regulation. However, it does not imply a universal optimal equity ratio but explains heterogeneity across firm size and legal forms as a structural outcome.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 105155"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147600656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The marketization of data elements, facilitation of cross-border capital flows, and regional green total factor productivity 数据要素市场化、跨境资本流动便利化与区域绿色全要素生产率

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-23 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105151

HaoLiang Wang , Zhong Wang , JingWen Li , Zheng Shan

引用次数: 0

Unleashing the metaverse: Assessing the effects of China's city pilot policy on firm performance 释放空间：评估中国城市试点政策对企业绩效的影响

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-25 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105134

Lu Liu , Kai-Hua Wang , Bao-Chang Xu , Xiao-Qing Wang

引用次数: 0

Carbon risk and corporate cost stickiness 碳风险与企业成本粘性

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105120

Tingwei Luo , Min Liao , Fubi Luo

{"title":"Carbon risk and corporate cost stickiness","authors":"Tingwei Luo , Min Liao , Fubi Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105120","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2026.105120","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cost stickiness reflects a firm's efficiency in allocating production resources, including capital, labour, and technology, whereas carbon risk influences the effectiveness of such resource allocation. Using a sample of China's A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2022, this study investigates the impact of carbon risk on corporate cost stickiness and explores the underlying mechanisms. The empirical results show that carbon risk significantly reduces corporate cost stickiness. Further analysis indicates that financial constraints, environmental regulation (ER), and managerial overconfidence (OC) serve as the primary channels through which carbon risk influences cost stickiness. Additional findings reveal that the inhibitory effect of carbon risk on cost stickiness is more pronounced in firms operating in heavily polluting industries, industries characterized by intense competition, non–state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), and firms with higher levels of transparency. Overall, these findings deepen the understanding of the economic consequences associated with carbon risk and provide important insights for firms seeking to enhance cost management efficiency and optimize resource allocation in the context of increasing carbon-related risks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 105120"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147600648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Governing innovation: The role of D&O insurance in curbing R&D opportunism 治理创新：D&O保险在抑制研发机会主义中的作用

IF 5.6 2区经济学

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-20 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2026.105136

Chujun Zhang , Wen Ju Liao , Zhexin Xie

引用次数: 0