International Review of Economics & Finance最新文献

{"title":"Institutional investor cliques and ESG performance: Evidence from Chinese firms","authors":"Wenkang Qiu ,&nbsp;Cheng Xiang ,&nbsp;Chunhong Li ,&nbsp;Yinong Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104079","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104079","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using a sample of Chinese firms, we identify groups of coordinated institutional investors (i.e., cliques) based on their common block stakes and study how their coordination shapes the firm's ESG policy. We document that clique ownership shows a robust and causal positive impact on the firm's future ESG performance. Further tests confirm a positive relationship between ESG and firm value in China. Additionally, we find that clique members coordinate their trades, and the coordination enhances their governance via both voice and exit threats. These results suggest that coordination increases institutional investors' governance impact, which improves their portfolio firms' ESG performance. Consistent with this argument, cross-sectional analyses demonstrate that the positive impact of clique ownership on ESG is greater for firms with weaker governance mechanisms or larger ESG motivations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104079"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143785169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"ESG disclosure and firm performance in global south economy: Does industry profile and board independence moderate the relationship","authors":"Nisha Bamel ,&nbsp;Komal Khatri ,&nbsp;Umesh Bamel ,&nbsp;Satish Kumar","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104093","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104093","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Our paper explores the connection between ESG disclosure and firm performance (operational performance, accounting performance, financial performance, and market performance) in the context of the global south. Specifically, we investigated this relationship by gathering data from 237 firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange index, comprising 139 observations from heavy industries and 98 from light industries. Additionally, we examine the conditional effect of industry profile (heavy industry vs. light industry) and percentage of board independence. We employed panel regression method for data analysis. Our results indicate a positive and significant relationship between ESG disclosure and firm performance. Overall, we found that a higher ESG disclosure score is associated with improved firm performance across all four performance indicators. When considering individual components of ESG disclosure, we observed that governance disclosure score exhibited a positive and significant relationship with all four indicators of firm performance. On the other hand, environment and social disclosure scores showed a positive and significant relationship only with operational performance and market performance. Furthermore, our analysis revealed that industry profile moderates the relationship between ESG disclosure score and firm performance indicators. Specifically, it affects operational performance, and market performance. The moderating effect of board independence also significantly moderated the relationship. Specifically, board independence influences the relationship with operational, accounting and market performance concerning governance disclosure score, whereas for environment and social disclosure scores, it only influenced accounting and financial performance. Our findings offer a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between ESG disclosure and firm performance, considering various performance indicators and the influence of industry profile and board independence. These insights contribute significantly to both theoretical understanding and practical applications in this field.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104093"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143859038","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}

{"title":"Derivatives use and analysts’ forecasts: new evidence on the mechanisms from China","authors":"Guiling Zhang ,&nbsp;Xu Lou ,&nbsp;Danliang Yan ,&nbsp;Hui Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104091","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104091","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine whether and how corporate derivative use affects analysts' earnings forecast accuracy based on Chinese A-share listed firms during 2010 and 2020. We find that derivative users experience less accurate forecasts, compared to non-users. Such effects are more pronounced for SOEs and firms without risk exposure. Mechanism tests suggest that the negative effects of derivatives on analysts' forecasts are primarily due to ineffective hedging, high complexity and insufficient disclosure. Further analysis indicates that the implementation of <em>Hedging Accounting Standards</em>, the provision of management forecasts, and analysts’ capabilities help to mitigate the adverse impact of derivative use on analysts' forecasts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104091"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143777299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Technological innovation, external debt, and green energy adoption: Assessing their impact on environmental sustainability in MINT economies","authors":"Kailai Zhang ,&nbsp;Daizheng Jia","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104084","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104084","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the impact of technological innovation, external debt, and green energy adoption on environmental sustainability in MINT countries. Using the Load Capacity Factor (LCF) for ecological assessment, it provides a broader perspective than traditional indicators like CO₂ emissions. The findings reveal that long-term debt and green energy investments enhance sustainability, while short-term debt and technological progress may have mixed effects, particularly in economies with inadequate green technology adoption. The study underscores the need for sustainable debt management, increased renewable energy investments, and targeted policy incentives to balance economic growth with environmental goals. Policy recommendations include subsidies, tax incentives, and strategic debt restructuring to support a greener economic transition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104084"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143799593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Green density and spillover effects on earnings management","authors":"Hugo Benedetti ,&nbsp;Mohammad A. Karim ,&nbsp;Sayan Sarkar ,&nbsp;Andrew C. Spieler","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104080","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104080","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine the link between earnings management and the environmental ratings' geographic spillover effect. Additionally, we explore the potential moderating impact of regional cultural traits like religiosity and political leanings. Using a sample of 18,012 firm-year observations, of 2319 publicly traded US firms, from 2010 to 2022, we find a negative relationship between green density and real activity-based earnings management such as abnormal production costs, abnormal discretionary expenses, and a combined measure of real activity-based earning management. These results hold even after including cultural and social standards of a geographic area such as religiosity and political affiliation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104080"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143777298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Climate change exposure in uncertain times: A text-based approach","authors":"Viput Ongsakul ,&nbsp;Pattanaporn Chatjuthamard ,&nbsp;Pandej Chintrakarn ,&nbsp;Pornsit Jiraporn","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104083","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104083","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Taking advantage of an innovative text-based approach to assess firm-specific climate change exposure, we examine how economic policy uncertainty (EPU) influences firm-level climate change vulnerability. Based on a large sample of U.S. firms with over 60,000 observations spanning almost two decades, our analysis shows that greater EPU raises climate change exposure significantly. Specifically, a rise in EPU by one standard deviation results in an increase in climate change exposure by 2.8 %–4.9 %. Our findings are consistent with the notion that, during uncertain times firms have more difficulty formulating plans to cope with climate change, ultimately resulting in more serious climate change vulnerability. Further analysis validates the results, i.e., propensity score matching, entropy balancing, an instrumental-variable analysis, and using Oster's (2019) approach to assess coefficient stability. Furthermore, the effect of EPU on climate change exposure is more pronounced for firms paying larger dividends but is weaker for firms investing more in R&amp;D. In addition, we show that the effects of EPU on various dimensions of climate change exposure can differ. Finally, we document that greater EPU makes companies more vulnerable to more diverse areas of climate change exposure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104083"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143900279","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}

{"title":"ESG peer spillover effect in supply chain: Evidence from Taiwan semiconductor industry","authors":"Donald Lien ,&nbsp;Lie-Huey Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104082","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104082","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we collected data from 271 semiconductor companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2020 to determine whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) spillovers propagate along supply chains through horizontal peers and vertical upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. The results indicate the presence of a horizontal peer spillover effect that was more significant in the upstream industries than in the midstream and downstream industries. In addition, the forward industry (customers) had a positive vertical spillover effect on the backward industry (suppliers). We also identified a significant moderating effect from high-revenue linkages but not from high-cost linkages. Taken together, these findings indicate that through network linkages, Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain has a vertical spillover effect on the environmental pillar of ESG scores.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104082"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143844968","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}

{"title":"Examining the role of artificial intelligence, financial innovation, and green energy transition in enhancing environmental quality","authors":"Abdul Majeed ,&nbsp;Yuantao Xie ,&nbsp;Chongyan Gao ,&nbsp;Anna Min Du ,&nbsp;Muniba","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104092","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104092","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The growth of emerging economies has led to heightened environmental challenges, underscoring the importance of implementing sustainable technologies and clean energy transitions to alleviate the ecological consequences. Hence, this study explores the roles of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Financial Innovation (FI), and Green Energy Transition (GET) in improving environmental quality in emerging economies. The results are robust using advanced econometric techniques that account for cross-sectional dependence, heterogeneity, unit roots, and cointegration. We test short- and long-run relationships using the cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model and validate the results using feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) estimators. The findings indicated the roles of AI (−0.029), FI (−0.071), and GET (−0.144) in decreasing the ecological footprint and enhancing environmental quality. However, economic growth (0.337) contributes to an increased ecological footprint. These findings highlight that sustainable technologies, FIs, and clean energy transitions are necessary to address environmental issues and sustainable economic growth. These findings provide policymakers with valuable insights into the sustainable development of emerging economies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104092"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143767504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Online public opinion attention and corporate green finance development","authors":"Ying Meng,&nbsp;Lei Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104097","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104097","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper selects data from Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2022 as empirical samples and conducts an in-depth and systematic exploration of the interactive relationship between online public opinion attention and the development of corporate green finance. Rigorous data analysis and research reveal a significant negative correlation between online public opinion attention and the development of corporate green finance. Based on this, mechanism testing further reveals that the quality of information disclosure plays a mediating role in the relationship between online public opinion attention and corporate green finance development, and this mediating effect exhibits notable heterogeneity depending on the different audit opinions received by the companies. Importantly, this study also finds that investor attention plays a key moderating role in the relationship between online public opinion attention and corporate green finance development, with this moderating effect showing heterogeneity between high-tech and non-high-tech enterprises.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104097"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143799684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The impact of global value chain embeddedness on the innovation of high-tech enterprises","authors":"Zhen Zeng ,&nbsp;Jiqin Han ,&nbsp;Jintao Zhan ,&nbsp;Yigen Wu ,&nbsp;Liangzhu Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104095","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iref.2025.104095","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Innovation serves as the key engine of economic progress, and exploring how to improve the novelty level through opening up is a fundamental issue in the overview of global value chains. Based on the database of listed companies from 2008 to 2016 and the trade statistics of China Customs, this paper uses endogenous conversion model and threshold model to study the innovation effects on the global value chain engagement of Chinese high-tech firms. The findings indicate that being integrated into global value chains substantially enhances the innovation capabilities of high-tech firms, with a notable impact on state-owned enterprises and enterprises in high-innovation resource-based cities. Further research finds that with the deepening of the degree of high-tech enterprises' embedding in global value chain, the contribution of global value chain engagement to high-tech enterprise innovation has a nonlinear feature of “innovation potential lag - innovation fusion release - innovation capability dependence\".</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 104095"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143833822","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}