{"title":"Impact of Motivational Workshop on Financial Inclusion of Rural People in Bangladesh: Evidence from Randomized Controlled Trial","authors":"Md Monzur Morshed, K. Maharjan","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040151","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the expansion of financial institutions and the proliferation of mobile financial services, reaching the unbanked and bringing them under formal financial services has become a policy concern in many developing countries. Due to the lack of financial accounts, unbanked people prefer informal, risky, and inconvenient mechanisms for receiving, sending, and transferring money. Previous studies rely much on common interventions like no account maintenance and opening fees, easy documentation processes, and money subsidies for opening financial accounts. This study aims to examine the impact of the motivational workshop on opening savings accounts through causality among the unbanked people in a setting where the respondents are unbanked despite having all the requirements and many institutional offers to open savings accounts. We encouraged the unbanked people through a one-hour-long motivational workshop to open savings accounts. Based on our cross-sectional data and randomized controlled trial experiment among the 505 unbanked rural people at Dhubil union under Sirajganj in Bangladesh, we have evidence that motivational workshop positively impacts opening accounts by 32.33 percent. However, the account opening rate differs in terms of respondent’s preference for financial institutions. Our study also finds that unbanked people have the highest preference for mobile financial services for opening accounts resulting in 15.33 percent. The result of this study has some policy implications for adopting effective strategies for universal financial access in many developing countries.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"4 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139000196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Climate Change Risks Disclosure: Do Business Strategy and Management Characteristics Matter?","authors":"Mahfod M. Aldoseri, Maged M. Albaz","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040150","url":null,"abstract":"This research aims to broaden the understanding of the determinants of climate change disclosure, where the study analyzes the impact of corporate business strategy and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) overconfidence on the level of climate change disclosure. The study followed a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative techniques to comprehensively examine the relationships used by the content analysis method to analyze the annual reports of a sample of Saudi companies for the period from 2019 to 2022 to measure the level of disclosure of practices related to climate change. The results of the study show that the companies that tend to adopt the initiative strategy provide more information about climate change than the defending companies do, while the CEO’s overconfidence does not affect the level of climate change disclosure. The results of the study indicate that the nature of the strategic direction adopted by the company is more important in determining the motives for disclosing climate change information than the personal characteristics of management.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"84 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138683731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unveiling the Dynamics of Financial Institutions and Markets in Shaping Economic Prosperity in MENA","authors":"Ali Shaddady","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040148","url":null,"abstract":"This research explored the relationship between financial development and economic growth in the MENA region from 1996 to 2022. Using panel data, it assessed whether financial institutions and financial markets had differing impacts on economic growth. Various statistical methods, including OLS, GMM, quantile, and U-tests, were employed to analyze this correlation. Our findings revealed a nonlinear relationship between financial development (institutions and markets) and economic growth, characterized by an inverted U-shaped curve. This relationship was influenced by the MENA region’s limited financial regulations and the “vanishing effect”. Financial institutions were found to have an insignificant impact on economic growth but played a role in constraining it. Conversely, financial markets significantly contributed to growth initially, but this effect diminished over time, eventually turning negative. Additionally, this research highlighted the positive influences of liquidity and exports on economic growth, while noting that the rule of law and political stability had adverse effects.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"542 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138684326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Epameinondas Katsikas, Nikiforos T. Laopodis, Konstantinos Spanos
{"title":"Dynamic Stability of Public Debt: Evidence from the Eurozone Countries","authors":"Epameinondas Katsikas, Nikiforos T. Laopodis, Konstantinos Spanos","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040149","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the dynamic stability of public debt and its solvency condition in the face of crisis periods (1980–2021) in a sample of 11 euro-area countries. The focus is on the feedback loop between the dynamic stability of public debt and interest rates, discounted by economic growth, in conjunction with budget deficits during tranquil and turbulent periods. Using the GMM panel dynamic model, the results show that dynamic stability was the case before the global financial crisis (GFC), while from GFC to the pandemic, dynamic instability prevailed and persisted in the evolution of public debt. Furthermore, panel threshold estimates show that dynamic instability of debt starts to violate the solvency condition when the borrowing cost is above 3.29%, becomes even stronger when it is above 4.39%, and exerts even more pressure when the level of debt is greater than 91%. However, the debt sustainability condition reverses course when economic growth is higher than 3.4%. The main policy implication drawn from the results is that low interest rates can create a self-reinforcing loop of high debt, which itself is a serious matter for public authorities when designing economic policies.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138579819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do MD&A Risk Disclosures Reduce Stock Price Crash Risk? Evidence from China","authors":"Fei Su, Lili Zhai, Jianmei Liu","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040147","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines whether and how risk disclosures in Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) affected the stock price crash risk of China’s publicly listed firms over the period of 2017–2021. The empirical results show that risk disclosures within the MD&A section are significantly and negatively associated with the future stock price crash risk, even after controlling for a broad set of well-known factors of crash risk. Additional tests revealed that the impact of MD&A risk disclosures on the stock price crash risk is accentuated when the MD&A disclosure contains more incremental information. The negative association between MD&A risk disclosures and stock price crash risk is also more pronounced for firms with poorer information environments, for firms with weaker external monitoring, and for firms with more investor attention. Our findings are robust to alternative measures of the stock price crash risk, controlling for firm-fixed effects and endogeneity issues, and excluding certain samples. The results indicate that MD&A risk disclosures could help alleviate information asymmetry and mitigate stock price crash risk.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"3 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139007900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Research on Pricing Methods of Convertible Bonds Based on Deep Learning GAN Models","authors":"Gui Ren, Tao Meng","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040145","url":null,"abstract":"This paper proposes two data-driven models (including LSTM pricing model, WGAN pricing model) and an improved model of LSM based on GAN to analyze the pricing of convertible bonds. In addition, the LSM model with higher precision in traditional pricing model is selected for comparative study with other pricing models. It is found that the traditional LSM pricing model has a large error in the first-day pricing, and the pricing function needs to be further improved. Among the four pricing models, LSTM pricing model and WGAN pricing model have the best pricing effect. The WGAN pricing model is better than the LSTM pricing model (0.21%), and the LSM improved model (1.17%) is better than the traditional LSM model (2.26%). Applying the generative deep learning model GAN to the pricing of convertible bonds can circumvent the harsh preconditions of assumptions, and significantly improve the pricing effect of the traditional model. The scope of application of each model is different. Therefore, this paper proves the feasibility of the GAN model applied to the pricing of convertible bonds, and enriches the pricing function of derivatives in the financial field.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"247 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138579262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Component Expected Shortfall Approach to Systemic Risk: An Application in the South African Financial Industry","authors":"Mathias Mandla Manguzvane, Sibusiso Blessing Ngobese","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040146","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040146","url":null,"abstract":"The accelerated growth and interconnectedness of financial institutions and movement towards products and activities outside the regulatory purview have been met with huge concerns. South Africa is one of the emerging economies that this conundrum has beset. Any potential instability in the financial sector likely poses insurmountable consequences and unprecedented government intervention, especially given that the country currently has no deposit insurance scheme. Although it is easy to justify the channels through which banks contribute to destabilising financial markets, it remains a controversial issue for insurers and other non-banking institutions. This study aims to empirically quantify the contribution of banks and insurers to aggregate the systemic risk of their respective industries by employing the component expected shortfall (CES). The CES is a robust quantitative systemic risk measure that allows for a comprehensive assessment of systemic risk by considering the contributions of individual financial components. Our findings demonstrate that the rankings from the CES framework are closely aligned with the regulatory D-SIB surcharges of the banking entities included in the study. The close alignment of both approaches is primarily due to the consideration of the size of an institution, amongst other factors.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138575743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rafaela Dezidério dos Santos Rocha, Márcio Laurini
{"title":"Factor Sufficiency in Asset Pricing: An Application for the Brazilian Market","authors":"Rafaela Dezidério dos Santos Rocha, Márcio Laurini","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040144","url":null,"abstract":"The multifactor asset pricing model derived from the Fama–French approach is extensively used in asset risk premium estimation procedures. Even including a considerable number of factors, it is still possible that omitted factors affect the estimation of this model. In this work, we compare estimators robust to the presence of omitted factors in estimating the risk premium in the Brazilian market. Initially, we analyze the panel of asset returns using the mean group and common correlated effect estimators to detect the presence of omitted factors. We then compare the results with those obtained by a estimator robust to omitted variables, which uses a principal components approach to correct the estimation in the case of the omission of latent factors. We conclude that there is evidence of omitted factors, and the best predictor for the expect returns is the common correlated effects estimator.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138562569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Causal Relationships between Oil Prices and Key Macroeconomic Variables in India","authors":"Kamal P. Upadhyaya, Raja Nag, Franklin G. Mixon","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040143","url":null,"abstract":"India is among the largest and fastest-growing economies in the world. To continue its growth, energy is and will continue to be one of its most important considerations. With a population of over one billion, India is the third largest consumer of petroleum on the globe. To maintain this ranking, India imports a large percentage of its total oil consumption. Given India’s current position as a large importer of oil, how does oil price volatility affect the Indian economy? This paper examines the effect of oil price volatility on inflation, economic growth, and the stock market in India. Statistical tests suggest that the overall price level, the real effective exchange rate, and oil prices are negatively related to aggregate output in the long run. Granger causality test results derived from a vector error correction model support bidirectional causality between oil prices and aggregate output, indicating that a change in oil prices also affects aggregate output in the short run.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"51 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138505343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Influence of Transparency and Disclosures on the Dividend Distribution Decisions in the Firms: Do Profitability and Efficiency of Firms Matter?","authors":"Shailesh Rastogi, Geetanjali Pinto, Amit Kumar Pathak, Satyendra Pratap Singh, Arpita Sharma, Souvik Banerjee, Jagjeevan Kanoujiya, Pracheta Tejasmayee","doi":"10.3390/ijfs11040142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs11040142","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this study is to determine if the impact of transparency and disclosure (TD) levels on shareholders’ current income (dividends) is moderated by technical efficiency (te) and profitability. The study employs econometrics on panel data from 78 BSE-listed enterprises across the 2016–2020 sample period. This conclusion suggests that when TD grows, dividends tend to drop initially, but above a certain threshold level, growing TD levels lead to increased payouts. Furthermore, dividends are adversely associated with the moderating variable “te” in terms of both constant and variable return to scale. On the other hand, moderation by profitability was shown to have a substantially favourable effect on dividends. According to this study, a company’s dividend policy is influenced by its TD levels, which are controlled by its efficiency and profitability. Developing a TD index provides more information on the efficacy of the corporate governance (CG) system. The study’s distinctiveness lies in examining the relationships between transparency, disclosures, and these aspects as they relate to profitability, efficiency, and dividend distribution choices to ascertain whether the companies’ operating effectiveness and financial success matter in this circumstance. The study’s practical and policy implications relate to societal repercussions, which include encouraging more openness and responsibility in business practices, thereby increasing confidence and accountability in decisions about dividend distribution, regardless of efficiency and profitability. The study’s originality is in examining how profitability, efficiency, and dividend distribution decisions relate to transparency and disclosures to determine if companies’ operating efficiency and financial success matter in this situation.","PeriodicalId":45794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138567725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}