FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-11-04DOI: 10.1111/fire.70039
Brian M. Lucey, Samuel Vigne
{"title":"Puzzles, Tensions, and the Research Agenda for Biodiversity Finance","authors":"Brian M. Lucey, Samuel Vigne","doi":"10.1111/fire.70039","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70039","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Biodiversity loss is a systemic financial risk whose channels are more complex and less analytically tractable than climate change. Where climate finance has agreed on standardized measures, disclosure regimes, and, increasingly, on climate risk's role in the pricing of assets, biodiversity finance remains conceptually fragile and empirically under-identified. This paper distills the issues of this emerging field into four recurring <b>tensions</b> that block intellectual and practical progress: (i) measurement and taxonomy, (ii) pricing and transmission, (iii) systemic and corporate finance, and (iv) policy, disclosure, and market infrastructure. We frame each as a puzzle, articulate the contradictions, and end with eight consolidated and high-priority <b>Research Questions (RQs)</b>. We tabulate the questions based on <i>impact</i> (the extent to which an answer would meaningfully advance understanding or policy relevance) and <i>tractability</i> (the degree to which current data and methods make an answer feasible), along with concise commentary. The throughline is clear: until measurement can join markets, biodiversity finance will remain hobbled.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"353-358"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147683269","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}
FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-09-14DOI: 10.1111/fire.70026
Kiana Kia, Bo Liu, Qian Li, Victor Song, Ke Xu
{"title":"Price Discovery in Bitcoin ETF Market","authors":"Kiana Kia, Bo Liu, Qian Li, Victor Song, Ke Xu","doi":"10.1111/fire.70026","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70026","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this study, we explore price discovery across the following three Bitcoin markets: spot, futures, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Employing the fractionally cointegrated vector autoregressive (FCVAR) model, we estimate price discovery in each market using minute-level price data from October 19, 2021, the launch date of the first US Bitcoin futures-based Bitcoin ETF, to December 30, 2022. The trivariate FCVAR analysis reveals that the three markets are pairwise cointegrated. In the spot-futures pair, the spot market emerges as the dominant force in price discovery, while in the spot–ETF pair, the ETF market assumes a leading role. Our paper is the first to show the importance of the newly introduced Bitcoin ETF market in the price discovery process. Extending the analysis to the more recent period, we find that the approval of spot-based Bitcoin ETFs has weakened the price discovery contribution of the futures-based ETF and Bitcoin spot market has since become the dominant venue for price discovery.</p>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"435-449"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/fire.70026","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147683815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-10-14DOI: 10.1111/fire.70035
Mohammad Sydul Karim, Mohammad Kabir Hassan, Reza Houston
{"title":"The Effects of Political Risk on Corporate Compliance Violations","authors":"Mohammad Sydul Karim, Mohammad Kabir Hassan, Reza Houston","doi":"10.1111/fire.70035","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70035","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We investigate the influence of firm-specific political risk on corporate compliance violations and associated costs. Using a novel measure of political risk derived from earnings call transcripts, we uncover a significant positive relationship between political risk exposure and the likelihood, frequency, and magnitude of compliance fines and settlements. This relationship remains robust across various violation cost measures and components of political risk. Moreover, our findings show that the impact of compliance violations on future realized cash flows is considerably more pronounced for firms with high levels of political risk compared to their low-risk counterparts. Our results highlight the costly implications of political risk even in developed markets, reinforcing the importance of effective risk mitigation strategies for protecting shareholder value.</p>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"629-657"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147683844","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}
FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-09-07DOI: 10.1111/fire.70022
Xiong Xiong, Jinchi Liu, Chunying Wu, Ya Gao
{"title":"Beyond Borders: How Institutional Ownership Drives Chinese Firms’ International Expansion","authors":"Xiong Xiong, Jinchi Liu, Chunying Wu, Ya Gao","doi":"10.1111/fire.70022","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70022","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>From the standpoint of the “resource effect” and the “monitoring effect”, this paper explores the potential influence of institutional ownership on the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) activities of Chinese enterprises. Our empirical results indicate that institutional ownership, particularly pressure-resistant institutional ownership, notably elevates the extent of a firm's multinational investment endeavors, as measured by the scale, breadth, and speed of OFDI. Furthermore, the concentration of institutional ownership amplifies this beneficial impact, whereas negative media exposure attenuates it. In periods of elevated economic policy uncertainty, the salutary effect of institutional ownership on firms’ multinational investment activities becomes even more pronounced. Lastly, our findings provide additional insights, revealing that institutional ownership enhances firms’ internationalization strategies by mitigating financing constraints, curbing agency costs, fostering a higher propensity for risk-taking, and augmenting information transparency. Collectively, we provide micro evidence on the relationship between institutional ownership and corporate globalization strategy decisions from China, and provide valuable insights for emerging market countries to accelerate the cultivation of new advantages in international economic cooperation and competition.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"383-411"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147683384","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}
FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-10-09DOI: 10.1111/fire.70029
Jeffrey Ighedosa, Victor Murinde, Tolulola Lawal
{"title":"How Does Credit Information Sharing Shape the Cyclicality of Bank Liquidity Creation?","authors":"Jeffrey Ighedosa, Victor Murinde, Tolulola Lawal","doi":"10.1111/fire.70029","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70029","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We investigate the effect of credit information sharing in the banking sector on the fluctuations of bank liquidity creation over the business cycle. Using the Berger and Bouwman comprehensive measure of bank liquidity creation and data representing 354 banks from 40 developing countries between 2012 and 2020, we find that on- and off-balance sheet liquidity creation is procyclical. We also find that credit information sharing significantly reduces the procyclicality of on- and off-balance sheet liquidity creation by increasing banks’ access to interbank funding and enhancing their ability to estimate customer default probabilities more accurately. Our findings suggest that credit information sharing can act as a stabilizing mechanism for bank liquidity creation in developing countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"601-628"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/fire.70029","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147683624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-10-08DOI: 10.1111/fire.70034
Hasibul Chowdhury, Hien Duc Han, Chandrasekhar Krishnamurti
{"title":"Does a CEO's Network Capital Affect Workplace Safety?","authors":"Hasibul Chowdhury, Hien Duc Han, Chandrasekhar Krishnamurti","doi":"10.1111/fire.70034","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70034","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We examine the effect of a CEO's network capital on a firm's workplace safety, using establishment-level data compiled by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on the incidents of workplace injuries. We find that higher network capital of CEOs is associated with significantly lower workplace injury rates. Our findings are robust to alternate proxies, matching techniques, instrumental variable regression, and difference-in-differences analysis. The possible channels through which CEO network capital improves a firm's workplace safety are better workplace safety spending and information quality.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"577-600"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147683522","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}
FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-09-24DOI: 10.1111/fire.70030
Bart Frijns, Ivan Indriawan, Alireza Tourani-Rad, Hengbin Zhang
{"title":"Analyst Forecast Dispersion and Market Quality Surrounding the FOMC Announcement","authors":"Bart Frijns, Ivan Indriawan, Alireza Tourani-Rad, Hengbin Zhang","doi":"10.1111/fire.70030","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70030","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We study the relationship between analyst forecast dispersion, a proxy for the opacity of the information environment, and equity market quality surrounding FOMC announcements. Higher forecast dispersion is associated with changes in various market quality metrics. First, trading costs increase as reflected in wider bid-ask spreads and elevated information asymmetry. Moreover, higher forecast dispersion is associated with heightened trading activity and less informationally efficient prices. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of the information environment during major news releases.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"513-531"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147684236","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}
FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-09-29DOI: 10.1111/fire.70032
Paul Brockman, Hye Seung (Grace) Lee, Jesus M. Salas
{"title":"Share Repurchases and Investment Policies","authors":"Paul Brockman, Hye Seung (Grace) Lee, Jesus M. Salas","doi":"10.1111/fire.70032","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70032","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Our study examines the claim that share repurchases lead to reductions in real investments. Repurchase opponents argue that managers forego valuable investments to conduct opportunistic repurchases, while proponents argue that repurchases return excess cash to shareholders. We compare repurchasing firms’ real investments in capital expenditures, R&D, and employment to public and private non-repurchasing firms—holding constant their growth (i.e., investment) opportunity sets. Our results provide no support for the claim that repurchases lead to lower real investments. Consistent with these findings, we also show that financial analysts do not revise downward their capital expenditure forecasts following repurchases.</p>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"555-575"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/fire.70032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147684264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-09-16DOI: 10.1111/fire.70024
Chen Huang, Georgios P. Kouretas, Tam D. Nguyen, Yu Zhang
{"title":"Organization Capital and Firm Resilience to Cash Flow Shocks","authors":"Chen Huang, Georgios P. Kouretas, Tam D. Nguyen, Yu Zhang","doi":"10.1111/fire.70024","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70024","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Spanning a 3-year window before and after the COVID-19 pandemic (2017–2022), this study examines the role of organizational capital in shaping firm resilience to cash flow shocks. We find that organizational capital significantly mitigates adverse cash flow impacts arising from pandemic-related operational disruptions. The superior post-COVID cash flow performance of firms with high organizational capital is driven by more extensive use of trade credit, cost-reduction strategies, and greater operational efficiency. We further show that the effectiveness of organizational capital is context-dependent, becoming more pronounced in regions with strong public health measures and supportive household and labor market policies. Additional analyses reveal that the positive impact of organizational capital is especially strong among young firms, small firms, and those with high governance quality. Together, our findings highlight the critical role of organizational capital in enhancing firm resilience during periods of severe economic uncertainty, offering valuable insights for managers, policymakers, and investors.</p>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"451-470"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/fire.70024","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147683949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
FINANCIAL REVIEWPub Date : 2026-04-02Epub Date: 2025-09-15DOI: 10.1111/fire.70025
Ioannis Chasiotis, Dimitrios Konstantios, Stavros Konstantios, Panayotis G. Michaelides
{"title":"Does the Composition of the Payout Mix Affect Firms' Market Longevity?","authors":"Ioannis Chasiotis, Dimitrios Konstantios, Stavros Konstantios, Panayotis G. Michaelides","doi":"10.1111/fire.70025","DOIUrl":"10.1111/fire.70025","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The 2020 CARES Act brought forth a renewed discussion on share repurchases, reigniting the debate on the net benefits of this payout mechanism. Fueled by theoretical and empirical evidence both in favor of and against share repurchases, we examine how the composition of corporate payouts impacts firms’ market longevity. Leveraging panel data from 1200 US-listed firms spanning from 2000 to 2020, our study uncovers a positive relationship between a payout composition that prioritizes share repurchases over dividends and market longevity. Our findings suggest that the benefits associated with this payout mechanism outweigh its costs, thereby enhancing firms' resilience in remaining listed in the organized capital markets for extended periods. Furthermore, our results withstand a battery of robustness checks, offering valuable insights for managers, regulators, and the investor community.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47617,"journal":{"name":"FINANCIAL REVIEW","volume":"61 2","pages":"413-434"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147683855","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}