{"title":"Robots, Labour Market Frictions and Corporate Financial Policy","authors":"Yanguang (Alice) Liu","doi":"10.1111/eufm.12534","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eufm.12534","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We construct a novel firm-level measure of robot exposure using the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) data set and new robot patent data. We find that the use of robots leads to higher leverage and lower cash holdings. Using an instrumental variable based on the comparative advantage of robots in specific tasks, we find that the effect is likely to be causal and driven by the reduced operating leverage. The effect is stronger when firms are hit by negative shocks including minimum wage hikes and foreign competition. Firms with more robots pay out more and use fewer corporate hedging contracts.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47815,"journal":{"name":"European Financial Management","volume":"31 3","pages":"975-994"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144323708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bank Financial Distress and Stock Price Crashes: A Quasi-Experimental Approach","authors":"Priti Biswas, Debasish Maitra, Sayantan Mukherjee","doi":"10.1111/eufm.12529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eufm.12529","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Using 118,292 US bank-month observations, we examine the effects of short-term changes in bank's financial distress on stock price crash risk. There is a significant positive association between short-term changes in distress on stock price crash risk. The results remain consistent across alternative measures of distress and crash risk. We confirm robustness by employing additional tests for reverse causality and propensity score matching. We find opacity, proxied by discretionary loan-loss provisions to be a potential channel through which increase in distress affects future crash risk. Our study underscores the critical association between increasing financial distress, loan-loss reporting, and crash risk.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47815,"journal":{"name":"European Financial Management","volume":"31 3","pages":"1103-1123"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144323705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Financial Regulators on Boards: Evidence From Earnings Information Quality","authors":"Ching-Hung Chang, Yung-Ling Chi, Qingqing Wu","doi":"10.1111/eufm.12530","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eufm.12530","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We find that directors with a financial regulatory background are associated with lower earnings quality. The influence of financial regulatory directors (FRDs) is more substantial for firms with higher proprietary costs and FRDs with greater expertise and experience. FRD firms do not have a greater likelihood of financial misconduct or meeting or beating analysts' forecasts. The stock market reacts more positively to FRD appointments than to the appointments of other directors. Our findings suggest that FRDs certify firm discipline, with lower earnings quality reflecting strategic choices rather than opportunistic manipulation, highlighting the impact of postemployment restrictions in financial regulatory agencies.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47815,"journal":{"name":"European Financial Management","volume":"31 3","pages":"1072-1102"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144323704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xin Feng, Hans-Jörg von Mettenheim, Georgios Sermpinis, Charalampos Stasinakis
{"title":"Sustainable Portfolio Construction via Machine Learning: ESG, SDG and Sentiment","authors":"Xin Feng, Hans-Jörg von Mettenheim, Georgios Sermpinis, Charalampos Stasinakis","doi":"10.1111/eufm.12531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eufm.12531","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study proposes portfolio construction strategies based on novel sentiment, ESG and SDG scores. We utilize natural language processing to establish a novel daily score system that mitigates concerns of different rating standards. The portfolios constructed are optimized via machine learning algorithms on a monthly basis using daily historical returns. Utilizing the equal-weighted portfolios as benchmarks, we empirically show that our optimized portfolios exhibit better trading performance in both the SPX500 and STOXX600 indices. The findings demonstrate that nonlinear models such as random forests, neural networks, and genetic algorithms can perform better than other machine learning models in portfolio management.</p>","PeriodicalId":47815,"journal":{"name":"European Financial Management","volume":"31 3","pages":"1148-1169"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eufm.12531","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144323722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Venture Capital and Vulnerability: Navigating Natural Disasters and Investment Resilience","authors":"Chen Huang, Aoran Zhang, Mengyu Zhang, Yunfei Zhao","doi":"10.1111/eufm.12528","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eufm.12528","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the impact of natural disasters on venture capital (VC) investment decisions. Using 47 catastrophic natural disasters occurred in the United States from 1990 to 2019, our empirical analysis reveals a significant reduction in VC investments in disaster zones. Additionally, natural disasters negatively influence VC exit strategies, reducing the likelihood and extending the time to successful exits via IPOs. However, we find that green VCs are more likely to invest in disaster-affected areas, indicating potential resilience through green technological innovation. Our findings emphasize sustainability and disaster mitigation, and offer valuable insights for policymakers and investors amidst rising climate uncertainties.</p>","PeriodicalId":47815,"journal":{"name":"European Financial Management","volume":"31 3","pages":"1124-1147"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eufm.12528","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144323729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hoa Luong, Kristina Minnick, Mia L. Rivolta, Syed Shams
{"title":"CEO Connectedness and Firm Transparency","authors":"Hoa Luong, Kristina Minnick, Mia L. Rivolta, Syed Shams","doi":"10.1111/eufm.12527","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eufm.12527","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Our research reveals that CEO connections with Audit Committee directors, established through past employment, education, or social organization memberships, significantly impact firm transparency. These connections increase the likelihood of firms issuing less transparent and readable financial reports. Furthermore, these connections are linked to decreased long-term firm value and increased crash risk. Our findings underscore the crucial role of CEO connectedness in corporate disclosure transparency and firm value. We employed multiple methodologies to address endogeneity concerns. Our results remain robust.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47815,"journal":{"name":"European Financial Management","volume":"31 3","pages":"955-974"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144323618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Brand capital and corporate investment efficiency","authors":"Kam C. Chan, Kevin Li, Tongxia Li, Weining Zhang","doi":"10.1111/eufm.12519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eufm.12519","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Using a sample of US firms from 1975 to 2021, we show that brand capital improves investment efficiency, which is robust to various measures of brand capital and investment efficiency. To mitigate endogeneity concerns, we exploit the passage of the Federal Trademark Dilution Act as an exogenous shock to brand capital and find that it strengthens the positive effect of brand capital. Our cross-sectional analyses show that this positive relationship is more pronounced for firms with greater financial constraints and higher information asymmetry. These results suggest that brand capital reduces over- and under-investment through alleviating financial constraints and information asymmetry.</p>","PeriodicalId":47815,"journal":{"name":"European Financial Management","volume":"31 2","pages":"909-951"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143533539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"ESG, corporate piracy and Coasian contracting efficiency","authors":"Harry DeAngelo","doi":"10.1111/eufm.12522","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eufm.12522","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Environmental, Social and Governance activism entails a subtle form of corporate piracy. It manifests in opportunistic backdoor attempts to convert firms that were incorporated to advance shareholders' pecuniary interests into firms that sacrifice pecuniary benefits to advance a social/political agenda favoured by a subset of activist shareholders. These surreptitious property rights encroachments raise an important issue: How should governance architecture (laws and charters) be structured and enforced to deal with shareholder disagreements and the resource dissipation (losses) that results therefrom? I address this issue using basic contracting efficiency principles of property rights economics traceable to Coase and to Alchian and Demsetz.</p>","PeriodicalId":47815,"journal":{"name":"European Financial Management","volume":"31 1","pages":"3-25"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/eufm.12522","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143110980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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 policy shocks and crowdfunding success of renewable technology campaigns","authors":"Sirui Cheng, Xiuping Hua, Jiadong Peng, Huayi Zhang","doi":"10.1111/eufm.12523","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/eufm.12523","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study uses Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Accord as an exogenous policy shock and investigates its impact on crowdfunding outcomes. We find that this major policy change negatively affects the funding success of renewable technology campaigns. Mechanism tests suggest that social trust and availability bias transmit the influence of climate policy shock on crowd backers' decisions. Further analyses indicate that Biden's consequential policy reversal recovers the investors' support towards renewable technology. Overall, the Trump administration's climate policy shock induces significant shifts in the consumption preferences of small investors and incurs negative externalities upon renewable technology in crowdfunding markets.</p>","PeriodicalId":47815,"journal":{"name":"European Financial Management","volume":"31 2","pages":"876-908"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143536131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}