{"title":"Board gender diversity and default risk in a bank-based financial system: A pre-registered report","authors":"Hideaki Sakawa , Naoki Watanabel , Searat Ali","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102502","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102502","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This pre-registered report investigates the mitigating effect of board gender diversity on default risk in Japanese firms. We will also examine the potential mitigating effect of close bank-firm relationships on default risk. Importantly, we seek to determine whether women on boards (WOB) complements or substitutes bank monitoring in mitigating the default risk in the bank-based (financial) system. Our study will provide insight into the regulatory discussions concerning the Corporate Governance (CG) code, which seeks to enhance WOB and contribute to the debate on “who are the effective monitors in mitigating default risk” in a bank-based system.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102502"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142228812","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":"Bank credit to SMEs in Japan: Evidence from normal times, the global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 crisis","authors":"Daisuke Tsuruta","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102500","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102500","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We investigate what types of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use bank loans during crisis periods, focusing on the global financial crisis (GFC) and the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Using comprehensive data on SMEs in Japan, we obtain the following results. First, during these two crisis periods, SMEs with low cash flow, high credit risk, and low sales growth borrowed more from banks. Second, these firms borrowed more during the COVID-19 crisis than during the GFC. Furthermore, the ex post profitability of these firms was lower during the COVID-19 crisis, which was special in that vulnerable firms borrowed more from banks. Third, the increases in probability of default were not large during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis, but were economically significant in 2021. These results imply that massive financial support during the COVID-19 crisis delayed firm defaults.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102500"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142089665","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":"Watchdogs or Petdogs: The role of media freedom on banking system stability","authors":"My Nguyen , Ama Samarasinghe , Michael Skully","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102499","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102499","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper documents a positive impact of media freedom on bank stability at both bank- and systemic- levels. The results are robust after addressing endogeneity concerns as well as macroeconomic and regulatory factors that impact the association between media freedom and bank stability. We further find that greater media freedom diffuses more information about intermediaries to depositors, incentivising them to discipline and limit bank risk-taking activities. Media freedom also exerts a greater influence on bank stability in more developed countries. Overall, our results highlight the importance of media freedom in enhancing individual bank and systemic stability around the world.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102499"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142075817","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}
Sandun Fernando , Olena Onishchenko , Duminda Kuruppuarachchi
{"title":"Do short sellers amplify extreme market declines?","authors":"Sandun Fernando , Olena Onishchenko , Duminda Kuruppuarachchi","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102498","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102498","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>When the market falls sharply, short sellers are criticized for intensifying price declines by manipulative trading that pushes prices below fundamental values. Contrary to this view, we find that <em>increases in institutional and retail short seller's trading on the days of marketwide declines are associated with overpriced stocks</em>. Their trading is economically profitable: a portfolio that buys the least shorted and sells short the most shorted stocks by institutional (retail) investors earns 0.90% (0.79%) risk-adjusted weekly returns. Overall, institutional and retail short sellers adopt valuation-based trading during market-wide declines.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102498"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X24002506/pdfft?md5=abe204ccf2af633e0ec9712d5fef74c2&pid=1-s2.0-S0927538X24002506-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142075816","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":"Corporate responses to systemic risk: Talk and action","authors":"Yulin Liu , Junbo Wang , Fenghua Wen , Chunchi Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102493","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102493","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Using text-mining analyses, we find that firms are more concerned about systemic shocks, leading to a subsequent decrease in systemic risk exposure. This finding is robust to endogeneity using the entropy balance, instrumental variable, and quasi-natural experiment tests. A tighter regulatory environment and increased risk aversion are primary reasons for aligning firms’ slogans with their actions, i.e., reducing expenses and increasing cash holdings, to mitigate systemic risk exposure. Importantly, these risk-mitigating strategies produce positive outcomes, including increased earnings and decreased bankruptcy risk for firms. Results suggest regulators can cultivate voluntary reductions in systemic risk by increasing firms’ awareness.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102493"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142047799","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":"Impact of Islamicity on the productivity of conventional and Islamic banks in selected southeast Asian countries","authors":"Hasrul Nizam Mamat , Fakarudin Kamarudin , Mohsin Ali , Hafezali Iqbal Hussain","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102492","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102492","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study provides a new understanding of how bank-specific characteristics, the macroeconomic environment, and Islamicity affect the productivity of conventional banks (CBs) and Islamic banks (IBs) in selected Southeast Asian countries. The data of 153 banks, collected between 2015 and 2020, were used, and the influence of the selected factors was investigated by using panel data approaches, as well as the data envelopment analysis-based Malmquist productivity index (DEA-MPI). In the first-stage analysis, bank productivity was measured by using total factor productivity changes (TFPC), and in the second-stage analysis, panel regression analysis was performed, specifically, multiple panel regression analysis, which employed pooled ordinary least squares, a fixed-effects model, and a random-effects model. Parametric and nonparametric (Mann–Whitney and Kruskall–Wallis) tests found that the IBs were more progressive than the CBs. The findings indicated that unlike the IBs, change in the productivity of the CBs was adversely affected by economic Islamicity, as well as legal and governance Islamicity, which indicated that macroeconomic and legal structures that leaned toward Islamic values adversely affected the CBs. Meanwhile, the IBs were likely to be structured in line with such values and thus can mitigate the adverse impact of various factors. Both groups were negatively affected by human and political rights Islamicity, which indicated the use of a setup that could not benefit from Islamic values. This finding lends credence to the arguments in the literature that IBs mirror CBs in practice to remain competitive in their pricing based on market principles. The IBs were found to benefit from international relations Islamicity, which bodes well for the competitiveness of new players against the ancient setup of CBs in the globalized world.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102492"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142089666","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}
Thai Ton , Henry Leung , Yang Gao , Dirk Schiereck
{"title":"Agreeing to disagree: Informativeness of sentiments in internet message boards","authors":"Thai Ton , Henry Leung , Yang Gao , Dirk Schiereck","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102485","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102485","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We study the informativeness of the sentiment of posts on Australia's largest online stock message board, HotCopper. We explore whether disagreements among sentiment form a signal about the fundamental news of a company. We find that positive sentiment is associated with noise induced (uniformed) trading whereas negative sentiment contains value-relevant information about a firm's performance. Our empirical findings suggest that short selling activity reduces overreactions of abnormal returns in a noisy environment on the same day. Furthermore, we observe a sentiment convergence pattern around annual earnings announcements and low levels of sentiment homogeneity relate to significantly lower annual earnings surprise. This supports the view that disagreements among sentiments are a signal of bad news about firm fundamentals.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102485"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141997408","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}
Peter F. Chen , Qingchuan Hou , Yihong Wang , Lifang Xu
{"title":"The underwriter's conflict of interest and earnings forecast bias in prospectus: Evidence from Hong Kong","authors":"Peter F. Chen , Qingchuan Hou , Yihong Wang , Lifang Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102481","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102481","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>About 40% of the firms that go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange voluntarily include earnings forecasts in their prospectuses. These forecasts are on average biased downwards by 8% compared to the realized earnings. We hypothesize that the underwriter, in order to increase IPO underpricing and obtain private benefits, pressure managers to low-ball earnings forecasts in the prospectuses. We examine the effect of underwriting commission rate, reputation, and IPO trading commissions on the earnings forecast bias in the prospectuses. We find that underwriting commission rate is negatively associated with the forecast bias. Using the 90-day post-IPO trading volume as a proxy for future trading commissions and profits generated from institutional investors and aftermarket trading activities in general, we document that trading commissions are positively associated with the forecast bias. Further analysis shows that underpricing is positively associated with the forecast bias, but the effect of the forecast bias on underpricing disappears after controlling for the underwriter's trading commission. Overall, these results are consistent with predictions based on the agency theories of underwriter by <span><span>Baron (1982)</span></span> and <span><span>Loughran and Ritter (2002)</span></span>.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102481"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141997407","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":"Does SASAC boost the innovation of state-owned enterprises?","authors":"Guanchun Liu , Qihong Wang , Yunqing Tao","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102484","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102484","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study examines the causal effect of government monitoring on the innovation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). By exploiting an exogenous shock to SOEs caused by the establishment of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) in 2003, our difference-in-differences estimates show that government monitoring effectively promotes SOEs' innovation, and this positive innovation-driven effect becomes more prominent in SOEs with lower initial governance quality, stronger policy intensity, and greater innovation intensity. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms are that this reform helps reduce corporate policy burdens and improve management efficiency. In addition, government monitoring promotes SOEs' patent quality, resulting in enables better performance and higher productivity. Taken together, our findings suggest that government monitoring can be vital to SOEs' innovation activities.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102484"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141985817","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":"Violence against women, innate preferences and financial inclusion","authors":"Abu Zafar M. Shahriar , Quamrul Alam","doi":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102482","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pacfin.2024.102482","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We examine the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on the decision of low-income women to enter formal financial markets by opening a bank account. Additionally, we investigate potential behavioral explanations for the connection between IPV and account-opening decisions. In laboratory experiments conducted in rural Bangladesh, we find that victims of IPV tend to be more risk tolerant and impatient compared to others. When given the option to open a bank account without fees, women who experienced IPV in the past 12 months are less likely to do so than those who did not experience such violence. A path analysis reveals that differences in risk tolerance and impatience mediate the relationship between IPV exposure and financial exclusion. Essentially, our findings indicate that exposure to IPV increases risk tolerance and impatience in women, which in turn discourages them from opening a savings account.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48074,"journal":{"name":"Pacific-Basin Finance Journal","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102482"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X24002348/pdfft?md5=a75034af38d6b5e2b898bfd2abc91038&pid=1-s2.0-S0927538X24002348-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142044802","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}