Gambling-Motivated Market Attention and Stock Market Volatility

Retail investors show gambling preferences and pay greater attention to the market than individual stocks. Previous studies report a positive and significant relationship between market attention and volatility. This relationship results from the joint effects of attention to investment-motivated and gambling-motivated components. However, the separate roles of these two components have not yet been examined. Hence, this study applied principal component analysis to identify the gambling-motivated component from market attention and gambling-related variables. The investment-motivated component is the regression residual of the market's attention paid to the gambling-motivated component. This study linearly relates these two components to volatility. The generalized method of moments regression was used to resolve endogeneity problems and biased estimates. The Google search volume index is a proxy for unobserved retail investors' market attention. Using a daily sample of the Thai market from August 6, 2008, to September 30, 2022 (a total of 3,450 observations), this study found a positive relationship between market attention and stock market volatility. This relationship results from the positive effects of both investment-motivated and gambling-motivated components. Attention to gambling is more influential than attention to investment. The explanatory powers of gambling-attention and investment-attention for volatility were 81.33% and 18.67%, respectively. These effects were less pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Do women on boards enhance firm performance? Evidence from top Indian companies

This paper examines whether gender diversity (GD) on corporate boards influences financial performance (FP) of Indian firms using System Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) methods by considering panel data of 364 firms during 2017 to 2021, comprising of 1820 firm-year observations. The study reveals that the mere presence of a woman director (WD) on boards makes no difference in financial performance. Presence of WDs as a significant portion of the boards and their active roles in the functioning and governance of companies positively contribute to firms' financial performances and economic value creation. Regarding other governance parameters, the study shows that larger boards do not necessarily improve firm performance. Also, independent directors do not necessarily add value to corporate performance and value creation. While a higher promoter's stake is an important factor for Indian companies to drive corporate performance, firms with separate CEO and chairperson outperform firms with CEO duality. The study also reveals that the covid 19 pandemic has negatively influenced the financial performance and economic profit generation of the Indian firms. This study is important for several reasons. First, this study considers the period (2017–2021) when Indian companies adopted new financial reporting practices (IND-AS) in line with International Financial Reporting System (IFRS), the mandatory quota system of women directors' appointment is implemented and new corporate governance norms are implemented. Hence, our study contributes to the literature by proving meaningful insights on the role of gender diversity and other corporate governance parameters on financial performance of Indian firms in the light of newly adopted accounting and financial reporting practices. Second, few previous India based studies have mostly used pooled OLS or fixed effect models, and did not address the endogeneity problem in different forms like Dynamic Endogeneity, Simultaneity, and Unobserved Heterogeneity. This paper addresses the endogeneity problem appropriately by using the system generalized method of moments (GMM) while modelling the relation between WDs and firms' FP. Therefore, the findings of this study are more reliable and unbiased and can be useful for effective policy making on gender diversity and corporate governance issues. Third, few prior studies which have looked into the role of WDs on FP of Indian firms, have mostly used return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Tobin's Q as performance parameters. Here, in addition to ROA, ROE and Tobin's Q, we also use economic value added (EVA) as indicators of corporate performance to understand the role of WDs on economic value creation for companies. The EVA is considered as modern technique to measure the economic profit earned by a firm, and it has gained huge popularity among companies as an improved technique for measuring financial performance for companies. To the best of our knowledge, the role of WDs on economic value creation by firms has not been investigated before particularly in the Indian context. This is another unique contribution of this study. Fourth, the Covid 19 pandemic had impacted global economy severely and India was no exception. Financial performances of most Indian firms were negatively impacted due to the nationwide lockdown and uncertainties about production, revenue and earnings. This study considers both the pre and post Covid 19 pandemic period in examining our central research question using a year dummy. Therefore, our study also captures whether the covid 19 pandemic has actually impacted the financial performance of Indian firms, while modelling this relation. This is another valuable and unique contribution of this study to the literature. The findings of this study provide an understanding of how board gender diversity and other governance parameters influence financial performance of Indian firms in an emerging market context. The outcomes are also explained and aligned with the relevant policy implications in th light of recent Indian corporate governance norms and policies. These findings are useful to the companies and policymakers, as they can use these findings while designing effective boards, which can be useful in improving firm performance. Board of directors, investors, regulators, and policymakers can effectively use these findings to understand how gender diverse boards and other corporate governance parameters influence firms' financial performance under the concentrated ownership pattern.

Unemployment - Corruption Relationship in OECD Countries: System GMM Approach

Corruption, abuse of public office for private gain, is mainly found to impact macroeconomic indicators adversely in the long run. In this vein, this paper investigates the impact of corruption on unemployment in Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries between 1996-2020. Utilizing World Governance Indicators (WGI) corruption data and implementing the system generalized method of moments (GMM) methodology to overcome endogeneity and reverse causality issues, the results indicate that corruption increases unemployment in all models when various variables are controlled for. The robustness checks with alternative econometric estimations (i.e., difference GMM, fixed effect, and ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions) and corruption index (i.e., Corruption Perception Index (CPI)) verify the conclusion of system GMM that higher corruption leads to higher unemployment. However, the magnitude depends on the model and specification. The results reveal that specific policies should be implemented to eliminate corruption in political and bureaucratic spheres so that the unemployment rate can be maintained around the natural rate of each country.

The Arab Spring and Its Implications for FDI Inflows to the MENA Region

The Arab Spring (AS) marked an unprecedented event in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and it generated political and economic uncertainties and triggered violent conflicts and political rifts. This paper empirically examines the short-run and long-run effects of the AS on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the MENA region and to individual MENA countries. The empirical analysis is implemented through the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator for dynamic panel models, using different empirical specifications. The benchmark results show that the AS has led to important reductions in FDI inflows to the MENA region. A more detailed empirical analysis reveals significant variations in the AS effects on FDI inflows across MENA countries and it underscores distinct patterns over different time periods. These findings imply that governments in the MENA region are required to maintain political stability, and to adopt distinctive policies that lessen the adverse implications of the AS and that set favorable conditions for FDI inflows in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.

Determinants of nonperforming financing in Indonesian Islamic banks: A regional and sectoral analysis

This study examines the determinants of Islamic banks' non-performing financing from the perspective of regional and sectoral aspects during the periods before and during the pandemic. The study adopts a dynamic panel data analysis, namely the Generalized Method of Moments, and assesses panel data from the Indonesian banking industry in 32 provinces from October 2018 to July 2021 on a monthly basis. The study uses non-performing financing as the dependent variable and regional inflation, total financing, financing to deposit ratio, and Islamic bank size as the dependent variables. The findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic generally influenced the performance of non-performing financing in Islamic banks. This was evident in the significant relationship between regional inflation, total financing, financing to deposit ratio, and the non-performing financing value. Moreover, in the sectoral analysis, a different level of impact was observed in each sector. The most severe impact was seen in the construction sector, while other sectors were less affected during the pandemic. The regional analysis shows that all provinces on Java Island, as the epicenter of the pandemic in Indonesia, did not perform better than the provinces outside Java. Concerning policy implications, the Indonesian Financial Services Authority must be more aware of the determinants of Islamic banks' non-performing financing by considering sectoral and regional aspects. Furthermore, sectoral and regional-based policies should be developed to achieve and maintain the performance of Islamic banks' non-performing financing. © Faaza Fakhrunnas, Riska Dwi Astuti, Mohammad Bekti Hendrie Anto, 2022.

Information and volatility linkages between real estate, equity, bond and money markets in Australia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine information and volatility linkages among real estate, equity, bond and money markets in Australia.Design/methodology/approachA novel rational expectations framework of financial contagion (Kodres and Pritsker, 2002), along with a combination of robust statistical methods including simple and dynamic correlations and generalized impulse response (Fereidouni et al., 2014) have been employed using data covering three dynamic pre-pandemic economic cycles, namely, global financial crisis (GFC) period, pre-pandemic housing boom and pre-pandemic housing downturn from 2008 (February) to 2019 (December).FindingsResults reveal information linkages across real estate, equity, bond and money markets through correlations in return and volatilities of these series. Finding indicates that the three financial markets (equity, bond and money markets) are interdependent and integrated through information and volatility linkages during the GFC period and pre-pandemic housing downturn period. Financial markets have stronger associations with real estate market during pre-pandemic housing boom. The findings contribute to the general notion that the performances of three financial markets are closely related to the "boom” phase of the real estate cycle.Originality/valueThis research provides an extension of existing literature regarding the information and volatility contagion of the expanded set of core investment markets in Australia. The findings could assist household buyers and investors in designing strategic investment portfolios/hedging strategies and minimizing asset specific risks through diversification over short-term and long-term. In addition, results could support the maintenance, growth and development of a combination of competitive balanced investment markets including real estate, equity, bond and money markets in post-pandemic economy.

Latin America and the Caribbean SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance: Longitudinal Trend Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented stress on economies, food systems, and health care resources in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Existing surveillance provides a proxy of the COVID-19 caseload and mortalities; however, these measures make it difficult to identify the dynamics of the pandemic and places where outbreaks are likely to occur. Moreover, existing surveillance techniques have failed to measure the dynamics of the pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to provide additional surveillance metrics for COVID-19 transmission to track changes in the speed, acceleration, jerk, and persistence in the transmission of the pandemic more accurately than existing metrics. METHODS: Through a longitudinal trend analysis, we extracted COVID-19 data over 45 days from public health registries. We used an empirical difference equation to monitor the daily number of cases in the LAC as a function of the prior number of cases, the level of testing, and weekly shift variables based on a dynamic panel model that was estimated using the generalized method of moments approach by implementing the Arellano-Bond estimator in R. COVID-19 transmission rates were tracked for the LAC between September 30 and October 6, 2020, and between October 7 and 13, 2020. RESULTS: The LAC saw a reduction in the speed, acceleration, and jerk for the week of October 13, 2020, compared to the week of October 6, 2020, accompanied by reductions in new cases and the 7-day moving average. For the week of October 6, 2020, Belize reported the highest acceleration and jerk, at 1.7 and 1.8, respectively, which is particularly concerning, given its high mortality rate. The Bahamas also had a high acceleration at 1.5. In total, 11 countries had a positive acceleration during the week of October 6, 2020, whereas only 6 countries had a positive acceleration for the week of October 13, 2020. The TAC displayed an overall positive trend, with a speed of 10.40, acceleration of 0.27, and jerk of -0.31, all of which decreased in the subsequent week to 9.04, -0.81, and -0.03, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Metrics such as new cases, cumulative cases, deaths, and 7-day moving averages provide a static view of the pandemic but fail to identify where and the speed at which SARS-CoV-2 infects new individuals, the rate of acceleration or deceleration of the pandemic, and weekly comparison of the rate of acceleration of the pandemic indicate impending explosive growth or control of the pandemic. Enhanced surveillance will inform policymakers and leaders in the LAC about COVID-19 outbreaks.

Modeling COVID-19 Infected Cases and Deaths Based on Generalized Method of Moments

This paper investigates the dynamic relationships between the number of COVID-19 infected cases and deaths in all the districts of Karnataka state, India, from July 2020 to December 2021 based on the panel Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The panel GMM model with the first difference transformation was found suitable for studying the dynamics of the number of deaths due to COVID-19 infections over time. The one-period lag (DEATHS (-1)) has a positive and significant effect on the number of deaths (DEATH). The Wald test confirms the validity of the coefficients' significance and adds explanatory power to the model. The correlation between number of fatalities at time t positively correlated with the number of deaths in the previous period. Also, the number of infected cases positively and significantly influences the number of deaths over time. Granger pairwise causality test reveals the existence of bi-directional causality relationships between the COVID-19 infected cases and deaths.

Bank-specific performance indicators, macroeconomic variables and capital adequacy of Nigerian banking industry

[...]we canvass those Nigerian banks should reduce dividend payouts and increase retained profits as a buffer against exposed risks. To ensure the healthiness of banks in the banking industry as well as facilitate international transaction, the central bank of ten countries (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the US) formed the committee of banking supervision in 1988 (the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision). Since the formation of this committee, it has undergone at least three stages called the Basel I, Basel II and Basel III. Premised on shock to the economy brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, with economic growth in 2020 expected to contract by as much as 4.4 percent to 8.94 percent, a drop in oil receipt and a devalued Naira in the range of 380-450 to US dollar, the capital adequacy of banks could be severely threatened, (Egba, 2020). [...]scholars have extensively shown that bank specific performance indicators and macroeconomic factors affected capital adequacy ratio. [...]this paper examined the effect of banks specific-performance indicators and macroeconomic factors on bank financing which is the minimum funds required for their short-term obligation or capital adequacy ratio.

To Study the Effect of Corporate Governance on the Performance of Indian Listed Firms: A Comparative Panel Data Analysis

Purpose –This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance during pre and post-pandemic. The pandemic's effect on businesses, especially those of developing nations, served as a motivating factor for the author. Methodology – The balanced panel data were used for firms listed in BSE S&P 500 from the financial year 2018 to 2021. To account for possible endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity, we employed the Generalised Method of Moments to analyse the relationship between corporate governance and business performance. After excluding financial firms and firms with unavailable data, the sample size was reduced to 285 listed firms. Findings – The study's findings showed that the average board size for Indian firms is over nine and has a significant positive relationship with ROA. ROE and dividend payout in both sampling periods. A significant number of directors bring intellectual diversity and a variety of ideas. However, before the pandemic, board independence had a significant positive relationship with ROA, ROE and TobinQ but a significant negative association with the firm's market value (TobinQ). Further findings revealed that CEO-Duality had a significant negative relationship with firm performance in both sampling periods. Implications-The study's findings provide helpful empirical evidence to policymakers and listed companies in India. Originality-Few studies have examined the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance in pre and post-pandemic periods in emerging markets. Limitation-Although the time frame for this study was restricted, further research might be conducted over a longer time. Future studies could add other factors, such as ownership structure and cost of capital.

Non-Renewable and Renewable Energies, and COVID-19 Pandemic: Do They Matter for China’s Environmental Sustainability?

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, people all around the globe have seen its effects, including city closures, travel restrictions, and stringent security measures. However, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic extend beyond people’s everyday lives. It impacts the air, water, soil, and carbon emissions as well. This article examines the effect of energy and the COVID-19 pandemic on China’s carbon dioxide emissions in light of the aforementioned context, using the daily data from 20 January 2020 and ending on 20 April 2022. Using the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model for empirical analysis, the findings indicate that COVID-19 pandemic confirmed cases and renewable energy advance environmental sustainability due to their negative effects on carbon dioxide emissions, whereas fossil fuel energy hinders environmental sustainability due to its positive effect on carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, these results are also supported by the results of the frequency domain causality test and the Markow switching regression. In light of these results, there are several policy implications, such as vaccination, renewable energy utilization, and non-renewable energy alternative policies, which have been proposed in this paper.

The Influence of Taxation on Income Inequality: Analysis of the Practice in the EU Countries

The growing economic inequality around the world is recognized as a global problem of mankind. At the same time, the key tool for reducing inequality and ensuring the achievement of sustainable development goals is the taxation system given its distributive function. That is why this paper puts forward and proves a scientific hypothesis according to which direct taxation has a significant impact on economic inequality, with its scale and sphere depending on the level of economic development and the specific architecture of the tax system adopted in a particular country. The study relies on data from 28 European Union countries, including the United Kingdom, whose tax systems are not identical but harmonized in accordance with European Union directives, the same as the legislation in other economic sectors. Accordingly, it can be concluded that similar institutional characteristics are present. We have used the method of two-stage cluster analysis, which is meant for identifying the natural splitting of the mass of data into groups, then carried out regression analysis and built some models. The contribution of the study is revealing a number of important regularities that are significant for characterizing the dependence of income inequality on direct taxation as well as formulation recommendations for improving the tax policies of European Union countries, with the potential of policy implications. The results obtained can play a significant role in the development and further harmonization of tax systems and resolving the global problem of increased inequality within and between countries.

Exploring the Relationship between Energy and Food Security in Africa with Instrumental Variables Analysis

The well-being of human populations and their sustainable development are strongly predicated on energy and food security. This is even more true of Africa due to often suboptimal food production, undernourishment, and extreme poverty. This article researches the relationship between energy and food security using Cobb–Douglas production functions based on the World Development Indicators data for 28 African countries. The methodological approach includes cross-sectional dependence and unit root tests, instrumental variables two-stage least-squares and generalized method of moments, and panel Driscoll–Kraay standard errors. Results suggest that the promotion of energy security promotes food security. This is possible because food production and distribution are energy-intensive. Therefore, energy is fundamental to achieving food security and zero hunger. The availability, affordability, accessibility, and acceptability of energy can thus help to fix the growing agricultural production shortage in Africa. An important policy focus should be on achieving energy security.

Is Ethereum's Price Return Determined by COVID-19, Macro-financial, and Crypto Market Factors?

We investigated COVID-19 cases per country, macro-financial, and crypto market factors that might have affected Ethereum's price return in the top three countries of users, which were also affected by COVID-19 (United States, China, and Germany). Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) was used as the methodology and the generalized method of moments (GMM) was tested for a robustness check. The findings revealed that Ethereum price returns were greatly affected by COVID-19 factors. Meanwhile, macro-financial factors (stock indices and gold) had stronger effects on the return of Ethereum price rather than the crypto market. © 2022 ACM.

Factors Impacting on Bitcoin Returns in the Top Three COVID-19 Infected Countries

Our research investigated the effect of COVID-19 cases (cumulative positive and death cases) on Bitcoin price in the top three infected countries based on WHO (United States, Brazil, and India). Macro-financial and internal factors are employed as the other independent determinants of Bitcoin prices. We utilized feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) alongside generalized method of moments (GMM) for robustness check. The output revealed robustness across different econometric models. The findings unraveled that COVID-19 cumulative positive cases brought positive but insignificant impacts on Bitcoin returns, while its death cases stated the opposite. Macro-financial factors represented by stock indices and gold price imposed that they could be alternative investments to Bitcoin under the uncertain times of COVID-19. Liquidity and volume in respect to return discovery of Bitcoin are imperative instruments, as these internal factors move in the same direction with Bitcoin's demand and return movement. Efficiency in internal factors drives investors' demand, hence pushing the increase in Bitcoin's return. © 2022 ACM.

THE IMPACT OF TOURIST ARRIVALS ON RETAIL TRADE TURNOVER IN CROATIA

The share of tourism in the Croatian economy has been growing over the years whereby Croatia has one of the largest shares of tourism in Gross domestic product (GDP) in Europe. Therefore, tourism can be considered as one of the most important driver of the Croatian economy. The number of tourist arrivals affects many economic variables such as industry, retail trade, service activities, construction, employment, prices etc. In this paper, the focus will be on the impact of tourist arrivals on retail trade turnover in Croatia. By definition, retail trade is the sale of goods to final consumers for personal consumption or use in households and like tourism, retail trade is also very important component of Croatian GDP. For the purpose of the analysis, monthly data on the number of tourist arrivals and retail trade turnover (in real terms) are used. To determine the relationship between the variables the bounds testing (ARDL) approach for cointegration is applied. The results indicate the existence of stable cointegration relationship between the variables. In the long-run, an increase in tourist arrivals increases retail trade turnover in Croatia whereby in the short-run there is no impact. The error correction coefficient is highly statistically significant, has the correct sign and suggests slow speed of adjustment to the long-run equilibrium.

COVID-19, Beef Price Spreads, and Market Power

Key words: meatpacking, plant shutdown, oligopoly, oligopsony (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) Introduction The unprecedented spike in beef price spreads (Figure 1) and drop in cattle slaughter (Figure 2), as beef-packing plants closed or slowed production because of COVID-19 (Dyal, 2020;Taylor, Boulos, and Almond, 2020) prompted calls for investigations into "inappropriate influence" during the pandemic by the highly concentrated packers in the beef market (National Cattlemen's Beef Association, 2020;R-Calf, 2020;Grassley, 2020). The extent to which packer concentration and market power are believed to have triggered or exacerbated the widening of the beef price spread during the pandemic is revealed in a series of letters from cattle producer groups to lawmakers and lawmakers to government agencies. On April 29, 2020, R-Calf (2020) wrote to President Trump and congressional leaders stating that packer concentration "stymies producers' market access and robust competition for cattle... [and] also transfers any marketing power America's cattle farmers and ranchers might possess to the highly concentrated beef packing industry." On July 22, 2020, 5 months into the pandemic, the USDA released the Boxed Beef & Fed Cattle Price Spread Investigation Report, which summarized, in addition to the market impacts of the Tyson fire on beef price spreads, the market impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2020a).

How Government Corruption and Market Segmentation Affect Green Total Factor Energy Efficiency in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Evidence From China

Energy and environmental pollution have attracted wide attention, but few studies have been conducted on green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) from the perspective of government corruption and market segmentation. By using the panel data of 30 provinces in China for the period 2006 to 2017, this paper tests the relationship between government corruption, market segmentation, and GTFEE. Moreover, considering the threshold effect of government corruption and market segmentation on GTFEE, the system generalized method of moments and the dynamic threshold panel model are adopted to analyze the nonlinear relationship. The regression results indicate that government corruption significantly decreases GTFEE, and market segmentation also has a significant negative impact on GTFEE. Moreover, market segmentation exacerbates the negative impact of corruption on GTFEE. The more serious the government corruption, the more severe the inhibitory effect of market segmentation on GTFEE. Similarly, the higher degree of market segmentation can increase the restraining effect of corruption on GTFEE. The results are still valid after a series of robustness tests. This paper suggests that countries should adopt severe anti-corruption actions, speed up the process of regional integration, and provide a good institutional environment support for the improvement of GTFEE. Copyright © 2022 Zhou, Du and Ren.

Asymmetric Effect of Energy Consumption and Economic Growth on Carbon Emissions in Ghana: Evidence from Nonlinear ARDL Approach

This paper explores the asymmetric effect of energy consumption and economic growth on carbon emissions in Ghana for the period 1970-2019. The empirical analysis employs the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) approach to decompose energy consumption and economic growth into positive and negative partial sum so as to explore possible asymmetric effects of the variables on carbon emissions. The results show evidence of cointegration among the variables and the presence of asymmetry for energy consumption in the short and long run, and only long-run asymmetry exists for economic growth. Again, the findings suggest that in Ghana, positive shocks in energy consumption have significant increasing effect on carbon emissions in the long run and negative shocks in energy consumption exert decreasing effects on carbon emissions. However, the impact of positive shocks is much greater than the impact of negative shocks. The results also reveal that in the long run, positive shocks in economic growth have significant decreasing effect on carbon emissions and vice versa. It is recommended that the government of Ghana develop policies aimed at encouraging the use of renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies.

A cross-country analysis on diversification, Sukuk investment, and the performance of Islamic banking systems under the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study investigates the relationship between diversification and Islamic banking systems' performance under the impact of the COVID-19 turmoil using a sample of 24 countries from 2013Q4 and 2020Q4. The findings indicate that the performance of Islamic banking systems is positively associated with sectoral diversification of Shari'ah-compliant financing and income diversification. Although this study confirms a negative impact of the COVID-19 shock, income diversification is found to mitigate the adverse effect of this health crisis on the performance of the Islamic banking systems. In which, Sukuk investment is considered an essential channel for pursuing this diversification strategy. Therefore, this research has important implications for policymakers, managers, and academics.