International Journal of Finance & Economics

This paper investigates the influence of venture capital (VC) market competition on startup success using data from the Chinese VC market. By employing Bartik instrumental variables and the Heckman–Sørensen two‐step method to tackle endogeneity, we demonstrate that VC competition hampers the matching process between high‐quality startups and VCs, while promoting larger VC syndication. The adverse effects of VC competition on high‐quality startups result in a negative correlation with their probability of success. Moreover, our supplementary analysis reveals that the negative effects of VC competition on the success of high‐quality startups are attenuated within high‐tech industries. Conversely, VC market competition does not exhibit a significant impact on low‐quality startups. Consequently, policymakers face the challenge of striking a balance between fostering a competitive VC market and ensuring startup success.

This study explores how FinTech advancements, economic policy uncertainty (EPU), and social media sentiments affect bank stock returns in the United States. We analysed data from 338 listed banks between 2010 and 2022, using a two‐step Generalised Method of Moments estimator to address potential biases. Our findings show that EPU has the most significant negative impact on bank stock returns, highlighting the importance of stable policies for maintaining investor confidence. While FinTech advancements generally boost bank performance, they can temporarily hurt profitability due to initial costs and market scepticism. Positive social media sentiments, especially from platforms like Twitter, significantly enhance investor confidence and bank stock returns. However, when combined with high EPU, the positive effects of FinTech and social media are diminished, showing the density of these interactions. Robustness checks, including feasible generalised least squares and control variables such as unemployment, political stability, and the Z‐Score, confirm the consistency of our results. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers, financial institutions, and researchers, emphasising the need for strategies that integrate technological, social and policy factors to support financial stability and market performance.

This study uses data from 31 provinces in China between 2006 and 2020 to investigate the impact of financial structure on economic resilience. The findings show a significant inverted U‐shaped relationship between financial structure and economic resilience. Financial structure has a positive effect on economic resilience before reaching the inflection point; however, the impact becomes negative after reaching it. Endogeneity and robustness tests support this conclusion. Furthermore, factors such as crises, economic development levels, and the financial ecosystem moderate the relationship between financial structure and economic resilience. Finally, convergence tests reveal that disparities in financial structure and economic resilience across different regions in China are gradually narrowing, with financial structure converging towards the inflection point.

This paper examines the short‐term market reaction of aircraft commercial manufacturers and airline industry for eight Boeing aircraft incidents occurred in the first semester of 2024. Using an event study, we observe a negative and statistically significant stock price reaction for Boeing around the dates of the aircraft incidents and positive statistically significant abnormal returns to its rivals Airbus and Embraer. The competitive effect explains this result. As for the airline industry, the results do not show the existence of statistically significant effects on share prices. The absence of fatalities associated with these events helps to explain the lack of statistical significance for airline industry. However, a more detailed analysis of the sample reveals different patterns of behaviour of airline share prices—a negative and statistically significant abnormal return for airline firms with a fleet with a high weight of Boeing aircraft, for low‐cost carriers and for airlines with a poor safety record. Since all of these airlines use Boeing aircrafts, it seems there is a ‘guilt by association’ effect. These reactions are also reinforced or mitigated by airline‐specific characteristics such as size, leverage, and firm age. Practical implications of our findings are provided.

Intergenerational succession is an important issue in family firm research. Utilising data from Chinese family firms, we examine the impact of second‐generation involvement (i.e., involving second‐generation family members as directors or top executives) on earnings management. Our results indicate that second‐generation involvement can decrease earnings management, particularly regarding real earnings management. This suggests that second‐generation managers have incentives to protect the family's reputation and prioritise long‐term benefits, thus avoiding the negative consequences of real earnings management on socioemotional wealth. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the curbing effect on real earnings management is stronger when second‐generation members have longer tenure, higher education levels, overseas backgrounds, and are female, older, or in key positions. Additionally, the effect is more pronounced in firms with greater institutional ownership and analyst coverage. This study provides valuable insights into the relationship between second‐generation involvement and earnings management in family firms.

Understanding the cyclical nature of the public debt‐to‐GDP ratio is essential for policy decision‐making. This article proposes a theoretical framework to explain the dynamics of the public debt‐to‐GDP ratio over the business cycle by categorising them into three phases. There is a bounded interval within which the public debt‐to‐GDP ratio is in the counter‐cyclical phase, increasing in booms and decreasing in recessions. The debt‐to‐GDP ratio is in the accumulation phase when it is below the interval and in the reduction phase when it is above the interval. Importantly, the accumulation or reduction phase is expected to be followed by the counter‐cyclical phase. The bounded interval is not static, implying the significant recurrence of the counter‐cyclical phase and the time‐varying cyclical properties of the debt‐to‐GDP ratio. This study further proposes an iteration scheme to estimate the interval. Empirical results from five developed and five developing countries indicate that the patterns of the three phases differ across countries but exhibit similar trends within each country group. External factors such as income risks and austerity can change the bounds of the interval, thereby shifting the public debt dynamics to the accumulation or reduction from the counter‐cyclical phase.

As carbon neutrality and peak CO2 emissions approach, an increasing number of enterprises are being required—either willingly or under duress—to disclose their commitments to combating climate change. In response, Chinese listed enterprises are showing that they are willing to embrace social responsibility and maintain environmental reputation by actively taking part in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). The motivation behind and efficacy of these disclosures, however, remain unclear due to the inherent challenge of integrating environmentally beneficial activities into the supply base. Accordingly, this study examines the relationship between upstream supply chain and climate change disclosure levels of enterprises through the lens of dynamic operational capability. Using an ordinal logistic regression analysis of 1092 climate change disclosures of Chinese listed enterprises, we find that enterprises with high supplier concentration have higher levels of climate change disclosure. This impact is further amplified in firms with higher levels of lean production and high absorptive capacity, yet attenuated in firms that prefer to use a differentiation strategy. In addition, this study further utilises climate change disclosure rating as a mediating effect to explore its effectiveness on enterprises' profitability. Overall, this study reveals the significance of supplier concentration and key dynamic operational capabilities to climate change disclosure, contributing to the stream of environmental disclosure in suppliers' cooperation.

This study examines the influence of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance on analysts' tracking decisions. This study develops a theoretical model involving managers, funds, and brokers. The model finds that under optimal decision‐making conditions, ESG ratings have a positive impact on analyst coverage. Empirical research indicates that ESG performance positively influences analyst coverage in subsequent years. All causal inference methods confirm the significant positive causal effect of ESG performance on analysts' tracking decisions. Heterogeneity analysis shows that analysts pay more attention to ESG ratings for companies with higher market value. The mechanism analysis suggests that strong ESG performance can increase analyst coverage by reducing information asymmetry and attracting mutual fund investors. These findings provide valuable insights into the relationship between ESG performance and analysts' behaviour.

Corporate charitable donations, a form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, are increasingly important for improving a firm's reputation and fostering long‐term societal benefits. Nevertheless, despite the increasing level of interest in corporate donations among managers, academics, and the business community, literature on how and whether corporate donations impact earnings management is still scarce. As a result, this study aims to examine the relationship between corporate charitable donations and earnings management (EM) practices, considering the interacting role of boardroom gender diversity. Based on stakeholder theory, we posit that donating firms behave ethically to meet shareholders' needs and society expectations, thereby eliminating the opportunistic perspective of earnings management. Furthermore, the presence of female directors' acts as a signal for financial reporting quality and mitigates the agent‐principal conflicts of interests. By using a fixed effect regression on panel data of 79 Turkish‐listed firms from 2008 to 2022, the results show that corporate donations are positively associated with discretionary accruals, suggesting that donating firms are more likely to engage in earnings management. The results also show that gender diversity on boards helps greatly in mitigating the positive link between corporate donations and income‐increasing abnormal accruals. Our findings have important implications for investors when assessing donating firms since such donations may be used as a strategy mechanism to window‐dress their reputation. This article advances our understanding of the interplay among corporate donations, board gender diversity, and earnings management in an emerging market.

In today's competitive global economy, innovation is crucial for growth, competitiveness and societal progress. This study examines the relationship between various economic uncertainties and innovation outputs from 1987 to 2022 in the United States and Japan. Using the PMG‐ARDL model, it analyzes the effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU), monetary policy uncertainty (MPU), trade policy uncertainty (TPU) and fiscal policy uncertainty (FPU) on innovation. Pre‐estimation techniques, including CD analysis, unit root analysis and cointegration analysis, ensure methodological rigour. The findings indicate that EPU, MPU, TPU and FPU negatively affect ICT exports and patent applications (PTA), as uncertainties hinder business decision‐making and investment in research and development. However, MPU and TPU positively affect innovation in Japan, and MPU has a positive effect in the United States. These results highlight the importance of considering country‐specific dynamics in policy formulation. Policymakers should enhance transparency, stability and communication to foster innovation. This study contributes by exploring the diverse impacts of economic uncertainties on innovation.

Utilising Twitter's daily negative investor sentiment index based on the Russian–Ukrainian war event, this study explores the impact of the investor sentiment index on company stock market returns and liquidity through a comprehensive analytical framework of panel regression and panel vector autoregression models. The results show that there is a negative correlation between the Twitter‐based negative investor sentiment index and company stock returns, the direction of company stock inflows, and a positive correlation with stock trading volume; companies that do not respond to decisions promptly after the issuance of sanctions are more significantly affected by investor sentiment. Meanwhile, the findings of this study remain robust after using a system‐generalised method of moments model to consider potential endogeneity and replacing the samples in different periods. Finally, the paper gives insights into the role of government agencies, investors and firms in facing major event shocks and predicting stock market performance.

Although the importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices on corporate performance has been acknowledged in the literature, the impact of ESG performance on corporate export intensity within the manufacturing sector has attracted limited attention. Additionally, the influence of corporate ownership structure on the association between ESG performance and export intensity remains understudied. We fill this gap by using data from 2012 to 2022 of Chinese listed manufacturing companies in the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange to examine the impact of corporate ESG performance on export intensity and the role of ownership structure in this link. Results indicate that enhanced ESG performance is positively related to export intensity. Such an effect is weakened for state‐owned enterprises. We further propose that the potential mechanisms include alleviating financing constraints, promoting innovation, mitigating principal–agent problems and elevating reputation levels. The ownership structure significantly moderates the positive impact of ESG performance on export intensity. We suggest that small‐scale enterprises are more prone to be influenced by the positive effect of ESG performance on export intensity than larger ones. Moreover, among the ESG subdimensions, the environmental and governance dimensions play more significant roles in enhancing export intensity than the social dimension. The findings shed light on how to reap ESG benefits for export‐oriented manufacturing enterprises and promote their export intensity for firms' stakeholders and policymakers, thus providing practical policy recommendations.

Using a panel of 23 advanced economies over the period 1990-2020, this paper investigates the effect of structural reforms and institutional improvements on the probability of starting a fiscal adjustment, as well as on the probability that this fiscal adjustment will be successful and expansionary. We find that labour and product market reforms, institutional improvements in government efficiency, and enhanced financial development and access to money and capital markets have positive effects on the initiation and successful conclusion of a fiscal adjustment. At the same time, these factors increase the probability that a successful fiscal adjustment will also become expansionary, that is, it will lead to an increase in economic activity. The political ideology of the ruling party plays an important role in the interaction between reforms, institutional changes and fiscal adjustments.

This study uses the spatial panel model to explore the cross‐agency spillover effects of bank internal regulation on systemic risk and the moderating effect of bank FinTech in the relationship between them. We construct spatial weight matrices for asset and liability homogenisation to capture the channels of systemic risk transmission in banks. The text analysis approach is used to measure the internal regulation of the bank and the FinTech level. Empirical results demonstrate that the local bank's internal regulation can significantly reduce its own systemic risk. The neighbouring banks' internal regulation can significantly reduce the systemic risk of the local bank. As the bank FinTech level increases, the role of bank internal regulation in reducing systemic risk will gradually decline. Additionally, both asset and liability homogenisation are potential channels for systemic risk spillover.

This study investigates financial stress connectedness across diverse levels of stress using the novel quantile connectedness methodology between 10 Asian economies and the United States considering 15 years of data. We find that the size of connectedness increases due to the spillover of financial stress shock at both higher (right tail) and lower (left tail) quantiles than at the median. However, the impact of US financial stress on the regional connectedness of Asian countries is relatively larger at the median quantile than at the 5th and 95th quantiles. This impact is very marginal for European countries across the quantiles. Hong Kong and Singapore emerged as the major economies across the quantiles of financial stress shock spillover both in the regional and global systems. In the rolling window framework, while the total financial stress spillover indices vary in a small range, the net directional position of each country changes from transmitter to receiver of financial stress and vice versa throughout the study period in both regional and global systems. The major policy implication for the Asian countries is to bring regional orientation to their policies related to trade and capital flows.

This paper provides new evidence and insights about the finance‐investment nexus by assessing and comparing the impacts of different aspects of financial development on investment. The study uses data for 88 countries from 1996 to 2019, and the estimates are based on dynamic panel data methodology. Once the global financial crisis changed several structures, we also run regressions for the periods before and after the crisis to check whether the relationships change. Furthermore, to verify whether the results are not distorted by developed countries, the models are estimated for the full sample and for a sample of developing countries. The results reveal that higher levels of financial development are associated with higher levels of investment. In particular, the development of financial institutions depth and access to financial markets appears as the most important financial development variables for investments. The results also indicate that, after the global financial crisis, there was a change in the importance of the effects, increasing the impacts of financial development in terms of access to institutions and depth of institutions.

This study examines the asymmetric effect in the globalisation–poverty relationship in Africa from 1980 to 2020, focusing on low‐income and middle‐income countries. It investigates the roles of institutional quality and economic growth in this context. The research employs the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM), dynamic panel threshold analysis, and Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MM‐QR). Findings indicate that in low‐income African countries, globalisation is associated with poverty reduction, as shown by linear regression analysis. However, in middle‐income countries, a threshold at 60% suggests that beyond this point, globalisation does not significantly reduce poverty. The MM‐QR further confirms that globalisation's poverty‐reducing effects are primarily seen around the median income level, rather than across the entire income spectrum. These results underscore the importance of considering income levels when evaluating globalisation's impact on poverty. Policymakers should note that the benefits of globalisation for poverty reduction vary with a country's income level. To maximise globalisation's poverty‐reducing potential, economic growth should be promoted alongside it. This study highlights the need for context‐specific approaches and policies to effectively harness globalisation's benefits for poverty reduction in Africa.

The frequent shocks arising from policy reforms, trade tensions and black swan events have significantly contributed to fluctuations in the foreign exchange (FX) markets. By employing the method of Granger causality in risk with multiple quantiles, this paper examines extreme risk spillovers between onshore and offshore Renminbi (RMB) FX markets from a directional perspective. The results indicate asymmetric spillover effects, with particular emphasis on the direction of appreciation risks. Additionally, we highlight that major financial events influence the direction of risk spillovers through information transmission mechanisms. For instance, the ‘811 reform’ amplifies offshore market spillovers, Sino–U.S. trade tensions enhance depreciation spillovers from the onshore market and the COVID‐19 pandemic underscores the heightened significance of the extreme risk spillovers. Further mechanism and portfolio analyses confirm that both policy‐driven and market‐driven factors significantly impact extreme risk spillovers. Specifically, lower interest rates or an expanded money supply may trigger offshore appreciation risks, potentially serving as a hedge against onshore depreciation risks.

India's financial technology (FinTech) industry has experienced rapid growth in recent years. This has led to a greater emphasis on the connection between FinTech and cost efficiency. This research paper aims to investigate if banks with greater FinTech adoption exhibit greater cost efficiency and compare this Fintech influence on cost efficiency across various banks. To accomplish the research objectives, a novel Fintech index to measure FinTech innovation from both supply and demand perspectives is developed using data mining techniques and web crawler technology for Indian commercial banks. Further, to evaluate the relationship between Fintech and cost efficiency, efficiency scores are calculated using DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) and the empirical analysis is conducted using a two‐step system GMM (Generalised Method of Moments). The study reveals a positive association between Fintech development and cost efficiency. The higher the level of Fintech adoption, the greater the cost efficiency observed in banks. Additionally, the impact of FinTech on cost efficiency varies based on bank characteristics, with private sector banks experiencing a more substantial effect than Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and small banks benefiting more than large banks. This study pioneers the development of a Fintech index for scheduled commercial banks in India, offering valuable insights into the impact of FinTech on cost efficiency within emerging economies.

The study highlights the sustainable determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows that the host nations entail by boosting foreign trade with the rest of the world. We cumulate four pillars of sustainability (environmental, economic, governance, and social) and identify the influence each pillar has on FDI inflows. The study uses a two‐step system and difference Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) to assess the dynamic panel data for the top 20 emerging nations specified by IMF from 2005 to 2019. The results exhibit that past year values of FDI inflows influence the current year values, and a significant relationship exists between sustainable determinants and FDI inflows arriving in emerging economies. The pollution haven hypothesis has also been observed by deploying linear and non‐linear associations of carbon emissions. Through the findings, we conclude that the quality of FDI must improve for host nations to prosper along the other dimensions of sustainability. The results also suggest that host countries' MNEs and businesses adopt sustainable practices and innovative strategies to automate FDI towards the attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030. The implications will aid host economies' policymakers in reiterating the sustainable determinants of FDI and foreign investors in acknowledging the choice of the economy to invest in.

This research article represents the first attempt to quantify good and bad volatility interconnections among the top nine Islamic financial markets, which are classified based on their global share in Islamic finance banking assets by the World Economic Forum. The study employs a time‐ and frequency‐based generalised VAR framework. Additionally, we explore the moderating effects of global financial stress, geopolitical risk, and commodity market shocks on both short‐term and long‐term good and bad volatility interconnections. The findings suggest that, on average, forecast error variances are more greatly influenced by bad volatility spillovers rather than good ones. In the short term, the equity markets in the UAE, Indonesia, Kuwait, and Qatar exhibit a higher propensity to transmit bad volatility shocks compared to good ones. In the long run, the financial markets in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Kuwait, both conventional and Islamic, contribute more to bad volatility spillovers than to good ones when forecasting volatility over a 10‐period horizon for all other markets. Furthermore, in the short term, the financial markets in the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain receive higher bad volatility shocks compared to good ones. However, in the long term, the financial markets in Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Kuwait, both conventional and Islamic, are more susceptible to bad volatility spillovers. The findings also indicate that geopolitical risk has a negative moderating effect on overall, short‐term, and long‐term good volatility interconnections. Conversely, oil price uncertainty and financial stress have a positive moderating impact on overall, short‐term, and long‐term bad volatility interconnections.

This study employs state‐space models and the quantile‐on‐quantile regression technique to examine the dynamics of intentional and fundamental herding in North American energy stocks, together with its non‐linear determinants. Our findings reveal persistent herding in North American energy stocks, with no exceptions during the global financial crisis, COVID‐19, lockdown and post‐lockdown period, which is primarily driven by intentions. In all of these cases, herding is primarily motivated by intentional drivers rather than fundamental factors. Our results also show a herding asymmetry during bullish and bearish market conditions, but herding during bullish (bearish) market condition is mainly driven by the intentions (fundamentals). The findings of our quantile‐on‐quantile regression show that the effects of macroeconomic variables on time‐varying herding are, in fact, regime‐specific. We generally find evidence of herding (anti‐herding) at the lower (upper) quartiles of energy stocks liquidity, oil price shocks, economic policy uncertainty and oil market implied volatility. The investment community engaged in North American energy stocks can benefit from our study, as awareness about regime‐specific effects of various market variables on intentional (fundamental) herding can be a useful input in designing asset allocation and hedging strategies. The outcome of our study may provide interesting input to regulators to develop the dynamic legislative framework focusing on policies to encourage investment diversification during regime‐specific systemic risk escalation resulting from the dynamic behaviour of herding and macroeconomic variables.

This article contributes to the literature on banks' strategies for increasing capital requirements in the period of 2017–2021. We analysed a sample of 85 European banks and distinguished between subgroups according to bank size, capitalisation, and riskiness. We examined their responses to higher capital requirements following the issuance of the finalised Basel III reforms and increased regulatory and supervisory scrutiny following the COVID‐19 outbreak. We found evidence that banks' adjustments towards higher capital ratios were more pronounced and faster in the COVID‐19 period and that they depended on banks' specific characteristics and positions. Observed differences between banks and periods were mainly due to the different treatment of risk in banks' books. In particular, higher capitalisation and a lower risk profile allowed banks to take on the risk regardless of the period, while banks with higher risk tended to shift to less risky assets to manage their capital ratios.

To a large extent, the existing literature has not comprehensively explored how the ideological and political baptism of executives in their early years influences corporate decision‐making. Based on the imprinting and social identity theories, we investigate whether top executives' experience at Chinese Party schools (hereafter Party schools) significantly affects corporate social responsibility (CSR). Data on the Party school experience of the top executives of A‐share listed state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) in China from 2010 to 2019 were obtained. The Party school experience of top executives is found to significantly improve CSR performance, and this promotion effect is positively moderated by the level of regional poverty and government intervention. Further analyses show that experience at central‐level Party schools has a more significant and positive impact on CSR than experience at local‐level Party schools. Top executives' Party school experience is found to improve CSR in all dimensions, leading to the overall promotion of CSR. Moreover, the greater the power of management and the higher the quality of internal control, the more significant the promotion effect of top executive's Party school experience on CSR. This research reveals how internal and external factors influence the effect of top executives' Party school experience on CSR performance and examines the strengthening of executives' ideological imprint and social identity via different regional factors, ultimately contributing to the literature on both Party school experience and CSR.

Tackling the enduring concentration of women in blue‐collar occupations, this paper presents a novel study examining the causal relationship between self‐esteem and female occupational outcomes. To conduct this analysis, we utilise two extensive and nationally representative datasets: the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and the National Survey on Women's Social Status of China (NSWSS). Employing various econometric methods such as probit and logit models, nearest‐neighbouring matching to counter self‐selection bias, and instrument variable techniques to address endogeneity bias, we uncover intriguing findings. The regression results suggest that a lack of self‐esteem contributes to the inclination of women toward blue‐collar occupations. Remarkably, self‐esteem emerges as a more influential factor in determining occupational choices for women in China compared to cognitive ability and the Big Five non‐cognitive abilities. This study not only sheds light on interdisciplinary research but also proposes a fresh approach to mitigate occupational segregation, a major challenge hindering women's progress.