Asli Togan

Kadir Has University | KHU · International Trade and Finance

We analyze long-term art auction sales data focusing on and around financial crisis periods with other investment returns to understand whether art can be considered a safe haven during volatile times or a hedging option in general by analyzing art auction data in a volatile emerging market. Our findings suggest Turkish art returns are either negat...

In this paper, we ask whether the adoption of recent technological improvements in delivering financial services such as crowdfunding assists the financially excluded to enhance/embark on entrepreneurial ventures. To address this; we build on the premise that ceteris paribus, a borrower’s distrust in traditional financial institutions attributable...

Social forces partition human capital into pools of standardized skills (silos). Standardization facilitates the mobility of professionals across organizations within the same filed but discourages collaborations across fields. Economic crises force migrations of human capital across previously isolated sectors and, in the process, stimulate techno...

Availability of private equity markets in Africa are quite limited even though this type of financing creates an environment for entrepreneurial firms to gain access to finance. Availability of private equity financing opportunities potentially relieves firms’ financial constraints with likely benefits on employment and firm growth. The literature...

Firm performance is considered to be one of the main drivers of economic growth. Whether adequate access to external finance is essential for firm performance is still a point of debate in the literature. In this paper, we study the relationship between firms’ access to finance and their performance by using colonial railroads’ distance to firm loc...

We examine voluntary private pension funds and their relationship to capital market development. Using data from Turkey, we analyse depth, efficiency and liquidity indicators of capital markets after the introduction of voluntary private pension funds in 2003. Overall, our findings indicate that the introduction of voluntary private pension plans a...

The paper argues that the achievement of sustainability of public debt requiring the fulfillment of solvency and liquidity conditions in countries for which real interest rates are above the real growth rates is challenging and difficult. Since solvency is a rather complex concept and its governance is difficult and delicate, the paper maintains th...

I examine the role of institutional investors in hedge fund activists’ target selection. I argue that the coordination power and the investment horizon of institutional investors are important factors in explaining target selection. I find that hedge fund activism is higher in firms that institutional investors with long-term horizons invest as wel...

Firm growth is considered to be one of the main drivers of economic growth. Whether adequate access to external finance is an important factor for firm growth is still a point of debate in literature. In this paper, we study the relationship between firms’ access to finance and their performance by using colonial railroads’ and ports’ distance to f...

I examine the role of institutional investors in hedge fund activists’ target selection. I argue that the coordination power and the investment horizon of institutional investors are important factors in explaining target selection. I find that hedge fund activism is higher in firms that institutional investors with long-term horizons invest as wel...

We provide an overview of the voluntary pension fund market in Turkey by starting with recent developments in the global pension markets and then focusing on the pension fund reform in Turkey and the following developments since 2003. Findings from the literature indicate that the reforms on the introduction of voluntary pension funds in Turkey hav...

I look at the relationship between corporate loan terms and board members’ connections to bankers through employment on other boards, a connection relatively unaffected by confounding factors. Using syndicated loan data, I find that firms connected to bankers via other boards are more likely to borrow, and they receive cheaper pricing. However, loa...

In this paper we review and discuss the revenue forecasting practices in developing economies by first delving into the larger empirical literature on macroeconomic and fiscal forecasting in developed and developing economies and then discussing the forecasting methodologies used in developing economies by providing case studies. Literature and evi...

We analyze the Turkish banking industry with a focus on the Islamic banks with respect to their profitability and liquidity. The Turkish banking system is well established; and Islamic banks have operated alongside conventional banks since the late 1980’s even though the majority of the market share is still served by conventional banks. We also co...

We look at voluntary private pension funds and its relationship to capital market development in Turkey. First, we describe the voluntary pension fund market development in Turkey since 2003, and then analyze certain indicators of capital markets once the voluntary private pension funds are introduced. Overall, our findings indicate that the introd...

We look at managerial activism through collective action in the corporate sector. Activist managers spend considerable resources on lobbying, lawsuits and public statements to pursue pro-business as well as pro-manager issues. While managerial activism is valuable in following pro-business strategies, pro-manager agendas may exacerbate agency probl...