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This study aims to analyze the relative efficiency of graduate programs in terms of the quality of their scientific publications in journals. To this end, we applied Data Envelopment Analysis to the fields of Public and Business Administration, Accounting, and Tourism, using data from the 2017 Quadrennial Evaluation developed by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior ["Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel", CAPES]. The results suggest that efficient graduate programs are concentrated in the center-south axis of Brazil, in the areas of Administration and Accounting. Despite the overall publishing strategy in journals of various ranks (strata), efficient graduate programs allocate their efficiency primarily to Qualis A1 journals, A1 being the excellence rating in the CAPES scale. We conclude that legitimized research practices pressure graduate programs to improve the quality of their publications while threatening the survival of programs that fail to conform to the assessment rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor research reporting is a major contributing factor to low study reproducibility, financial and animal waste. The ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines were developed to improve reporting quality and many journals support these guidelines. The influence of this support is unknown. We hypothesized that papers published in journals supporting the ARRIVE guidelines would show improved reporting compared with those in non-supporting journals. In a retrospective, observational cohort study, papers from 5 ARRIVE supporting (SUPP) and 2 non-supporting (nonSUPP) journals, published before (2009) and 5 years after (2015) the ARRIVE guidelines, were selected. Adherence to the ARRIVE checklist of 20 items was independently evaluated by two reviewers and items assessed as fully, partially or not reported. Mean percentages of items reported were compared between journal types and years with an unequal variance t-test. Individual items and sub-items were compared with a chi-square test. From an initial cohort of 956, 236 papers were included: 120 from 2009 (SUPP; n = 52, nonSUPP; n = 68), 116 from 2015 (SUPP; n = 61, nonSUPP; n = 55). The percentage of fully reported items was similar between journal types in 2009 (SUPP: 55.3 ± 11.5% [SD]; nonSUPP: 51.8 ± 9.0%; p = 0.07, 95% CI of mean difference -0.3–7.3%) and 2015 (SUPP: 60.5 ± 11.2%; nonSUPP; 60.2 ± 10.0%; p = 0.89, 95%CI -3.6–4.2%). The small increase in fully reported items between years was similar for both journal types (p = 0.09, 95% CI -0.5–4.3%). No paper fully reported 100% of items on the ARRIVE checklist and measures associated with bias were poorly reported. These results suggest that journal support for the ARRIVE guidelines has not resulted in a meaningful improvement in reporting quality, contributing to ongoing waste in animal research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which focuses on the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF) of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, as well as the economic role of the commercial paper market. It says that the commercial paper market is being used by commercial banks and financial institutions to acquire short-term external funding. It also mentions that the CPFF was designed to provide additional source of funding to institutions in order to minimize the reinvestment risk.

This article examines the contracts at Warner Bros. for two productions by director Arthur Penn as a case study to consider how these agreements shaped production cultures during the emergence of New Hollywood. Through the 1950s, the studio employed production-distribution agreements that used strict controls and regulations to mimic its in-house procedures. But in the 1960s, it preferred short-form joint venture agreements that allowed more direct control in shaping the film's production while turning the producers into self-regulators. As the contracts reveal, Warner Bros. reshaped their business to grant production culture control to producers while also ensuring the studio's corporate role in the New Hollywood landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mortgage market can be portrayed as a complicated machine that processes information and disinformation to help lenders and would-be homeowners to fashion an enforceable and fair set of mutual obligations. The papers in this symposium issue focus on ameliorating cyclical speed-ups and slowdowns in the lender-operated parts of this machine. My discussion focuses on two issues: (1) how transitioning to a gig economy is changing household needs for owner-occupied and rental homes across different age groups; and (2) how to use the legal system to lessen the informational disadvantage that would-be homeowners face in understanding the deals they are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This literature review explores the existing work and practices in applying thematic analysis natural language processing techniques to financial data in cloud environments. This work aims to improve two of the five Vs of the big data system. We used the PRISMA approach (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) for the review. We analyzed the research papers published over the last 10 years about the topic in question using a keyword-based search and bibliometric analysis. The systematic literature review was conducted in multiple phases, and filters were applied to exclude papers based on the title and abstract initially, then based on the methodology/conclusion, and, finally, after reading the full text. The remaining papers were then considered and are discussed here. We found that automated data discovery methods can be augmented by applying an NLP-based thematic analysis on the financial data in cloud environments. This can help identify the correct classification/categorization and measure data quality for a sentiment analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author-pays model (open access publishing funded through author charges) is dependent on authors having access to financial support at the time their research papers are accepted. We conducted an author survey to determine the availability of external funding for publication charges at different points in the research process. Of the 377/524 (72%) who responded, 62% (233/377) received external funding to support their study, but with notable differences between journals. Only 25% (95/377) could withdraw funds from a grant at the time of paper acceptance. The grant was closed at this time for almost half (105/233.45%) of those who were externally funded. Non-externally funded research was largely supported through departmental resources (56%, 80/144) or carrying out research in own time (63%, 91/144). To conclude, a large proportion of published research is not externally funded, and many funded researchers do not have access to financial support at the time their paper is accepted for publication. INSET: Box 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the performance of the economy in the River Plate area in Argentina from the 1820s to the 1860s. Expansion of the rural economy; Micro- and macroeconomic consequences of inflationary financing; Contemporary financial and monetary circumstances; Buenos Aires' implementation of a 40-year process of dealing with inconvertible paper money.

The latest capital market crises are not the first and the last we will experience. These events of the previous decades led investors to diversify their portfolios with precious metals. As a result, the prices for raw materials, auxiliary materials, and operating materials have risen very strongly. As a result, companies are required to apply various hedging strategies to hedge production costs. This paper presents a hedging strategy based on volatility, which allows hedging against falling commodity prices. This paper deals with developing a new volatility-based hedging strategy for metals. The focus is on hedging against falling prices. The newly developed Foreshock-Vola-based strategy outperformed the 200-day MA strategy. It must be noted that this is the first study on the presented model due to the newly developed methodology. In this respect, it is recommended for further contributions that the investigation period be divided into individual years, and thus, the respective under - or outperformance of the vola-based hedging strategy compared to the 200-day MA be investigated separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries began at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties in 2005, and the agenda for "reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+)" was introduced under the UNFCCC. The REDD+ framework was developed with the expectation that it would significantly contribute to climate change mitigation at a relatively low cost and produce benefits for both developed and developing countries. Finance is a key element of REDD+ implementation, and many financial sources, approaches, and mechanisms have supported REDD+-related activities in various developing countries. However, the comprehensive challenges and lessons learned for REDD+ finance and its governance have not been fully explored. This paper reviews the relevant literature to understand the challenges for REDD+ finance and its governance in two areas—(1) REDD+ finance aligned with the UNFCCC and (2) REDD+-related finance outside the UNFCCC—which have developed differently and have different implications. This paper first identifies the six key elements of REDD+ finance and its governance across the two fields, and then reviews the related challenges and lessons learned with respect to public and private finance. The challenges for REDD+ finance and its governance aligned with the UNFCCC include enhancing the performance of REDD+ finance using mainly public finance, such as results-based finance and the jurisdictional approach. In contrast, the challenges regarding REDD+-related finance outside the UNFCCC include enhancing the engagement of the private sector in REDD+ finance, mainly targeting the project level, and the relationship between voluntary carbon markets and other investment and finance mechanisms. This paper also identifies the common challenges across REDD+ finance and its governance in the two fields. These challenges include the need to enhance linkages between REDD+ and other objectives, such as carbon neutrality/net-zero, deforestation-free supply chains, and nature-based solutions, as well as the need to develop learning systems for REDD+ finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A lifelong gluten-free diet is the only treatment for coeliac disease. The cost and availability of gluten-free substitute food (GFSF) remain challenging. Some local areas in England have stopped gluten-free prescriptions for coeliac disease. The aim of this paper is to present the quantitative findings of the financial impact of prescription withdrawal on people with coeliac disease. Methods: A cross-sectional survey with adults in England who reported having been diagnosed with coeliac disease by a health professional. The postal survey was distributed by Coeliac UK to their members in 13 prescribing and 13 non-prescribing local areas that were matched for geographical location and level of deprivation. Additionally, an advertisement for the survey was placed on social media. The questionnaire contained items on the availability and use of prescriptions; the weekly amount spent on GFSF; amount of specific GFSF bought; affordability of GFSF; demographics and health-related variables. Data were analysed by descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and regression analysis. Results: Of the 1697 participants, 809 resided in areas that provided prescriptions and 888 in non-prescribing areas. Participants self-report of their prescription did not always match the local area prescription policy. There was no statistically significant difference between prescribing and non-prescribing areas in how easy or difficult participants found it to obtain GFSF (p = 0.644) and its availability in various locations. Participants in non-prescribing areas purchased most types of GFSF items in statistically significantly higher quantities and thereby spent an additional £11.32/month on GFSF items than participants in prescribing areas (p < 0.001). While taking into account the self-reported prescription status, the amount increased to £14.09/month (p < 0.001). Although affordability to buy GFSF did not differ based on local area prescription policy or self-reported prescription status, it was dependent on equivalised annual income. However, affordability did not influence spending on GFSF. Regression analysis indicated that males and households with additional members with coeliac disease spent more on GFSF. Conclusions: The study has highlighted that gluten-free prescription withdrawal can have financial implications for people with coeliac disease. Any future changes to the prescription policy of GFSF should consider the impact on the population, especially lower income households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the theme of communications between the province of Mato Grosso and the Atlantic through the territory of the province of Paraná, using as sources, preferably, the reports of the presidents of the two provinces, and having as a background the concerns of the Brazilian national state due to the remote and border condition of Mato Grosso. It is shown that the routes sought were initially terrestrial-fluvial and, later, rail-fluvial, and that the leaders of Paraná had a greater interest in such communications than their counterparts in Mato Grosso. In addition to envisioning the possibility of Paraná becoming the "emporium" of Mato Grosso commerce, those leaders also sought the benefits brought to their province by the central government's investments in roads to Mato Grosso. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the role of technology and research and development (R&D) expenditures in the Finnish chemical forest industry (pulp and paper). Three categories of a company's R&D strategy; Trends in Finland's R&D spending; R&D's focus on pulp and paper; R&D investments by related industries; University involvement in pulp and paper related education; Trends in R&D spending in the United States.

To ensure the global communication and visibility of their work, international research groups leverage online settings and endorse specific digital academic practices. Twitter as a Social Medium for Research Dissemination Purposes has become an effective outlet to widely disseminate the development, knowledge production and findings of research projects. As a result, research groups implement pragmatic strategies that respond to three overarching communicative intentions--informative, promotional and interactional--and use metadiscursive markers within them to establish links with the audience. This paper analyses these practices by investigating the metadiscoursal realisations of a taxonomy of twenty-seven data-driven pragmatic strategies in ten Horizon2020 research project Twitter accounts. First, we propose metadiscursive adjustments for the digital environment of Twitter. Then, we use NVivo12 to identify salient metadiscourse features which help to realise the pragmatic strategies. In general, interactional metadiscursive features predominate over interactive ones, and we find attitude markers, self-mentions and directives to be the characteristic markers in, respectively, informative, promotional and interactional strategies. Moreover, some metadiscourse categories are found to rely on non-verbal markers for their realisation. The present analysis expands the understanding of complex digital discursive practices developed by researchers aiming to disseminate their results, account for their funding, make themselves visible and engage multiple audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the application of the optimal stopping techniques, this paper proposes a filter rule for investors in emerging stock markets. In a bull market, once the stock price falls down to the optimal filter size, investors should sell the stock to avoid massive losses. We show that the optimal filter size is a function of the historical highest price, the weights of the future returns and the current drawdown in the investor's utility function, the characteristics of the underlying stochastic price process, and the discount rate. Out-of-sample tests verify that this filter rule is valid, and the selling signals generated by the filter rule are at the beginning of the downtrend in the most emerging stock markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes classification models to provide a robust algorithm for imbalanced data where the minority class is of the interest, that is, in the context of default payments. In developing an integrated predictive accuracy algorithm, this study proposes machine learning classifiers and applies DNN, SVM, KNN, and ANN. The proposed algorithm utilizes a 30,000 imbalanced dataset to improve the accuracy of the prediction of default payments by implementing oversampling and undersampling strategies, such as synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE), SVM SMOTE, random undersampling, and ALL-KNN. The results indicate that the SVM under the ALL-KNN sampling technique is able to achieve an accuracy of 98.6%, with the lowest cross entropy loss measurement of 0.028. Through the accurate implementation of the neural networks and neurons used in the proposed algorithm, this paper presents better insights into the functioning of the neural networks when used in conjunction with the resampling techniques. Using the methodology and algorithm presented in this study, credit risk assessments can be more accurately predicted in practical applications where most of the clients are categorized as non-default payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the behavior of Ecuadorian private banking during the period 2000-2021, using aggregate information on trends in the banking sector and accounting data for the main banks. Based on a heterodox theoreticalhistorical approach, we highlight the link between the neoliberal structural reforms, the banking crisis, dollarization and the transformations of the banking sector. The results highlight the fact that the operation of the Ecuadorian banking system under formal dollarization not only recreates well-known elements of former financial fragility but also introduces new variables typical of the 21st-century banking universe that are a source of instability and hinder the financing objectives for the socio-economic development of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain is a modern technology that has revolutionized the way society interacts and trades. It could be defined as a chain of blocks that stores information with digital signatures in a distributed and decentralized network. This technique was first adopted for the creation of digital cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, research and industrial studies have recently focused on the opportunities that blockchain provides in various other application domains to take advantage of the main features of this technology, such as: decentralization, persistency, anonymity, and auditability. This paper reviews the use of blockchain in several interesting fields, namely: finance, healthcare, information systems, wireless networks, Internet of Things, smart grids, governmental services, and military/defense. In addition, our paper identifies the challenges to overcome, to guarantee better use of this technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the institutional mechanism behind increasing local government debts and default risk in the last decade in China. Using prefectural‐level data from 2010 to 2017, we study the default risk on local government debts through the lens of spatial interactions. Empirical results identify positive spatial interactions of default risk among political neighbouring cities, but not for merely geographic or economic neighbours. Moreover, the spatial interactions vary with local leader's political incentives. These findings altogether suggest the spatial interactions of default risk is driven by political competition among local leaders. The study also rules out alternative explanations such as resource flow effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article determines the role of Islamic banking in development of agricultural sector, and also indicates hitches and suggests solutions to enhance agricultural financing. The research method is qualitative. A review of the existing literature was conducted for accumulating statistics. The outcomes of field survey and industry opinions with sufficient information were also added. The data analysis was presented in tabularized form to make it easy to analyze. This paper finds that the Islamic banking sector has inadequate participation in agriculture finance which can be promoted with a satisfactory input, although the IBIs are offering an bunch of products of different natures and SBP has also provided sufficient guidelines and regulation that may fulfil the requirement, but there are some complication and technical hitches along with the unsystematic and unplanned nature of agriculture sector that makes the potential unproductive and the offerings remain decorated at websites of IBIs Only. This paper suggests the government to come forward and resolve the issues faced by IBIs in financing agriculture sector, and also call on the IBIs to drag their attention towards this sector and promote product development wing in the light of the instructions of State Bank of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus crisis (COVID-19) crisis highlighted a disadvantage of globalization: risks are more systemic. That is, crises are no longer local, but quickly spread to other countries in a region and around the world. In this context, the use of information and communication technologies was an automatic response of society. The financial technology (Fintech) sector is considered a safe option to preserve health at the time of making a transaction. This paper aims to analyze the effects that the coronavirus crisis had on the use of Fintech services in Latin America. To this end, the concept of Fintech is clarified. Next, the types of Fintech services used in Latin America are characterized. The data on the number of companies and the use of Fintech products before and during the COVID-19 crisis are then analyzed. Finally, policy options for driving financial inclusion and increasing the benefits of using Fintech services in the region are presented. The results allow us to conclude that the progress of the Fintech sector in Latin America was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovation, the financial market, and the real economy are mutually promoting and restricting. Considering the interference of market-noise information, this paper applies the wavelet-denoising method of the soft- and hard-threshold compromise functions to process the original information so as to eliminate the noise information, and combines multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis with the sliding-window approach, focusing on the change in the Hurst index and the parameter change in the multifractal spectrum to explore the interaction in between. The research results show that there is a certain cross-correlation among technological-innovation, financial-market, and real-economy indices. Firstly, the cross-correlation among them has significant multifractal characteristics rather than single-fractal characteristics. Secondly, the fractal characteristics reveal the long memory of the interaction among the three indices. Thirdly, there are also obvious differences in the degree of local chaos and volatility of the interaction. Fourthly, the cross-correlation among technological-innovation, financial-market, and real-economy indices has significant multifractal characteristics rather than single-fractal characteristics. In comparison, the cross-correlation multifractal characteristics among technological innovation, the financial market, and the real economy are time-varying, and the cross-correlation multifractal characteristics between the technological-innovation index and the real-economy index are the most obvious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Option pricing is one of the most active Financial Economics research fields. Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing theory states that risk-neutral density is lognormal. However, markets' pieces of evidence do not support that assumption. More realistic assumptions impose substantial computational burdens to calculate option pricing functions. Risk-neutral density is a pivotal element to price derivative assets, which can be estimated through nonparametric kernel methods. A significant computational challenge exists for determining optimal kernel bandwidths, addressed in this study through a parallel computing algorithm performed using Graphical Processing Units. The paper proposes a tailor-made Cross-Validation criterion function used to define optimal bandwidths. The selection of optimal bandwidths is crucial for nonparametric estimation and is also the most computationally intensive. We tested the developed algorithms through two data sets related to intraday data for VIX and S&P500 indexes. • An example of such big data environments is information associated with financial options contracts. • Second, we developed methods to estimate the risk-neutral density as a pivotal element for options pricing. • Third, we found that nonparametric methods should be adapted for estimating the second derivatives, which relate to the risk-neutral densities. • Fourth, the proposed adaptations imply significant computational burdens defining bandwidths for nonparametric estimators. • Fifth, we found that parallel computing procedures can reduce computational times, compatible with needed dynamic updating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This study aims to determine whether, by means of the application of genetic algorithms (GA) through the traditional technical analysis (TA) using moving average convergence/divergence (MACD), is possible to achieve higher yields than those that would be obtained using technical analysis investment strategies following a traditional approach (TA) and the buy and hold (B&H) strategy. Design/methodology/approach -- The study was carried out based on the daily price records of the NASDAQ financial asset during 2013--2017. TA approach was carried out under graphical analysis applying the standard MACD. GA approach took place by chromosome encoding, fitness evaluation and genetic operators. Traditional genetic operators (i.e. crossover and mutation) were adopted as based on the chromosome customization and fitness evaluation. The chromosome encoding stage used MACD to represent the genes of each chromosome to encode the parameters ofMACDin a chromosome. For each chromosome, buy and sell indexes of the strategy were considered. Fitness evaluation served to defining the evaluation strategy of the chromosomes in the population according to the fitness function using the returns gained in each chromosome. Findings -- The paper provides empirical-theoretical insights about the effectiveness of GA to overcome the investment strategies based on MACD and B&H by achieving 5 and 11% higher returns per year, respectively. GA-based approach was additionally capable of improving the return-to-risk ratio of the investment. Research limitations/implications -- Limitations deal with the fact that the study was carried out on US markets conditions and data which hamper its application in some extend to markets with not as much development. Practical implications -- The findings suggest that not only skilled but also amateur investors may opt for investment strategies based on GA aiming at refining profitable financial signals to their advantage. Originality/value -- This paper looks at machine learning as an up-to-date tool with great potential for increasing effectiveness in profits when applied into TA investment approaches using MACD in welldeveloped stock markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical gold has a long history as a store of value. It dates back to ancient times and still has high importance today. Technological advancements in distributed ledger technology eliminate the downsides of physical gold we were exposed to in the past. In this article, we analyze the relationship between the gold price and inflation and ask whether gold is suitable as an alternative means of payment. Regarding the mentioned tokenization possibility, gold fulfils all the functions to become a means of payment. We tested the value storage capability of gold. This was tested by relating gold as a protection against inflation to HICP in regression analyses and mean comparisons. A total of six hypotheses were tested, of which three could be rejected. The existing literature mainly focuses on testing the correlation between gold and other assets to verify its safe haven property. A part of this paper tests the regression relationship in which the dependent variable is represented by gold, and the independent variable is represented by inflation. Under this methodology, we demonstrated that a stable, statistically significant positive relationship exists when using log gold prices and log HICP values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents several abstracts of studies on economic policies. 'The Disposition of Failed Japanese Bank Assets: Lessons From the U.S. Savings and Loan Crisis,' by Mark M. Spiegel; 'How Bad Are Twins? Output Costs of Currency and Banking Crises,' by Michael Hutchison; 'Sudden Stops and the Mexican Wave: Currency Crises, Capital Flow Reversals and Output Loss in Emerging Markets,' by Michael Hutchison.

Presents several abstracts of studies on economic policies. 'Operating Performance of Banks Among Asian Economies: An International and Time Series Comparison,' by Simon H. Kwan; 'Assessing the Lucas Critique in Monetary Policy Models,' by Glenn D. Rudebusch; 'Investment, Capacity, and Uncertainty: A Putty-Clay Approach,' by Simon Gilchrist and John C. Williams.

Presents abstracts on economics and finance in Asia and the Pacific. 'Asian Finance and the Role of Bankruptcy,' by Thomas F. Cargill and Elliott Parker; 'A Cure Worse than the Disease? Currency Crises and the Output Costs of IMF-Supported Stabilization Programs,' by Michael Hutchison; Structural Changes and the Scope of Inflation Targeting in Korea,' by Gongpil Choi; 'Foreign Exchange: Macro Puzzles, Micro Tools,' by Richard K. Lyons.

Presents abstracts on economics and finance. 'The Federal Reserve Banks' Imputed Cost of Equity Capital,' by Edward J. Green, Jose A. Lopez and Zhenyu Wang; 'Forward-looking Behavior and the Optimality of the Taylor Rule,' by Kevin J. Lansing and Bharat Trehan; 'Solvency Runs, Sunspot Runs, and International Bailouts,' by Mark M. Spiegel; 'The Supplemental Security Income Program,' by May C. Daly and Richard Burkhauser.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze whether the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) strengthened the negative relationship among earnings management and corporate governance best practices, which are: B3’s differentiated levels of corporate governance, the presence of a board of independent directors and whether the company is audited by a Big Four or not. Methodology: We applied panel data regression with a sample of 92 companies listed in B3 during the period 2002-2007, for the period prior to IFRS and 2010-2015, for the period after IFRS. Data were collected from the explanatory notes, company reference form and in the Economatica® database. In order to measure the dependent variable earnings management, we applied the model proposed by Dechow, Hutton, Kim and Sloan (2012). Results: Results show that when there is an independent administrative committee, the levels of earnings management are lower, and this relationship is driven by the IFRS adoption. We cannot affirm that companies at the highest levels of corporate governance and audited by a Big Four have a lower incidence of earnings management after the application of IFRS. Contributions of the Study: This paper contributes to a better understanding of how variables related to governance can influence the quality of accounting and financial information. It also contributes to the literature that investigates how IFRS can influence the quality of accounting information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze whether the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) strengthened the negative relationship among earnings management and corporate governance best practices, which are: B3’s differentiated levels of corporate governance, the presence of a board of independent directors and whether the company is audited by a Big Four or not. Methodology: We applied panel data regression with a sample of 92 companies listed in B3 during the period 2002-2007, for the period prior to IFRS and 2010-2015, for the period after IFRS. Data were collected from the explanatory notes, company reference form and in the Economatica® database. In order to measure the dependent variable earnings management, we applied the model proposed by Dechow, Hutton, Kim and Sloan (2012). Results: Results show that when there is an independent administrative committee, the levels of earnings management are lower, and this relationship is driven by the IFRS adoption. We cannot affirm that companies at the highest levels of corporate governance and audited by a Big Four have a lower incidence of earnings management after the application of IFRS. Contributions of the Study: This paper contributes to a better understanding of how variables related to governance can influence the quality of accounting and financial information. It also contributes to the literature that investigates how IFRS can influence the quality of accounting information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Distinguishing what employers in different areas of Great Britain need to pay to attract and retain labour has been a central component of public-sector resource allocation decisions. This paper examines how changes in the pattern of spatial wage differentials following the global financial crisis have impacted on the formulae which allocate government funding to local government and health providers in the NHS. Design/methodology/approach: Using employer-reported data on earnings, we examine spatial patterns of private-sector wages in Great Britain between 2007 and 2017. The method permits the analysis of finely defined geographical areas and controls for differences in industry and workforce composition to distinguish those differences that are attributable from unmeasured characteristics, such as differences between areas in the cost of living and amenities. These standardised spatial wage differentials (SSWDs) underpin the funding allocation formulae. Findings: The analysis shows that since 2007 private-sector wage dispersion, both within and between regions, has reduced: lower paid areas have experienced a relative increase in wages and higher paid a relative decline. Over the period, there was a significant reduction in the London wage premium. Originality/value: This paper demonstrates the importance of ensuring established policies are applied using contemporary data. The SSWDs used to distribute government funds have not been re-estimated for some time. As a result, the current resource allocation model has overcompensated the London region and undercompensated others during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the project of the private insurance sector to assume the role of protagonist in guaranteeing social protection and investigates its consequences for the management of inequalities. In Brazil, as in other countries, austerity policies have been implemented causing significant impacts on social insurance and benefits reduction. Based on multisite ethnographic research (2017-2019), developed with insurance market agents, this article analyses the processes of financialisation of social protection and popularisation of private insurance in contemporary Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world economy has for better or worse become more and more dependent on the financial markets, a rethinking of the role of finance in both theory and practice is necessary. I argue that such a rethinking requires a new look at the theories of finance that is philosophical in kind. In effect, as Martha Nussbaum claims, if the absence of philosophy in economics is arguably one of the main reasons for the flaws in certain economic theories, the absence of philosophy in finance is one the main reasons for the flaws in our theories on financial systems. In this paper I discuss the mutual relations and benefits between finance and philosophy. First, I examine the contribution that philosophy can offer to finance by analyzing a few critical issues in financial ontology (Section 2.1), financial methodology (Section 2.2) and financial mathematics (Section 2.3). I argue that philosophy is essential to enabling finance to achieve the goals for which it was designed, not only because it is a valuable external addition, but also internally, since philosophy is the proper tool for bringing about new theories and approaches. Then, I examine the contribution that finance can offer to philosophy by analyzing the relationship between theory and practice (Section 3.1), data and hypothesis (Section 3.2), and prediction, description and control (Section 3.3) in the context of financial systems. I argue that finance can help us to rethink some philosophical tenets on these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a differential pricing scheme, named as Diff-Price, to deliver customized safety services to the users at an optimal price and maximizing the profit of Safety Service Provider (SSP) using the Safety-as-a-Service (Safe-aaS) platform. None of the existing pricing schemes addresses the dynamic variation of price as the type of users and decision parameters requested by them vary. We assume road transportation as the implementation scenario of Safe-aaS. In order to deal with these issues, we formulate a pricing scheme, which renders different prices for the same decision parameters. The amount charged from the users are based on their type, decision parameters selected by them, and the duration for which they request the service. Additionally, the SSP allows suitable discounted price to the users, which is determined from their mode of payment and history of services availed. Further, to model the interaction between the users and SSPs, we design our problem as a multiple leader multiple follower non-cooperative Stackelberg game. We calculate the utility of SSPs and formulate an optimization problem to compute the optimal value of the basic price charged from the users. The exhaustive mathematical analysis and simulation results reveal that the proposed pricing scheme, Diff-Price improves the financial gain of the service providers as the number of users increases by 13.51%, 15.75%, and 14.173% respectively, compared to the adaptive incremental spot pricing scheme [1], differentiated cloud virtual-network as-a-service scheme [2], and smart road pricing system [3]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution, the interest is in three things, arising from a project on 'dark' F-KIBS clusters. This has already resulted in critical papers on management consultancy and accounting 'assemblages' in which such clusters are embedded (Cooke, 2023a; 2003b). Questions posed are: first, why is there so much financial crime being punished with huge fines? Second has there been a significant rise in such prosecutions in recent years? Third, which jurisdictions or clusters display the most prosecuted firms and sectors? These questions are stimulated by an interest in 'assemblage geography' and evolutionary spatial analysis; accordingly, financial 'dark' clusters are proposed for study in this contribution. Assemblage connections may be hypothesised to be found in financial districts that replicate Marshallian proximity, notably Delaware in the US (Weitzman, 2022). That state specifically and its main city, Wilmington, is proposed as an exemplary rising agglomeration of relational interactions specialising in US tax avoidance and bankruptcy. In Switzerland, Bellinzona Federal Criminal Court recently hosted a Swiss Bank's first-ever domestic trial for criminality in the shape of Credit Suisse. This bank had a fine of SFr2mn imposed on the bank, which was also ordered to pay €18.6mn in compensation to the Swiss government. An extra penalty was imposed by confiscation of SFr12 mn in criminal assets from the convicted perpetrators. The case had involved a group of Bulgarian clients laundering cocaine profits between 2004 and 2008 involving huge sums of cash being brought to the bank in suitcases, further associated with two assassinations. These red flags were missed by a bank which had received multiple fines elsewhere (Carrel, 2022). In reference to gang crime, in 2004, a Credit Suisse banker in Tokyo was arrested for allegedly helping launder at least ¥5bn linked to Japan's largest Yakuza gang connected in a Japan, Switzerland and Hong Kong network (Makortoff and Pegg, 2022). Regarding the demise of Switzerland's second global bank, after being badly hit by the huge Greensill and Archegos bankruptcies Credit Suisse was bailed out for £45 billion by the Swiss Central Bank in March 2023. Earlier, in 2015–2017, Disney, the creative economy exemplar in this narrative, is profiled in our third vignette as an imperious tax-dodging 'fiefdom' yet surviving as the global mass-entertainment leader. Finally, in sections 4 and 5, we profile two London-centred banking 'scandals' with 'sustainability' rather than 'creative' overtones. Thus of dubious banking practices London's many categories of financial regulator are served by two 'assemblage' cases that will be analysed subsequent to being advanced as candidates. One recent exemplar is Balli Steel, an Anglo-Iranian sanctions-breaker, while another is Britishvolt, a financially failed EV gigafactory project in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of studies highlight how organizational ambidexterity is vital for business competitive advantage. Although the number of studies on ambidexterity has substantially expanded in the past few years, the results have often been disappointing, particularly for focalized segments of organizations. Starting from these considerations, this paper analyzes corporate venture capitalists’ (CVCs) activities. Even though the most important research on the ambidexterity of CVCs was conducted by Hill and Birkinshaw in 2014, the ambidexterity of CVCs has so far been studied very little. Starting from an analysis of quantitative data, at both the descriptive and inferential levels, this paper aims at building a conceptual contextualization to understand how CVCs can be considered with regard to ambidexterity (ambidextrous, hybrid, or dis-ambidextrous, as proposed in this paper) and how they can manifest this capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: A given region's investment attractiveness is a set of conditions that depend primarily on the policy of the country that is the recipient of direct foreign investment, encouraging or discouraging foreign investors from making decisions about locating investments in a given area. These conditions include: the economic conditions, the infrastructure, the political and legal system, the business environment, and the socio-cultural environment. For a foreign investor, the motive for exporting capital abroad is the search for benefits that can be derived from the business activity conducted there, including easier entry into new markets. Purpose of the article: The main aim of the paper is to distinguish groups of voivodeships (NUTS 2 level) that are relatively homogeneous in terms of investment attractiveness, which is conducive to the inflow of foreign capital and the implementation of investment projects involving foreign capital. Methods: Distinguishing groups of voivodeships similar to each other in terms of the level of investment attractiveness is made by applying hierarchical cluster analysis. The dendrogram illustrates the hierarchical structure of clusters of similar objects according to the analysed set of variables. The quality of the clustering result is also assessed by determining the silhouette index. Comparative and descriptive analysis of CSO statistics are additional methods used that have contributed to the achievement of the aim of the paper. The research period covers the years 2000-2018. Findings & value added: The investment attractiveness of a voivodeship is closely related to the level of its economic development. Therefore, the following voivodeships are listed at the top of the investment attractiveness rankings: Mazowieckie, Dolnośląskie, Śląskie, Małopolskie, and Pomorskie. The conducted study has confirmed that the creation of special economic zones and the development of regional smart specialisations contribute to the inflow of foreign capital. It is worth noting that the assessment of investment attractiveness is relative. The comparison of the innovative attractiveness of voivodeships is based on the use of the average value, overestimated by cities, i.e. central hubs, attracting investors. The regional perspective on investment attractiveness using multi-dimensional statistical analysis methods is the added value of the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the approaches to assessing the organizational culture is to understand its effect on management functions, including the quality of accounting information systems. However, empirical studies about the influences of organizational culture on accounting information system quality, especially in the context of emerging countries like Vietnam, where accounting information is not reliable enough for decision making, have not yet provided enough evidence to confirm this relationship. This paper aims to investigate the effect of innovative organizational culture on the quality of accounting information systems by using the Structural Equation Model. A questionnaire was sent to the CEO, CFO, managers, and accounting staff of non-financial enterprises in Vietnam. With 649 valid respondents, the two-step approach was carried out, including exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis and examining the significance of the coefficient through a path analysis. Our findings identified that organizational culture is an essential factor in enhancing the quality of accounting information systems of Vietnamese firms. Implementing an innovative corporate culture will improve system quality and information quality of the accounting information systems that help accounting information more sufficient for making decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the return predictability of investor sentiment in 12 Asian and European markets during the period between 2004 and 2016. Employing the composite sentiment index constructed from the consumer confidence index (CCI), advance/decline ratio (ADR), and volatility premium (VP), we find a strong negative relationship between investor sentiment and the next 3 to 24-month returns. This outcome implies that sentiment could be a contrarian predictor of market returns over various periods. Moreover, we reveal an essential role of local factors, including financial development, institutional governance, and culture, in the sentiment-return diversification among regional markets. We discover that the moderating effect of market-specific factors is time-varying and different between Asian and European areas. As a result, sentiment has a shorter-term impact in Europe but a longer-term impact in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to identify the presence, direction and time at which the pure contagion effect occurred between financial markets. In so doing, the aim is to prove the existence of both spatial and temporal asymmetries of pure contagion effects. Firstly, a new empirical framework is proposed in order to define a spatial contagion index using the conditional cumulative distribution function as a parameter to estimate a conditional copula. This methodology enables us to estimate a dynamic conditional copula, providing information about how the market sent pure contagion effects and when. Secondly, in addition to detecting the direction of contagion, the real-time contagion effect is determined, enabling us to calculate the delay of contagion effects (spillover) between financial markets. The present empirical results show the existence of both spatial and temporal asymmetry for bilateral contagion effects for 16 mature and emerging stock markets during the 2001–2018 period. This proves the importance of taking temporal asymmetry into account when we want to detect the contagion effect of every crisis and to estimate the period of pure contagion relating to investors' behaviors. Finally, these findings highlight the fact that contagion effects were more intensive during the subprime crisis than they were during the European debt crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes and explores an extension of the usual k-out-of-n systems, where the components of the system are assumed to play different roles in determining its failure and with not necessarily i.i.d. components lifetimes. The theoretical reliability framework is compared with the standard weighted k-out-of-n systems, and it is actually adopted for the development of a financial derivative model whose outcome depends on the crossing of some predefined barriers of a set of assets. More precisely, such a derivative is presented as a coherent system whose components are the assets of the basket. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel sine–cosine and Nelder–Mead (SCANM) algorithm which hybridizes the sine–cosine algorithm (SCA) and Nelder–Mead (NM) local search method. The original version of SCA is prone to early convergence at the local minimum. The purpose of the SCANM algorithm is to overcome this issue. Thus, it aims to overcome this issue with the employment of the NM method. The SCANM algorithm was firstly compared with the SCA algorithm through 23 well-known test functions. The statistical assessment confirmed the better performance of the proposed algorithm. The comparative convergence profiles further demonstrated the significant performance improvement of the proposed SCANM algorithm. Besides, a non-parametric test was performed, and the results that showed the ability of the proposed approach were not by coincidence. A popular and well-performed metaheuristic algorithm known as grey wolf optimization was also used along with the recent and promising two other algorithms (Archimedes optimization and Harris hawks optimization) to comparatively demonstrate the performance of the SCANM algorithm against well-known classical benchmark functions and CEC 2017 test suite. The comparative assessment showed that the SCANM algorithm has promising performance for optimization problems. The non-parametric test further verified the better capability of the proposed SCANM algorithm for optimization problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to identify if there is an impact of the rating announcements issued by the agencies on the returns of the stocks of Brazilian companies listed on Brasil Bolsa Balcão, from August 2002 to August 2018, identifying which types of announcement (upgrade, downgrade or the same initial classification) cause variations in prices around the date of disclosure of the rating. Design/methodology/approach - The event study methodology was applied to verify the market reaction around the announcement dates in a 21-day event window (-10, þ10). The market model was used to calculate the abnormal returns (ARs), and subsequently, the accumulated ARs. Findings - The hypotheses tests allowed to verify that the accumulated ARs are different, before and after the three types of rating announcements (upgrades, downgrades and the same classification); in upgrades, the mean of accumulated ARs increases in the days before the event, while in downgrades, this increase occurs after the event. This paper concluded that the rating announcements have an impact on the return of stock of the Brazilian market and that the market reaction occurs most of the time before the event happens, which indicates that the market can anticipate the information contained in the changes in credit ratings. Practical implications - The results have considerable implications for portfolio managers, institutional investors and traders. It facilitates investment decision-making in the face of rating classification announcements. Market participants can pay more attention to their investment strategies and asset allocation during periods of risk rating announcements. Additionally, traders can understand the formof investment strategy for superior earnings. Originality/value - The importance of the study is related to the fact that the resultsmay explain the causes of specificmovements in the Brazilian financial market related to a source of information that may or may not be able to influence the decisions of the financial agents that operate in this market. The justification is centred on the idea that, for investors who somehow react to the announcements, it is relevant to understand the impact of rating classifications on companies, as access to such information allows formore conscious decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the relationship between cash holdings (CH) and expected equity return in a sample of firms of Pacific alliance countries. Design/methodology/approach - This paper constructed a panel of Pacific alliance firms for the period ranging from 2010 to 2016. This paper estimated different specification models using multivariate regression, and the statistical technique used to validate the hypothesis was panel data. Findings - Results showed that there is a positive relationship between CH and expected equity return (r). The relationship between CH and systematic risk (ß) was estimated and this paper found a positive and statistically significant association. Findings suggest that corporate liquidity contains underlying information that contributes to explain the expected equity return, which, if ignored, can produce quite misleading results. Originality/value - The results of this study have both academic and practical implications. First, the findings of the research contribute to a better understanding of the asset pricing models in emerging countries. On the other hand, the results obtained in this study can serve shareholders to make better estimations of the expected equity return, so investors can improve the risk-return trade-off due to the model allow a better estimation of the risk-return relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The whole world has been devastated by Corona Virus outbreak. As a result, economies around the have been severely threatened. Since the independence of Bangladesh, this has been in a position to remember 2020 in terms of economic catastrophe. The economic sectors of Bangladesh, that we consider to be the most important, have been severely affected. The purposes of this paper are to unearth the economic impacts of Bangladesh because of Corona pandemic and post consequences of Covid-19. The study is also concluded with some recommendations that will help Bangladesh’s economy recover faster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]