Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Industrial Economy: ‘How Africa Should Industrialize’

Continual Africa reliance to allegedly “good” policies to industrial growth from the Developed countries and the international development policy establishment (IDPE) such as the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO) and donor governments such as (DFID and IFC) may further capacitate Africa’s failure to industrialize. Allegedly “good” policies have not been able to generate the PROMISED growth dynamism in the Developing countries growth during the decades of its implementation. When Africa emerged from its long economic hibernation around the turn of the 21st century, African industry was no longer competing with the high-wage industrial “North,” as it had in the 1960s and 1970s. From the historical facts about the developmental experience of the Developed countries (official history of capitalism), it is evident that “it is when a country has gotten out of protection all that it can offer, it too will adopt free trade”. African countries are not already on the frontier of technological development, as such, protective duties and restrictions are inevitable if Africa is to turn the corner in its current industrial development QUEST, contrary to intentionally misguided belief of free trade. Export subsidies, tariff rebates on inputs used for exports, conferring of monopoly rights, cartel arrangements, directed credits, investment planning, manpower planning, R&D support and promotion of institutions for public-private co-operation are additional tools suggested in the article in regards to Africa’s industrial and development success.
The Effect of the Big 4 to Big 3 Audit Market Transition on Initial Year Audit Fee Pricing in Japan

Purpose – Japanese audit market experienced a significant shift from the Big 4 dominated the audit market to the Big 3 market due to the demise of PwC ChuoAoyama in 2006 that raised concern on compromised auditor’s independence. This study aims to investigate whether Japanese auditors engage in audit fee low-balling and whether the transition event from the Big 4 to the Big 3 period influences the audit pricing in the initial year of an audit engagement. <br><br>Design/methodology/approach – A sample of Japanese firms listed in the First Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange during the transition from Big 4 period (2005) to Big 3 period (2006-2007) is employed in the panel fixed effects multiple regression model with audit fee as the dependent variable. <br><br>Findings – Two main findings of this study are as follow. First, there is no difference in the fee paid in the initial year of audit engagement compared to continuing audit. Second, the transition to the Big 3 period contributes to higher audit fee paid in the initial year of audit compared to the prior Big 4 period. Further analysis shows that this higher initial year audit fee pricing is driven by companies that change from large firms to smaller size auditors. <br><br>Several sensitivity tests that control for auditor’s endogeneity support these conclusions. Research limitations/implications – These findings suggest that the transition to the Big 3 period increased the bargaining power of smaller size Japanese auditors in the pricing of the initial year audit in the short term. The generalizability of this paper’s findings is constrained to economies that also share the common characteristics of a developed capital market with robust investor protection, and law enforcement institutions. <br><br>Originality/value – Compared to prior initial year audit fee studies, this study investigates changes in the initial year audit pricing behavior in response to the unique empirical setting of the Japanese audit market transition from Big 4 to Big 3. Furthermore, the disclosure of audit fee information for the Japanese listed companies allow this research to measure audit fee low-balling. Unlike prior literature, this study employs the number of audit personnel data that are disclosed by the Japanese publicly listed firms to better explain audit fee variance.
Do Open-Market Share Repurchases Supply or Demand Immediacy?

This paper studies whether open-market share repurchases provide or demand immediacy. Our measure for the predicted return from providing immediacy is constructed to be uncorrelated with other potential determinants of daily executions, namely cost minimization, the provision of liquidity, and the strategic use of inside information. In average, repurchase executions provide immediacy but some repurchases demand immediacy. The results are robust to controlling for the aforementioned other potential determinants, and also earlier used measures. Repurchase executions affect the future provision of immediacy through their effect on the inventories of other immediacy providers and, therefore, the effect is smaller after past repurchases.
DO AGE AND GENDER AFFECT MANAGERS’ CAREER PROGRESSION? EVIDENCE FROM THE CAREERS OF MOVIE DIRECTORS

This paper considers discrimination in the market for managerial positions by following the career paths of film directors. Film directors manage multi-million projects and are hired on a project by project basis. We gather data on directors’ film projects from the time they enter the profession. We also study their background prior to the first movie they direct. As shown here and in previous work, the economic success of previous film projects is the main determinant of hiring for a new film, thus our null hypothesis is that controlling for career paths, age gender and race should not matter in landing a new project. However, we find that age matters and although directors start directing on average around age 40, there is evidence of age discrimination even for directors under 50. We also find more subtle evidence for gender bias, particularly in allocating budgets for future projects. We also document that on average, only 12% of an entering cohort of new directors are women and they follow a different path than men in the entertainment industry. It is significant that if there is evidence of discrimination in such an industry where career paths are public knowledge.
High-Frequency Arbitrage and Market Illiquidity

During times of market stress, arbitrage capital cannot be timely deployed, and assets trade away from fundamentals. This gives rise to transitory price volatility, a latent factor that signals difficulties in the market-making process. I propose a market-wide illiquidity measure based on SPY's transitory volatility (SPY is an ETF that tracks the S&P500). While related to existing illiquidity proxies, the proposed measure provides additional information. It also captures commonality in stock-level illiquidity, and it is priced in the market. An investment strategy based on it earns, on average, a 8.64% annual return. This premium cannot be explained by classical risk factors, including existing illiquidity measures.
Concentrated Ownership, Socio-emotional Wealth and the 'Third Possibility': Bringing Society Back In

Concentrated ownership implies greater alignment between ownership and control, mitigating the agency problem. However it may also engender governance challenges such as funds appropriation through related party transactions and the oppression of minority shareholders, especially in the context of weak legal systems. We draw from legal theory (the tradeoff controlling shareholder model and private benefits of control) and from organization theory (socioemotional wealth), to suggest that concentrated ownership can be beneficial in both robust and weak legal systems for different reasons. We advance theory on the effects of controlling shareholders and suggest that the longer-term outlook associated with engaged concentrated ownership can aid the shift of the corporation towards Berle and Means’ (1932: 355) “third possibility” of corporations serving the interests of not just the stockholders or management but also of society.
Impact of CSR on the Stock Returns of Indian Companies

Purpose- This study investigates the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on stock prices of Indian listed companies. The literature reviews show a strong contradictory of the relationship between CSR and stock prices which is still debatable. This study will tell whether there is a positive or negative or no correlation between CSR and stock price in Indian context. Methodology- The research design used in this study was an experimental cross-sectional design. This study uses regression, correlation and hypothesis testing to find the relationship between corporate social responsibility and stock price and financial performance. The stock price and some financial measures like dividend, ROE and employee benefit are also taken to measure the financial performance which indirectly affects stock price and to measure CSR the CSR expenditure is taken. Findings- This study will tell whether there is a positive or negative or no correlation between CSR and stock price in Indian context. This study is also used to suggest if the company are able to get enough returns from their CSR spending. Originality/value- The primary contribution of this study is to present a valid and robust evidence of the relationship between CSR and stock price of India listed companies. The proper reason behind CSR spending’s and its impact.
What Drives Banks to Value Lending Relationships? The Role of the Chief Executive's Cultural Heritage

We explore how bank CEOs' cultural heritage shapes the nexus between lending relationships and the cost of bank loans in the US syndicated loans market. We show that banks led by CEOs that trace their origin in more individualistic and masculine societies are less inclined to share with their borrowers the savings stemming from strong lending relationships. In contrast, banks led by CEOs that originate from societies where uncertainty avoidance and power distance are higher, exhibit a stronger propensity to reward their relationship borrowers with lower loan prices. These findings are consistent with the view that certain cultural attributes affect the degree to which relationships are valued in the societal and business contexts. Our study highlights the importance of considering lenders' culture when investigating the effects of lending relationships on the cost of bank loans.
The Green and Brown Performances of Mutual Fund Portfolios

A huge interest has emerged, in the mutual fund industry, in socially responsible investing (SRI). Central to this development is whether SRI funds underperform conventional funds. Using a novel approach, we decompose mutual fund portfolios into socially responsible (green) and non-socially responsible (brown) components. We find that, in comparison to the non-socially responsible component, the socially responsible part exhibits a lower raw return, lower risk-adjusted return, lower Sharpe ratio, and similar degree of performance reversal. The magnitudes of these underperformances are, however, small and align with SRI having a limited negative impact on fund performance yet offering some diversification benefits.
Improving Consumers' Ability to Detect Native Advertising Using Identified Disclosure

Native advertising of online content, such as articles embedded within news websites, is a covert attempt by marketers to affect consumer attitudes and behavior. Because such marketing can have detrimental consequences for consumers, regulators worldwide have begun mandating that disclosures accompany marketing content. Despite these mandated disclosures, studies repeatedly find that consumers still fail to detect native ads even when they include various disclosure labels. We argue that the failure of these and other such disclosures, (e.g., software licensing), results from consumers becoming so habituated to these notices that they fail to recognize or use them effectively. We propose an improved form of disclosure for native ads requiring explicit identification of the name of the company or marketing agent paying for the non-original content. Identified disclosure can be more effective because it is more salient and can vary between ads and platforms. In two studies, we show how adding identified disclosures to native advertising increases detection rates significantly and consistently. We also discuss important implications arising from using smart disclosures for consumer protection.
“Sneering Civility”: Female Intrasexual Competition for Mates in Jane Austen’s Novels

Recent developments in evolutionary theory and research strongly suggest that women are highly competitive in vying for access to and retention of high-quality mates. However, since female tactics are often subtle and indirect, they are difficult to study empirically. Popular fiction may provide rich material for developing and testing psychological theories. I examine representations of female intrasexual competition for mates in the novels of Jane Austen. Their enduring and cross-cultural popularity strongly suggests that they capture something important about human nature and human individual variations. Austen’s female characters employ all the competitive strategies identified by modern psychologists but with a significant difference in the tactics of the antagonists and protagonists. Female antagonists often advertise their beauty and social status, use competitor derogation and competitor/mate manipulation. In contrast, female protagonists rely almost exclusively on relatively non-aggressive self-promotion emphasizing traits such as intelligence, honesty and loyalty. Protagonists’ displays of positive traits prove more successful in attracting and retaining high-quality mates than antagonists’ overt competitiveness. Although fictional stories may contain elements of wish-fulfilling fantasy, they also promote attitudes and behaviors that minimize aggression and maximize cooperation and social cohesion.
The Impact of Foreign Ownership on Stock Price Volatility: Evidence from Thailand

This paper examines the impact of foreign ownership on stock price volatility in an emerging market, namely, Thailand. The data were obtained from SETSMART, the database of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). After removing financial firms, banks, and insurance companies as well as filtering outliers, the final sample covers 1,755 firm-year observations from 371 nonfinancial firms listed on the SET over the five-year period from 2014 to 2018. The regression model consists of stock price volatility, measured by two methods, as the dependent variable, foreign ownership as the main independent variable, and firm characteristics including firm size, leverage, market-to-book ratio, and stock turnover as the control variables. The pooled OLS, fixed effects, and random effects estimations are employed to examine the relationship between foreign ownership and stock price volatility. The results reveal that foreign ownership has a negative and significant impact on stock price volatility. The two-stage least squares (2SLS) are also performed to address potential endogeneity problem. The results still indicate a negative relationship between foreign ownership and stock price volatility. Taken together, the findings of this study suggest that foreign investors help reduce stock price volatility and thus stabilize share price in the Thai stock market.
Effect of Corporate Governance, Investment Strategy and Macroeconomic Factors on Financial Performance of Pension Schemes in Kenya

Pension schemes form a significant part of the global investment portfolio. In Kenya, they hold over 13% of the country’s GDP (OECD, 2018). Their importance is underscored by the fact that they contribute significantly to growth and development of world economies (Kakwani, Davis, 2005; Heijdra, Ligthart &amp; Jency, 2006). Their financial performance is critical to the provision of retirement benefits. Khan, Nouman &amp; Imran (2015) observed that the financial performance indicates measures to which economic goals of an organisation has been accomplished over particular time period. Pension schemes however, face numerous challenges that can render the generation of retirement benefits inadequate. <br><br>A number of studies have been undertaken to evaluate the impact of factors that influence performance of pension funds resulting in mixed and sometimes inconclusive findings. This study sought to assess the effect of corporate governance, investment strategy, interest rate, inflation rate, exchange rate and GDP growth rate on performance of pension funds in Kenya. The study was done using annual data on pension funds and economic indicators spanning the period 1997 to 2018. In addition, it used questionnaires to gather data on corporate governance and investment strategy indices. <br><br>Quantitative and correlational research design using Linear regression model was used to assess the effect of corporate governance, investment strategy, interest rate, inflation rates, GDP growth rates and exchange rate on pension performance. The study findings show that these factors had significant impact on pension funding. They however, varied on their individual contribution to the prediction of funding level of each pension fund. <br><br>The study concludes that pension fund management and policy makers should take into consideration the effects of macroeconomic factors, corporate governance and investment strategy in decision making on investment plans to ensure generation of adequate funds to fulfill their key objective of providing retirement benefits to the members. <br>
Pricing of Climate Risk Insurance: Regulatory Frictions and Cross-Subsidies

Homeowners’ insurance provides households financial protection from climate losses. To improve access and affordability, state regulators impose price controls on insurance companies. Using novel data, we construct a new measure of rate setting frictions for individual states and show that different states exercise varying degrees of price control, which positively correlates with how exposed a state is to climate events. In high friction states, insurers are more restricted in their ability to set rates and adjust rates less frequently and by a lower amount after experiencing climate losses. In part, insurers overcome pricing frictions by cross-subsidizing insurance across states. We show that in response to losses in high friction states, insurers increase rates in low friction states. Over time, rates get disjoint from underlying risk, and grow faster in states with low pricing frictions. Our findings have consequences for how climate risk is shared in the economy and for long-term access to insurance.
The China-U.S. Equity Valuation Gap

Before 2009, the market average price earnings ratio of Chinese firms is significantly higher than that of the U.S. firms, while after 2009, the valuation gap reverses. Using data from 1995 to 2018, we examine the dynamics and sources of valuation differentials between comparable Chinese and U.S. firms. The sectoral composition of the indices plays a minimal role but growth expectations, financial openness, financial development, and (changes in) the investor base, all contribute substantially to the cross-sector and time-series variation of the valuation differentials. Financial openness and changing growth expectations are the most important contributors.
Information Pools and Insider Trading: A Snapshot of America's Financial Elite.

We document abnormal correlations between hedge funds' performance among managers sharing similar elite socio-economic backgrounds. In particular, Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, and NYU alumni are highly correlated among themselves. We take steps toward linking this phenomenon to a shared information pool with a quasi-natural experiment: the 2009 Galleon Capital insider trading scandal. The difference-in-difference analysis shows a significant reduction in returns of the elite managers following the scandal. Finally, we present evidences suggesting that investors recognize this pool's value, as funds likely to have access to elite information are associated with 55% higher assets under management at launch.
Do Merges and Acquisitions Create Value for Shareholders?

This paper investigates whether M&amp;A create value for the firm and its shareholders. Using data on M&amp;A announcement made by publicly listed firms in the United States in 2003, it conducts a standard event study by calculating the cumulative abnormal return around [-1, 0, +1], where -1 is the one trading day prior to the M&amp;A announcement, 0 is the day of the announcement, and +1 is one trading-day after the announcement. It finds that M&amp;A deals were, on average, value enhancing for firms over the short horizon. It also shows that firm size has a negative and statistically significant relationship with the cumulative abnormal return. Firms with small size are likely to have a positive cumulative abnormal return from M&amp;A deals. In other words, small firms would benefit most on average from M&amp;A deals.
The Predictive Power of Managerial Tone: A Text-Based Analysis of Takeover Performance

We analyze the use of positive and negative language in financial disclosures and the ability of such language to predict long-term gains to the acquirers. In order to predict long-term takeover performance, we apply textual analysis to the MD&amp;A Section of SEC filings for M&amp;A deals taking place in the United States, between 2000 and 2016. Our overall findings reveal that a negative managerial tone has a strong negative association with takeover performance, whereas a positive managerial tone indicates managerial confidence in merger success, and hence reflects an enhanced takeover performance over an extended period. The evidence clearly rejects the hypothesis that a positive managerial tone is interpreted as managerial ‘overconfidence’ in a merger’s success. Our findings also affirm that the predictive power of a negative tone is far more pronounced than that of a positive tone and of any other sentiment word lists. Moreover, stock returns do not adjust to the textual description immediately due to investors’ general inattentiveness and inability to process subtle textual information more accurately. We also observe that the significance of predictive power of a negative managerial tone gains strength in the post-crisis period and for cross-border and for riskier deals due to the comparatively higher uncertainty associated with evaluating such deals on the basis of ‘hard information’.
Window Dressing Systemic Importance: Evidence from EU Banks and the G-SIB Framework

Building on previous research, we study banks’ balance sheet year-end patterns in the European Union (EU) to assess the impact on supervisory measures of their systemic importance. We find that some global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) in the EU compress their balance sheet at year-end to an extent that it allows them to reduce their systemic importance, thus potentially mitigating the impact of the G-SIB capital surcharges or avoiding G-SIB designation altogether. Since some year-end adjustments are a common feature, we compare G-SIBs’ adjustments to those of other systemically important institutions (O-SIIs) and observe that the compression of the latter banks’ balance sheets is notably smaller. G-SIBs’ balance sheets adjustments reflect several drivers, with the most notable year-end declines observed for intra-financial assets and liabilities as well as banks’ notional amounts of over-the-counter derivatives. Reduction is most pronounced for G-SIBs characterised by comparatively high leverage. This evidence of possible window dressing underscores the importance of supervisory judgement in the assessment of G-SIBs, which is indeed a core component of the identification process. We also suggest greater use of average as opposed to point-in-time data in the quantitative part of the G-SIB identification process.