The paper investigates the effects of information asymmetry (between the realised return and the expected return) on market timing in the mutual fund industry. For the purpose, we use a panel of 1488 active open-end mutual funds for the period 2004-2013. We use fund-specific time-dynamic betas....

This study complements the scarce literature on conditional market timing in the mutual fund industry by assessing determinants of market timing throughout the distribution of market exposure. It builds on the intuition that the degree of responsiveness by fund managers to investigated factors...

This paper integrates a previously missing wealth-effect component in the openness-finance debate. From a panel of 29 low and middle income African countries with data spanning from 1987 to 2008, we provide evidence that openness (trade and financial) triggers less bank efficiency in low income...

The dominance of English common-law countries in prospects for financial development in the legal-origins debate has been debunked by recent findings. Using exchange rate regimes and economic/monetary integration oriented hypotheses, this paper proposes an "inflation uncertainty theory" in...

Hitherto financial drivers of human development have been unexplored by the UNDP. This paper assesses determinants of human development from financial dynamics of depth, efficiency, size and activity on data from 38 developing countries. While the importance of financial activity, size and depth...

Contrary to mainstream consensus on the dominance of English common law countries in investment prospects, this paper sets a new tone in the legal origins debate by providing empirical validity on the dominance of French civil-law countries in private investment. The assessment is based on 38...

This paper examines how domestic, foreign, private and public investments affect income-inequality through financial intermediary dynamics. With the exception of financial allocation efficiency, financial channels of depth and activity are good for the poor as they diminish estimated household...

Hitherto very few studies on the inequality-finance(investment) nexus have focused on the African continent owing to lack of relevant data. This paper integrates previously missing investment and financial components in the assessment of how finance affects pro-poor investment channels. Findings...

This paper dissects with great acuteness, the issues of convergence in financial performance dynamics in the African continent through the lenses of stock market capitalization, value traded, turnover and number of listed companies. The empirical evidence is premised on 11 homogenous panels...

With the spectre of the Euro crisis looming substantially large and scaring potential monetary unions, this study is a short-run trip to embryonic African monetary zones to assess the Schumpeterian thesis for positive spillovers of financial services on growth. Causality analysis is performed...