During the October 9, 2007-March 9, 2009 period, the U.S. stock market experienced the worst bear market in its history since the Great Depression. Empirical studies show that exchange-traded country index funds can provide portfolio diversification benefits to investors in bull markets....

This paper’s objective is to study the relationship between bank credit risk and financial performance and the contribution of risky lending to lower bank profitability and liquidity. The sample data comes from the Mergent Online database, which stores ownership, executive, and financial...

The paper investigates the determinants of bank board structure in Ghana and finds that the Scope of Operations Hypothesis could explain the variation in board size but not board independence. On the other hand, the Board Monitoring Hypothesis could only explain the variation in board...

The paper examines the impact of the costs of complying with IAS and Basel II regulations on the net interest margin and operating costs of Italian banks using bank level data for the period 2001-2007. More specifically, the paper intends to ascertain whether: a) IAS and Basel II compliance...

This study examines the impact of external factors, such as law, regulation, and technology on a country’s rate of economic growth. The results suggest that the technological, legal, and regulatory environment can play a major role towards enhancing the smooth functioning of the financial...

The paper addresses the subprime mortgage crisis from the perspective of the CEO of a financial firm. We integrate agency theory with the asset-pricing model to explore factors affecting CEO risk aversion. Apart from wealth and effort, the two main factors in influencing the agent’s risk...

This paper examines one of the major problems in credit risk models widely used in the financial industry to forecast future defaults and bankruptcies. We find that even after proper calibration, a representative credit risk model can severely underestimate default correlation. We further find...

I analyze loan loss reserves during the Global Financial Crises in the late 2000s. I develop a regression model that separates the loan loss reserve account into discretionary and nondiscretionary components. The nondiscretionary (expected) component is based on current, past due, restructured,...

A domino effect can accelerate the spread of financial crises. Some firms, however, show better resistance than others thereby limiting the spread. Effective governance mechanisms enhance the ability of firms to absorb a stock market crisis. In a sample of Société des Bourses Françaises (SBF)...

This paper studies the relationship between firms' corporate governance quality and information content of stock trades. Following Hasbrouck (1991) method, a trade's information content is defined as persistent impact of trade innovation on stock price. Using firm-level governance data, we show...