This paper investigates a relationship between economic governance and the dual objectives of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs): poverty reduction and financial viability. Using an unbalanced panel of 531 MFIs the important role of other institutions such as country-level business registry...

Efficiency generally translates to better financial performance and profitability and, thus, is often taken into account when analyzing activity of the banking sector. The sustainability approach adds social and environmental effects to the economic ones. Even though there have been studies on...

This paper studies the reliability of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) assessments in the case of corporate scandals. Reliable disclosures on ESG assessments may reduce information asymmetries when it comes to due diligence, for instance. We use the press release of corporate...

In this study, we link records of fir rm performance, forecasts of analysts, and the returns after earnings announcements to fi rm-specifi c measures of heat exposure for 4,400 fi rms in 57 countries from 1995 to 2017. We fi nd that increasing exposure to extremely high temperatures reduces...

Using the framework of the International Capital Asset Pricing Model (ICAPM), we explore two central topics associated with equity foreign exchange (FX) risk premia. First, we estimate FX risk premia for a large cross-section of firms. Second, we study the diversifiability of FX risk. Using...

This paper investigates whether the ownership and the governance structure of firms affects the decision to raise funds, and subsequently the choice of the capital instrument. We hypothesize that the choice of capital instrument depends on the relative riskiness of the source of funds ranging...

The study examines the relation between the nationality and educational background diversity of directors serving on corporate boards and the firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR). We measures nationality diversity by directors' national citizenship and educational background diversity by...

An important issue in evaluating corporate governance is how to measure it. In prior work on emerging markets, we have advocated measuring firm-level governance using country-specific indices, tailored to each country's laws and institutions. An alternate approach, used in commercial indices, is...

In this article, we examine whether internal governance, the process through which subordinate managers effectively monitor the chief executive officer (CEO), can improve a firm's liquidity. Using the difference in horizons between a CEO and his immediate subordinates to measure internal...