Imad A. Moosa and Ibrahim N. Khatatbeh
The primary objective of this paper is to explore the robust determinants influencing the infection rate and case mortality rate of COVID-19 in both developing and developed…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary objective of this paper is to explore the robust determinants influencing the infection rate and case mortality rate of COVID-19 in both developing and developed economies. The analysis is conducted using a dataset encompassing 148 countries.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve this goal, empirical testing utilizes the Sala-i-Martin version of extreme bounds analysis, a method grounded in the cumulative density function. This approach allows for a comprehensive exploration of potential determinants.
Findings
The analysis results reveal that, to a large extent, distinct factors contribute to the infection and mortality rates in developed and developing countries. Notwithstanding these differences, certain common factors emerge, such as the risk environment, the number of tests conducted per million people and the percentage of the population over 65.
Originality/value
Despite acknowledging the potential limitations inherent in official data, this study concludes that the presented results offer valuable insights. The identified determinants, both unique and common, contribute to understanding the dynamics of COVID-19 in diverse economic settings. The information gleaned from this research holds significance for decision-makers involved in combating the ongoing pandemic.
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Imad A. Moosa, Khalid Alsaad and Ibrahim N. Khatatbeh
This study aims to investigate window dressing as practiced by commercial banks in Kuwait, using monthly aggregate balance sheet data covering the period January 1993 to December…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate window dressing as practiced by commercial banks in Kuwait, using monthly aggregate balance sheet data covering the period January 1993 to December 2017.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies the structural time series model to decompose an observed time series into unobserved components based on monthly data covering January 1993 to December 2017 on the consolidated balance sheet of commercial banks in Kuwait.
Findings
The empirical results indicate that Kuwaiti commercial banks indulge in upward window dressing to boost size and liquidity. This kind of behaviour is indicated by a statistically significant rise in assets under the control of banks in December, followed by a statistically significant decline in January. The operation is funded by borrowing, leading to a December rise and a January fall in foreign and other liabilities, which are also under the control of commercial banks.
Originality/value
This study uses a novel methodology to detect window dressing based on the seasonal behaviour of balance sheet items. This study suggests a unified framework for the motives, targets, types and consequences of window dressing and how they are related.
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Huy N.A. Pham, Vikash Ramiah, Imad Moosa and Justin Hung Nguyen
The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of financial regulatory announcements on risk and return in the Vietnamese equity market.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of financial regulatory announcements on risk and return in the Vietnamese equity market.
Design/methodology/approach
The event study methodology is used for the return analysis, and asset pricing models are adjusted for the risk analysis. Various robustness tests are used, including the Corrado non-parametric ranking test and the Chesney et al. non-parametric conditional distribution test, as well as GARCH, TARCH, EGARCH and PARCH specifications for the risk models.
Findings
The authors find evidence for both negative and positive reactions as well as risk shifting behaviour in the form of a diamond risk structure.
Originality/value
This paper fills a major gap in the literature by investigating the market’s reaction to bank regulatory announcements across financial and non-financial sectors in the Vietnamese equity market.
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Ali Abbas, Imad Moosa and Vikash Ramiah
This paper is about the effect of human capital on foreign direct investment (FDI). The purpose of this paper is to find out if developing countries with high levels of human…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is about the effect of human capital on foreign direct investment (FDI). The purpose of this paper is to find out if developing countries with high levels of human capital (educated people and well-trained labour force) are more successful in attracting FDI. The underlying hypothesis has been tested repeatedly without reaching a consensus view or providing an answer to the basic question. This is to be expected because FDI is determined by a large number of factors, making the results sensitive to the selected set of explanatory variables, which forms the basis of the Leamer (1983) critique of the use of multiple regression to derive inference. Furthermore, confirmation bias and publication bias entice researchers to be selective in choosing the set of results they report.
Design/methodology/approach
The technique of extreme bounds analysis, as originally suggested by Leamer (1983) and modified by Sala-i-Martin (1997), is used to determine the importance of human capital for the ability of developing countries to attract FDI. The authors use a cross-sectional sample covering 103 developing and transition countries.
Findings
The results show no contradiction between firms seeking human capital and cheap labour. No matter what proxy is used to represent human capital, it turns out that the most important factor for attracting FDI is the variable “employee compensation”, which is the wage bill, implying that multinational firms look for cheap and also skilled labour in the host country.
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors follow the procedure prescribed by Leamer (1983), and modified by Sala-i-Martin (1997), using extreme bounds analysis to distinguish between robust and fragile determinants of FDI, with particular emphasis on human capital. Instead of deriving inference from one regression equation by determining the statistical significance of the coefficient on the variable of interest, the extreme bounds or the distribution of estimated coefficients are used to distinguish between robust and fragile variables. This means that emphasis is shifted from significance, as implied by a single regression equation, to robustness, which is based on a large number of equations. The authors conduct tests on three proxies for human capital to find out if they are robust determinants of FDI and also judge the degree of robustness relative to other determinants.
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Present some empirical evidence on long‐run Purchasing Power Parity(PPP) using a sample of annual data covering the period 1900‐1987.Three exchange rates are used in the analysis…
Abstract
Present some empirical evidence on long‐run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) using a sample of annual data covering the period 1900‐1987. Three exchange rates are used in the analysis: the dollar, yen and French franc against the pound. It is shown that PPP does hold in the long run and that is some evidence for the proportionality and symmetry restrictions. Evidence for exclusiveness is mixed and the results are influenced by model specification. Estimates of error‐correction models show that there are substantial short‐run deviation from PPP that take two to three years to correct.
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Vikash Ramiah, Thomas Morris, Imad Moosa, Michael Gangemi and Louise Puican
This paper aims to investigate the impact of 75 announcements of environmental policies on British equities over the period 2003 to 2012. In particular, the research has the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the impact of 75 announcements of environmental policies on British equities over the period 2003 to 2012. In particular, the research has the following specific objectives: finding out whether there is wealth creation/destruction for investors as a result of the announcements of green policies and identifying changes in risk structure following the introduction of green policies.
Design/methodology/approach
Using event study methodology and non-parametric tests, the authors attempt to find out whether announcements of environmental/sustainability policies are value constructive or destructive for equity investors. The CAPM is fitted with interaction variables to measure the change in systematic risk following announcements.
Findings
The results show that the UK market is particularly sensitive to domestic, international and nuclear announcements. Cumulative abnormal returns in the range of 30-40 per cent were recorded in certain sectors. Consistent with the emerging literature, the authors observe that environmental policies induce changes in the systematic risk of businesses, both in the short run and the long run.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, the literature does not provide any answer as to how the risk and return of British equity portfolios change following the announcement of green policies in the aftermath of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Furthermore, the literature does not differentiate among various categories of announcements (domestic, international and nuclear). Therefore, this paper bridges the gap in the literature on these two grounds.
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Vikash Ramiah, Yilang Zhao and Imad Moosa
This paper aims to document the measures taken by Australian corporate treasurers in the areas of cash, inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable and risk management to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to document the measures taken by Australian corporate treasurers in the areas of cash, inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable and risk management to survive the global financial crisis (GFC).
Design/methodology/approach
Using qualitative techniques like interviews and a survey questionnaire, this paper summarises the various measures adopted by working capital managers.
Findings
The results show that more than half of the participants in the survey altered their working capital management practices during the crisis. Capital expenditure was curtailed, as they aimed at preserving their cash levels while reducing inventory levels. Credit worthiness of institutions became more important, and there was a general decline in credit availability. The results also show that Australian working capital managers exhibit behavioural biases, particularly overconfidence.
Originality/value
It is the first paper that uses open-ended questions to capture the effects of the GFC on working capital management in Australia.
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Vikash Ramiah, Imad Moosa, Ben O'Neill, Milica Backulja, Amel Yacoub, Terry Hallahan and John Vaz
The structure of the Malaysian fund market presents a unique setting in which to examine behavioural and cultural differences in the performance of fund managers. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
The structure of the Malaysian fund market presents a unique setting in which to examine behavioural and cultural differences in the performance of fund managers. The purpose of this paper is to utilise Taylor's extension of the tournament model of Brown et al. who argued that using an exogenous (endogenous) benchmark induces losing (winning) managers to gamble. This presents two competing testable hypotheses that are investigated in the current study.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a sample of Malaysian unit trusts covering the period 1982 to 2010, applying the non‐parametric cross‐product ratio methodology to test all Malaysian funds and determine whether there is empirical evidence of tournament behaviour. The authors separate Malaysian funds into two main categories (conventional and Islamic) to find out whether different fund types affect the behaviour of the funds as a whole.
Findings
Overall, Taylor's theory does not hold in the Malaysian fund market, as conventional funds display tournament behaviour regardless of the benchmark used. However, Islamic funds do not display any significant tournament behaviour.
Originality/value
The current study uses a non‐parametric approach to look for evidence of tournament (gaming) behaviour in the performance of fund managers in Malaysia. In doing so, the authors extend the tournaments literature by examining the performance of three data sets pertaining to the performance and evidence of tournament behaviour in: all managed funds in Malaysia; Islamic funds; and conventional funds. A major motivation for choosing the Malaysian data of unit trusts is to investigate and examine the behaviour of funds operating in an economy that is an emerging market in the rapidly expanding Asian economy; is a market that has a reporting period in line with the calendar year; and is an economy with a strong presence of Islamic funds (Shariah) and Muslim population.
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Xiaoming Xu, Vikash Ramiah, Imad Moosa and Sinclair Davidson
The purpose of this paper is to: first, test if information-adjusted noise model (IANM) can be applied in China; second, quantify noise trader risk, overreaction, underreaction…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to: first, test if information-adjusted noise model (IANM) can be applied in China; second, quantify noise trader risk, overreaction, underreaction and information pricing errors in that market; and third, explain the relationship between noise trader risk and return.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a behavioural asset pricing model (BAPM), CAPM, the information-adjusted noise model and model proposed by Ramiah and Davidson (2010).
Findings
The findings show that noise traders are active 99.7 per cent of the time on the Shenzhen A-share market. Furthermore, our results suggest that the Shenzhen market overreacts 41 per cent of the time, underreacts 18 per cent of the time and information pricing errors occur 40 per cent of the time.
Originality/value
Various methods have been applied to the Chinese stock market in an effort to measure noise trading activities and all of them failed to account for information arrival. Our study uses a superior and alternative model to detect noise trader risk, overreaction and underreaction in China.
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Charl de Villiers and John Dumay
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the construction of articles published in three highly ranked interdisciplinary accounting journals.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the construction of articles published in three highly ranked interdisciplinary accounting journals.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on articles published during 2010 in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ), Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS) and Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA). The authors develop a framework and examine characteristics of the published articles, including the prose.
Findings
Based on the construction of accounting academic articles in the highly ranked interdisciplinary journals, the authors introduce a simplified concept of the five distinct major parts of an article, make some taken-for-granted aspects of article construction explicit and conclude that alternatives, if used effectively, can add to the quality of an article. Finally, there is a discussion of, and a reflection on, how the taken-for-granted rules of academic publishing can be challenged.
Research limitations/implications
This article is limited by the authors ' own analysis and interpretations of AAAJ, AOS and CPA articles published during 2010.
Originality/value
As far as can be ascertained, the authors are the first to examine the construction of research articles published in high ranking interdisciplinary accounting journals. The paper can assist emerging scholars in the process of planning and writing their own articles. For seasoned researchers, the paper ' s insights may serve to reaffirm or help further develop their approach. The paper also contributes to the ongoing debate around the pressure to publish, the measurement of publications, and the difficulties of getting published.