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Firm value is dependent on corporate which leads to increased value. High valued firms attract more investors. Towards firm value protection, minimum capital requirements were raised by the Central Bank of Kenya from 250 million to 1 billion shillings on commercial banks to cushion bank shareholders value. Despite the increased oversight and regulatory efforts on corporate governance to protect and enhance firm value, some commercial banks have recorded low firm value. Hence, this study sought to investigate the mediating effect of financial performance on the relationship between corporate governance and firm value of commercial banks in Kenya. The study was anchored on Agency Theory. Explanatory research design was adopted. Target population was forty four Kenyan commercial banks, where a census was conducted. Secondary data was collected from published financial statements and bank websites for the period 2009 to 2018. STATA version 13.0 was used for data analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics specifically panel regression was used in data analysis. The study findings established that there is a statistically significant effect between financial performance and firm value of commercial banks in Kenya. Therefore, the study concluded that firms with good financial performance have high firm value. And as such, these calls for the management of the commercial banks improve financial performance which will go a long way in improving firm value. There is also need for Central bank of Kenya, Capital Markets Authority and Nairobi Securities Exchange to emphasis on corporate governance and short term goals to enable achievement of long term goals .  

The object of this study is to explore the effect of cultural distance on both the long run and short run performance of cross border mergers and acquisitions undertaken by Indian acquiring firms. We utilize buy and hold returns (BHAR), cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) and cross-sectional regression analysis in our study. Adopting the traditional Hofstede measure of cultural distance and other pertinent variables, commonly used to measure cultural differences, we document a negative and statistically significant influence of cultural distance on Indian cross-border M&As and corroborate some of other findings reported in prior research. Also, we find that the BHAR is nevertheless higher when the acquisitions are friendly, paid for 100% cash, and the acquiring firm is large, older and belongs to a business group. The inclusion of the variable ‘business group’ along with industry relatedness and acquirer size provides valuable insights into the Indian cross border acquisition landscape, wherein business groups dominate to a great extent.

The main aim of this study was to empirically assess the main microeconomic factors that affect a bank's performance. The objectives were to ascertain if there is a relationship between the performance variables with the microeconomic variables, determine those that are significant and their impact on the performance of banks in Zimbabwe. An econometric model was built from balanced panel data and the Arellano-Bond estimation procedure was employed. The empirical analysis was carried out on a sample of 17 banks that were operational in the years 2010 to 2017 in Zimbabwe. Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE) and Net Interest Margin (NIM) were used as the performance indicators in the analysis. The results indicate the main microeconomic factors to be those attributed to growth, credit risk, capitalisation, managerial efficiency, liquidity and diversification in the Zimbabwean financial institutions. Performance in these institutions is generally good as measured by positive persistent profits, that is, ROA, ROE and NIM. These returns reflect the extent to which these institutions are resilient to the economic crisis.

Purpose: Using panel data approach in Pakistani banking sector for 7 year time period from 2010 to 2016, the aim behind this study was to examine the bank specific, industry specific and macroeconomic determinants of bank profitability Research Design: Quantitative research design has been employed with OLS, random effect model and fixed effect model, moreover regression and correlation analysis has been used in this study Findings: Rise in NPLs ratio, Loan loss provision, inflation and exchange rate reduces the profitability of banks while increase in market power, bank size, capital adequacy enhance the profitability Practical Implication: The deleterious impact of different indicators on profitability of banks shows that distressed banking sector can cause hindrance in not only growth of financial sector but can also cause the poor growth of economy. Outcomes of the study emphasis on the need of clear-out of NPLs to keep financial sector sound as NPLs cause high loan loss provision which effect the capitalization of banks that ultimately effect the economic growth of financial as well as other sectors of economy. Banking supervisory agencies should pay attention towards banking monitory policies and banks macroeconomic policies Originality/value: This study examine the impact of all three types of indicator (Bank specific, industry specific and macroeconomic) on banks profitability by employing latest data from 2010 to 2016 in which major reforms were held in banking industry of Pakistan because there exist rare studies with all three types of variables with latest figures

The contemporary economy has changed dramatically and moved from the industrial age to the information age, pushing businesses to embark into a predominantly intangible economy. Thus, and in addition to solid and liquid value, there is a gaseous value which is the intangible capital. This exploratory study of 14 Lebanese companies analyzed with the “Tropes” software focuses on the constituent elements of intangible capital, its place within these companies and its contribution to the creation of value. This work concludes a first proposal for the classification of the components of intangible capital.

This research project is mainly focused on analyzing pricing policy and its impact on company’s profitability through collecting receipts from 3 different places in Kurdistan Region of Iraq/ Sulaimani to evaluate their pricing policy and its impact on generating profits and increasing sales on the one hand, and interviewing some accounting, and economy’s experts on the other. A hypothesis has been developed in which pricing policy affects profits and sales. The results indicated that pricing policy has an impact on profits and sales. And further information has been provided in the research.    

The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of exchange rate on the performance of the residential property market in Kenya. The study used secondary data that was accumulated using secondary data collection sheet from first quarter of 2005 to fourth quarter of 2018. The study conducted several test statistics and diagnostic tests in order to achieve the most optimal solution. Vector error correction model and auto-regressive distributed lag model were employed to test the hypothesis in the short run and long run respectively. The results found out that exchange rate had a negative effect on performance of residential properties in Kenya in both the short run and positive effect in long run. The study has narrowed down the research gap brought about by the conflicting emprical, theoretical and conceptual literature with regard to the effect of exchange rate on performance of residential property market in Kenya.
 Key Words: Exchange Rate, Performance, Residential Property

 
  The purpose of this paper is to identify the role of fiscal policy in Kosovo, comparing with the Western Balkan countries, in the trends of economic development, which are related to the international market, and how to achieve the objectives of the economy of Kosovo, penetrating the foreign market of local companies, using fiscal policy instruments. Data processing is performed using deductive-analytical methods, describing and comparing research findings by commercial companies, extracting data and comparing official reports of national and international institutions on the role of policies analyzed in the Western Balkan countries and in Kosovo, and the results of the research are based on these analyzes. Each sovereign state has its own fiscal policy operating within the financial system of that country, which also influences the development trends of international trade, the same applies to Kosovo and the Western Balkan countries, where this policy includes customs tax, VAT, tax in personal income, etc. The government of the country, through fiscal policy instruments, creates conditions for companies to be as present in the foreign market as possible with their products, which impacts on the overall economic development of the country. achieved. The paper provides insights into the state of the fiscal system in Kosovo, how fiscal policy affects the creation of conditions for foreign trade development, where is Kosovo's economy is in relation to the Western Balkan countries and what are the steps needed to improve it. The paper provides real data on the state of the fiscal system in Kosovo and its full role in the development of foreign trade in relation to the Western Balkan countries.
  

Banks are believed to  instrumental to economic growth because it provides the financial backbone needed to spur economic development through business creation and expansion. A healthy and resilient banking sector signals economic growth and development that is sustainable. The efficient transfer of funds from those that has surplus of them towards those that need them has been made possible due to the intermediation of banks. In the Philippines, banking formally started in 1851 with the establishment of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, which up to this day, stands to be one of the country’s biggest and most stable universal bank. This study analyzes how universal banks grew over the years, and determines whether a correlation exists between universal bank growth and economic growth, using the variable of GDP growth rate as proxy for economic growth. The study showed that at the most recent periods, universal banks’ ROE and ROA are negatively correlated with GDP growth rate.   Key words: Universal banks, History of banking, Economic growth of the Philippines, GDP growth rate

Universal banks combine commercial loan services and public deposit functions with investment, and other services such as home and auto financing, mutual funds, pension and insurance to name a few. The importance of universal banks have been recognized in emerging economies, and its growth spur economic growth and development of many countries in the world. Most universal banks are listed in stock exchanges, and as financial intermediaries, not only these banks expand their already wide portfolios but they allow more global investors into the fold, almost like a foreign direct investor, the difference only is, the investor don’t have to leave the home country. Since these banks are considered to be among the key players in stock markets, and this study seeks to understand what factors drive their performance in stock exchange so that global investors be aided in making investment decisions on universal banks.

Islamic finance is a growing industry with global distribution in all continents including Europe and America. The aim of the current study was to examine how popular is Islamic finance in the USA during the period 2014-2019 using Google Trends. In addition, the interest in Islamic finance across different US states was also investigated. Using “Islamic finance” and “Islamic bank” as search terms in Goggle Trends, the trend curve showed decreases in search volumes, suggesting a decline in the popularity of Islamic finance in the USA with years. Search volumes were detected in seven out of 50 states, suggesting low interest in Islamic finance in the majority of US states. The order of the popularity in the seven states was: Virginia > New York > New Jersey > Illinois > Texas > California > Pennsylvania > Georgia > Florida > Massachusetts. Longitudinal survey studies are needed to confirm the present findings.

One of the important aspects of a country's economic development is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), these investments impact on economic development and improve social aspects. At the international level as well as at the country level, FDI has a relevant significance which as an issue is related to the sustainable management policy that makes the country more attractive in absorbing FDI. The purpose of this paper is to present the trends of FDI in the Western Balkan countries with an open look in Kosovo and their comparison, investment policy management, GDP FDI correlation and comparison of the trends of the remittances .Firstly in the introduction of this paper there is a theoretical review of the literature on the definitions of FDI in the economic aspect. Secondly, FDI has been presented and compared over the years in the Western Balkans countries with a vacant look in Kosovo. Third, it analyzes the FDI trends in Kosovo based on the country of origin of these investments, etc. Fourth, in the framework of this research paper, country-level management policies were analyzed in terms of creating an incentive environment for FDI. Fifth, as part of this paperwork, there are also empirical analysis of the correlations between FDI and GDP in the case of Kosovo, etc.
  
 Keywords:
 One of the important aspects of a country's economic development is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), these investments impact on economic development and improve social aspects. At the international level as well as at the country level, FDI has a relevant significance which as an issue is related to the sustainable management policy that makes the country more attractive in absorbing FDI. The purpose of this paper is to present the trends of FDI in the Western Balkan countries with an open look in Kosovo and their comparison, investment policy management, GDP FDI correlation and comparison of the trends of the remittances .Firstly in the introduction of this paper there is a theoretical review of the literature on the definitions of FDI in the economic aspect. Secondly, FDI has been presented and compared over the years in the Western Balkans countries with a vacant look in Kosovo. Third, it analyzes the FDI trends in Kosovo based on the country of origin of these investments, etc. Fourth, in the framework of this research paper, country-level management policies were analyzed in terms of creating an incentive environment for FDI. Fifth, as part of this paperwork, there are also empirical analysis of the correlations between FDI and GDP in the case of Kosovo, etc.
  
 Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment, Investment Policy Management, Correlations, Remittances
  
 JEL classification: F21, M12, C33, F24
  
 JEL classification: F21, M12, C33, F24

The purpose of this study is to determine major indicators of the Greek crisis that started in 2009 and the effects of which can still be observed. In this regard, 8 independent variables were applied so as to fulfill the objective. Besides, the annual data between the years 1984 and 2016 was analyzed with Probit model. As a consequence of this study, it was concluded that inflation and gross savings are the leading meters of Greek crisis based on probit method. On the other hand, according to the MARS results, 3 different variables are identified as the indicators of the debt crisis in Greece. It is concluded that there is a negative relation between financial crisis with saving ratio and current account balance. Additionally, it is also identified that high unemployment ratio leads to financial crisis. While comparisng the results of these two approaches, it is concluded that MARS is much more successful than the probit method to predict the debt crisis in Greece. It is strongly recommended that saving ratio should be increased in Greece. For this purpose, governments should take some actions in order to increase this ratio more than 15.5%. Within this framework, media channels can be used by the government to tell the people about the importance of the savings to have sustainable economic development.

This paper attempts to find out why higher institution students in Duhok are not opening or having bank accounts. With the use of interview process and questionnaire, 100 students were selected from Newroz University, Dohok Polytechnic University and Dohok private technical institute in Duhok city.  It was found from this study that most of these students’ approximately 90 students of them have no bank accounts while only 10 of them have bank accounts. Moreover, this research found that trust on banks, security, bad banks infrastructure, lack of money, costs of opening bank accounts, access to bank accounts and unemployment are the main reasons for low banking interest among students in Duhok city. However, the highest reason is lack of trust on Duhok banks and lack of money due to high unemployment rate. It is suggested that banks in Duhok city should encourage students to open bank accounts by advertising the importance of banking services and offer student loans. Also, Duhok government should award scholarship to student to ease the pressure from the unemployment menace in the country. Keywords: Un-bank, Bank trust, Poverty, Banking access

Investors in Taiwan prefer to invest in offshore funds, and they are good customers in the eyes of the world's major fund companies. Funds are competing these investors through these 3,400 bank branches. Literature has indicated comprehensive selection criteria when investors choosing a fund, yet no study revealed the gap between what investors’ expected and experienced. The current study conducted a survey among these investors with importance-performance analysis (IPA) to fill this gap. There were two parts in the questionnaire, first part was drawn from literature to measure funds, and the second part was summarized from several depth interviews based on SERVQUAL with senior investors. 240 valid responses from current fund investors. The factors investor’s preference in evaluating a fund may be different in terms of residence areas and age. Perceived importance of fund selection criteria is not significantly different in terms of gender, education, marriage, and income levels. Test results indicated that “investment performance record”, “management fees” and “additional features” of fund, and the “sympathy” dimension of bank should be first improved by either fund or bank company respectively.

This paper investigates whether false confidence, as characterized by a high level of personal mastery and a low level of intelligence (IQ), results in frequent investor trading and subsequent investor wealth erosion across time. Using the National Longitudinal Survey (NLSY79), change in wealth and asset allocation across time is modeled as a function of various behavioral, socio-economic and demographic variables drawn from prior literature. Findings of this research reveal that false confidence is indeed a predictor of trading activity in individual investment assets, and it also has a negative impact on individual wealth creation across time.

In this paper we analyse the role of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in the price discovery process of stocks listed at the Botswana Stock Exchange.Using daily returns data covering the period 3 January 2013 to 31 December 2015 for Beta Betta ETF and Domestic Company Indices, we utilize a VECM model to find out whether the Betta Beta ETF is playing a significant role in the price discovery process of stocks listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange. We found the error correction term to be statistically significant thereby confirming that the Beta Betta ETF is playing a significant role in the price discovery of stocks listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange.

The aim of the empirical study is to investigate credit risk determinants in banking sectors across three kinds of South Asian economies. An accumulated sample of 105 unbalanced panel data of financial firms over the period of 2000-2015, by applying General Method of Moment (GMM) estimation techniques one-step at the difference in order to identify factors influencing credit risk. This study is inspired by two broad categories of explanatory variables which are bank-specific and macroeconomic. Bank-specific factors influencing unsystematic risk, while macroeconomic factors promoting systematic risk. The study uses a proxy of non-performing loans for credit risk in banking sectors of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. The empirical results have been found aligned with theoretical arguments and literature as expected. In comparison, NPLs in Pakistan is greater than India and Bangladesh, while India has the lowest ratio of non-performing loans. The study documents that bank-specific factors (inefficiency, profitability, capital ratio and leverage) have a significant contribution towards credit risk. Further, the study also finds a significant impact of macroeconomic variables on non-performing loans. While, the result in the case of Bangladesh predicts contradictions that have no significant effect on non-performing loans at various levels. The overall results indicate that credit risk is not influenced by only external factors but also affect by internal factors like bad management and skimping etc.

This study aims to evaluate the effect of regulatory corporate governance mandates on the valuation of equity-issuing firms in the U.S. Using a matched sample, we examine how the Exchange Listing Requirements, specifically, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), generally, affect IPO valuations. Board structure compliance provides no consistent valuation benefit. We find some evidence of negative effects for firms whose board structure is significantly altered by Reform and among small firms. The absence of increased valuations post-Reform suggests that there is little to offset the loss of private control benefits that Reform represents (post-Reform insider ownership and founder involvement are lower) and, thus, at the margin, Reform creates incentives for some firms to stay private. While the 2012 JOBS Act reduced the burden of registration, reporting and accounting requirements of SOX for small firms, it did nothing to change the board structure requirements of these firms. The results of this study together with those of Wintoki (2007) and Rhodes (2018) suggest that regulations pertaining to the board structure requirements of small equity-issuing firms should either be modified to allow more flexibility or repealed altogether. If lawmakers ultimately relax these requirements, future studies may focus on changes in board structures, private benefits of control, and the rates at which firms access public equity markets.

Mid-cap funds invest in stocks with a market cap between $2 billion and $10 billion. Some of the mid-cap firms recently overcame their small-cap status, but are still in the high growth mode with a better market positioning and stronger balance sheet. Because of their size and status, mid-cap stocks offer a unique platform to portfolio managers of mid-cap funds to earn superior returns by using their selectivity skills. This study analyzes the performance and persistence of performance of 257 U.S. domiciled retail mid-cap funds from January 2000 to December 2017. The results of this study suggest that despite the interesting platform offered by these stocks, it is not easy for fund managers to pick the stocks that beat the market. The results of this study show that mid-cap funds do not outperform the market and their poor performance persists over time.