Explore the vast range of titles available.

The finance sector’s response to pressures around climate change has emphasized disclosure, notably through the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The implicit assumption—that if risks are fully revealed, finance will respond rationally and in ways aligned with the public interest—is rooted in the “efficient market hypothesis” (EMH) applied to the finance sector and its perception of climate policy. For low carbon investment, particular hopes have been placed on the role of institutional investors, given the apparent matching of their assets and liabilities with the long timescales of climate change. We both explain theoretical frameworks (grounded in the “three domains”, namely satisficing, optimizing, and transforming) and use empirical evidence (from a survey of institutional investors), to show that the EMH is unsupported by either theory or evidence: it follows that transparency alone will be an inadequate response. To some extent, transparency can address behavioural biases (first domain characteristics), and improving pricing and market efficiency (second domain); however, the strategic (third domain) limitations of EMH are more serious. We argue that whilst transparency can help, on its own it is a very long way from an adequate response to the challenges of ‘aligning institutional climate finance’.

A question of increasing interest to researchers in a variety of fields is whether the biases found in judgment and decision-making research remain present in contexts in which experienced participants face strong economic incentives. To investigate this question, we analyze the decision making of National Football League teams during their annual player draft. This is a domain in which monetary stakes are exceedingly high and the opportunities for learning are rich. It is also a domain in which multiple psychological factors suggest that teams may overvalue the chance to pick early in the draft. Using archival data on draft-day trades, player performance, and compensation, we compare the market value of draft picks with the surplus value to teams provided by the drafted players. We find that top draft picks are significantly overvalued in a manner that is inconsistent with rational expectations and efficient markets, and consistent with psychological research. This paper was accepted by Uri Gneezy, behavioral economics.

Research background: Covid-19 has affected the global economy and has had an inevitable impact on capital markets. In the week of February 24?28, 2020, stock markets crashed. The index FTSE 100 decreased 13%, while the indices DJIA and S&P 500 fell 11?12%, the biggest drop since the 2007?2008 financial and economic crisis. It is therefore of interest to test the random walk hypothesis in developed capital markets, European and also non-European, in order to understand the different predictabilities between them. Purpose of the article: The aim is to analyze capital market efficiency, in its weak form, through the stock market indices of Belgium (index BEL 20), France (index CAC 40), Germany (index DAX 30), USA (index DOW JONES), Greece (index FTSE Athex 20), Spain (index IBEX 35), Ireland (index ISEQ), Portugal (index PSI 20) and China (index SSE) for the period from December 2019 to May 2020. Methods: Panel unit root tests of Breitung (2000), Levin et al. (2002) and Hadri (2002) were used to assess the time series stationarity. The test of Clemente et al. (1998) is used to detect structural breaks. The tests for the random walk hypothesis follows the variance ratio methodology proposed by Lo and MacKinlay (1988). Findings & Value added: In general, we found mixed confirmation about the EMH (efficient market hypothesis). Taking into account the conclusions of the rank variance test, the random walk hypothesis was rejected in the case of stock indices: Dow Jones, SSE and PSI 20, partially rejected in the case indices: BEL 20, CAC 40, FTSTE Athex 20 and DEX 30, but accepted for indices: IBEX 35 and ISEQ. The results also show that prices do not fully reflect the information available and that changes in prices are not independent and identically distributed. This situation has consequences for investors, since some returns can be expected, creating opportunities for arbitrage and for abnormal returns, contrary to the assumptions of random walk and information efficiency.

The novel Covid-19 virus has changed the dynamics of 'flight to safety' investment for various economies. Thus, the hedging ability of the stocks must be revisited in the scenario of this pandemic. For this purpose, specifically understanding the importance of a semi-strong form of an efficient market hypothesis is important. This was to observe the speed at which the markets react to the news announcement, and how rapidly they absorb new information to regain thier position in the market. Hence, this study conducts an event study analysis on Pakistan's emerging market to detect the financial and non-financial stock price reactions towards the lockdown announcement, following the spread of Covid-19 in Pakistan. The daily data on the KSE-100 index for thirty different industries, comprising of ninety firms, spanning from December 12, 2019, till June 7, 2020, was collected and analyzed. The abnormal returns were recorded to be at around 21 [−10. +10] and 41 days [−20, +20] event window, around the day of the lockdown announcement. These abnormal returns were obtained through the market model regression. The data collected implied that most of the industries were stable and behaved well before the event day, while the affected sectors recovered fairly quickly. Therefore, it has been affirmed that Pakistan's equity portfolios are informationally efficient, and can benefit the investors during a pandemic.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the cornerstone for sustainable development, but if they are not appropriately managed, they will impede progress towards the United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals. Among undesirable impacts, emphasis must be put on the risk of information security (ISec) breaches, as they pose a potential threat to businesses there. Especially for publicly traded firms, they could create a long-lasting influence on their financial performance and, thus, stock investors’ confidence. Following the efficient market hypothesis’s footsteps, previous studies have examined only the short-run impact on investors’ confidence ensuing to ISec breach announcements. Therefore, this study investigates the long-run impact of ISec breach announcements on investors’ confidence. Based on a sample of 73 ISec breach announcements during 2011–2019, this paper examines the impact on investors’ confidence, as demonstrated by long-run abnormal returns and equity risk of those firms. Using a one-to-one matched sampling approach, each firm’s performance is analyzed with its control firm over eighteen months, starting six months before the announcement, through twelve months after the announcement. Firms experienced a significant negative abnormal return of 15% to 18% during the twelve months following the breach announcement. In comparison, equity risk increased by 11% within six months before and after an announcement. This study can help investors, managers, and researchers better understand a long-term relationship between ISec breaches and investor confidence in the context of efficient market hypothesis.

This study investigates the time evolution of market efficiency in the Japanese stock markets, considering three indices: Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX), Tokyo Stock Exchange Second Section Index, and TOPIX-Small. The Hurst exponent reveals that the Japanese markets are inefficient in their early stages and improve gradually. TOPIX and TOPIX-Small showed an anti-persistence around the year 2000, which still persists. The degree of multifractality varies over time and does not show that the Japanese markets are permanently efficient. The multifractal properties of the Japanese markets changed considerably around the year 2000; this may have been caused by the complete migration from the stock trading floor to the Tokyo Stock Exchange's computer trading system and the financial system reform, also known as the 'Japanese Big Bang'.

This article examines the adaptive market hypothesis in the five most important Latin American stock indices. To that end, we apply three versions of the variance ratio test, as well as the Brock-Dechert-Scheinkman test for nonlinear predictability. Additionally, we perform the Dominguez-Lobato and generalized spectral tests to evaluate the Martingale difference hypothesis. Moreover, we consider salient news related to the plausible market inefficiencies detected by these four tests. Finally, we apply a GARCH-M model to assess the risk-return relationship through time. Our results suggest that the predictability of stock returns varies over time. Furthermore, the efficiency in each market behaves differently over time. All in all, the analyzed emerging market indices satisfy the adaptive market hypothesis, given the switching behavior between periods of efficiencies and inefficiencies, since the adaptive market hypothesis suggests that market efficiency and market anomalies might coexist in capital markets. Este artículo examina la hipótesis del mercado adaptativo en los cinco índices bursátiles más importantes de América Latina. Para tal fin, aplicamos tres versiones de la prueba de razón de varianza (VRT), así como la prueba de Brock-Dechert-Scheinkman (BDS) para predictibilidad no lineal. Adicionalmente, realizamos las pruebas Domínguez-Lobato (DL) y generalized spectral (GS) para evaluar la hipótesis de la diferencia Martingala. Además, consideramos las noticias más destacadas relacionadas con las plausibles ineficiencias del mercado detectadas por estas cuatro pruebas. Finalmente, se aplicó un modelo GARCH-M para evaluar la relación riesgo-rendimiento a lo largo del tiempo. Nuestros resultados sugieren que la predictibilidad de los rendimientos de las acciones varía con el tiempo. Además, encontramos que la eficiencia en cada mercado se comporta de manera diferente a lo largo del tiempo. Así, los índices de mercados emergentes analizados satisfacen la hipótesis del mercado adaptativo, debido al comportamiento cambiante entre períodos de eficiencias e ineficiencias, ya que la hipótesis del mercado adaptativo sugiere que la eficiencia del mercado y las anomalías del mercado pueden coexistir en los mercados de capital.

Several prominent institutional investors concerned about climate change have announced their intention or have divested from fossil fuel shares, to limit their exposure to the industry. The act of fossil fuel divestment may directly depress share prices or stigmatize the industry’s reputation, resulting in lower share value. While there has been considerable research conducted on the performance of the fossil fuel industry, there is not yet any empirical evidence that divestment announcements influence share prices. Adopting an event study methodology, this study measures abnormal deviations in stock prices of the top 200 global oil, gas, and coal companies by proven reserves, on days of prominent divestment announcements. Events are analyzed independently and in aggregate. The results make several notable contributions. While many events experienced short-term negative abnormal returns around the event day, the effects of events were more pronounced over longer event windows following the New York Climate March, suggesting a shift in investor perception. The results also find that divestment announcements related to campaigns, pledges, and endorsements all have a significant effect over the short-term event window. Finally, the results control for the general underperformance of the industry over the estimation window, attesting that the price change is caused by divestment announcements. Several robustness tests using alternate expected returns models and statistical tests were conducted to ensure the accuracy of the result. Overall, this study finds that divestment announcements decrease the share price of the fossil fuel companies, and thus, we conclude that ‘divestors’ can influence the share price of their target companies. Theoretically, the result adds new knowledge regarding the efficacy of the efficient market hypothesis in relation to divestment.

This study conducts a systematic survey on whether the pricing behavior of cryptocurrencies is predictable. Thus, the Efficient Market Hypothesis is rejected and speculation is feasible via trading. We center interest on the Rescaled Range (R/S) and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) as well as other relevant methodologies of testing long memory in returns and volatility. It is found that the majority of academic papers provides evidence for inefficiency of Bitcoin and other digital currencies of primary importance. Nevertheless, large steps towards efficiency in cryptocurrencies have been traced during the last years. This can lead to less profitable trading strategies for speculators.