International Journal of Economics and Accounting (6 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Does ownership structure motivate listed companies to increase HR disclosure? Evidence from India  
  by Kirti Aggarwal 
  Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to examine the association between ownership structure and HR disclosure of Indian companies listed on the Indian Stock Exchange (NSE-200) for the latest time period of nine years (F.Y. 2012-13 to 2020-2021). The outcome of two-way least square dummy variable (LSDV) regression model depicted those corporate bodies, financial institutions, foreign institutional investors, ownership concentration, age of a company, company size, leverage have significantly influenced the HR disclosure practices of the Indian listed companies. Overall, it can be said that the policymakers can increase the level of HR disclosure through setting of standardised guidelines concerning HR reporting in India. Besides, policymakers are stimulated to establish a mandatory HR disclosure index that can be used to evaluate and compare the HR disclosure practice among Indian companies.
  Keywords: ownership structure; HR disclosure; annual report; content analysis; HRDI; India.
  
  
• Policy uncertainty and cash holdings of construction firms in India: a dynamic panel regression approach  
  by Rajni Kant Rajhans, Harish Singla 
  Abstract: The study aims to understand the dynamic impact of economic policy uncertainty on the cash holdings patterns of construction firms in India. A dynamic panel regression model was created with cash to total assets as the dependent variable and the policy uncertainty, natural log transformation of total assets as a proxy of size, natural log transformation of dividends, price to book value ratio in times as a proxy of growth opportunities, Indian promoter holding in percentage as a proxy of ownership, debt-equity ratio in times as a measure of leverage, return on total assets in percentage as a measure of profitability and change in sales as a measure of volatility as independent variables. Further, the data was split into two study periods (20032011 and 20122020) for a detailed investigation of the dynamic relationship between policy uncertainty and firm-level cash holding. The findings suggest that policy uncertainty and its lag, cash holding lag are the prominent drivers of cash holdings for Indian construction firms.
  Keywords: cash holding; policy uncertainty; construction; assets; panel regression; leverage; profitability; return on assets; India.
  
  
• Bank ownership and asset quality in Indian banking: is there a link?  
  by Abhinav Goel, Archana Singh 
  Abstract: Persistently elevated stressed assets negatively impact the banking sector and thereby economic growth. Therefore, banking sector risk is considered an important factor impacting macroeconomic stability and sovereign credit risk. While there could be many factors impacting levels of stressed assets, this work specifically analyses and finds that bank ownership in India is a major factor impacting levels of stressed assets and the quality of regulatory system plays a key role in timely stress recognition. The present work finds that private and foreign banks in India have better asset quality as compared to public sector banks (PSBs). Further, foreign banks exhibit more consistent NPL recognition. Also, as compared to other major economies, Indian banking NPLs are substantially higher. The work concludes that PSBs need to strengthen their credit appraisal systems, including inculcating best practices from international banks. Further, the regulatory framework needs be proactive regarding stress recognition, using forbearance sparingly.
  Keywords: public sector bank; bank ownership; stressed asset; non-performing loan; NPL; non-performing asset; NPA; banking regulation; sovereign credit rating.
  
  
• Ownership structure and voluntary disclosure quality: empirical evidence from a frontier market  
  by Dhouha Jradi, Fethi Belhaj, Manel Hadriche 
  Abstract: This study examines the impact of ownership structure on voluntary disclosure quality of non-financial firms listed on the Tunisian stock market. The empirical analysis focused on 411 annual reports of non-financial companies listed on the Tunisian stock market during the 20102019 period. The results indicate a significant positive impact of institutional ownership on voluntary disclosure quality. Overall, foreign ownership and managerial ownership are found to have no effect. The empirical results show that institutional ownership has a significant positive impact on voluntary disclosure quality only in the health and technology sectors. Foreign ownership and managerial ownership have no significant effect in all considered sectors. The findings may encourage investors to allocate their funds to firms with a high percentage of institutional ownership. This study extends the existing literature by examining the relationship between ownership structure and voluntary disclosure quality in an emerging context and which has been poorly investigated, especially in the Tunisian context.
  Keywords: voluntary disclosure quality; ownership structure; foreign ownership; managerial ownership; institutional ownership; agency theory; economic sectors; frontier market; Tunisian stock market.
  
  
• Moderating effect of innovation on the relationship between governance and performance  
  by Ammar Sammout, Zouhayer Mighri, Sana Ben Ghodbane 
  Abstract: The aim of this research paper is to analyse the moderating effect of innovation [investment in research and development (R&D)] on the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance. The study carried out on a sample of listed French companies covering the period 2008-2019 shows that the majority of governance indicators have a negative and significant effect on the financial performance of the company, with the exception of the remuneration of the management team, which has a positive and significant effect on performance, while the RD coefficient designating the moderator variable for the relationship between governance and the financial performance of the company, is negative and significant.
  Keywords: R&D; performance; corporate governance.
  
  
• Exchange rate pass-through in the USA and Canada  
  by Eiman Aiyash, Ahmed S. Abou-Zaid 
  Abstract: This paper investigates the degree of exchange rate pass-through to import prices, producer prices, and consumer prices in Canada and the USA from 1980 to 2017 using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model. The results indicate a positive long-run correlation between exchange rate prices and aggregate price levels. The impulse response function reveals a persistent and incomplete pass-through for exchange rate prices, i.e., 0.20 for Canada and 0.27 for the USA. That is, greater pass-through exists in an economy with a more volatile monetary policy and higher inflation rate. Consistent with the impulse response function, variance decomposition reveals that exchange rate fluctuations explain more of the variation in consumer prices in the USA. However, in Canada, import prices are mainly defined by exchange rate fluctuations.
  Keywords: exchange rate pass-through; import price index; IMP; producer price index; PPI; consumer price index; CPI; structural vector autoregression; SVAR; impulse response.