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Corporate diversity encompasses the different talents, knowledge, cultures, experiences and values of its employees. This diversity is reflected in multiple characteristics, such as race, age, gender, social class, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, culture and disability. The objective of this study is to identify if diversity is a value driver.

We take the diversity score from the Diversity Leaders Index 2023 published by Financial Times (FT) and Statista; this will be our independent variable in linear regression models whose objective variables are relevant fundamental indicators of the Euro Stoxx 50 companies. It is, therefore, a cross-sectional sample with financial data taken as of the current date. We have 37 Euro Stoxx 50 components included in the diversity ranking.

The results indicate that diversity is not a value driver for trading volume, for its revenue, or for systematic risk measured by the beta parameter. However, it is observed, in a confidence interval of 90%, that the most diverse companies are larger (according to their market capitalization). In addition, the most diverse companies are more profitable [return on assets (ROA)] and valued by the market [price to earnings ratio (PER)] in a confidence interval of 95%.

These results indicate that companies should promote corporate diversity as a management strategy, as it is observed that more diverse companies are more profitable and valued by the market. This study provides a quantitative vision in the context of homogeneous companies such as the Euro Stoxx 50 Index on the aspects in which diversity is a value driver.

This paper aims to examine potential diversification benefits between Eurozone (i.e. EURO STOXX 50) and key Asia markets: HSI (Hong Kong), KOSPI (South Korea), NIKKEI 225 (Japan) and TSEC (Taiwan). The sample covers the period from 04-01-2008 to 19-10-2023 in daily frequency.

The empirical investigation is based on the wavelet coherence analysis, which is a localized correlation coefficient in the time and frequency domain.

The results provide evidence that long-term diversification benefits exist between EURO STOXX and NIKKEI, EURO STOXX and KOSPI (after 2015) and there are signs for the pair and EURO STOXX-TSEC (after 2014). During the short term, there are signs of diversification benefits during the sample period. However, during the medium term, the diversification benefits seem to diminish.

These results have crucial implications for investors regarding the benefits of international portfolio diversification.

While in the past companies have voluntarily disclosed information beyond the financial bottom line, there is now a trend toward mandatory reporting in many countries. With the adoption of Directive 2014/95/EU, the European Union has taken a decisive step in this direction. However, research on the effects of these obligations is still at an early stage, particularly regarding Directive 2014/95/EU. Therefore, this paper aims to pursue the question of whether the directive has led to an improvement in reporting.

The authors analyzed the reporting of the EURO STOXX 50 companies before and after the directive entered into force. To evaluate the improvement, the authors assigned the individual Global Reporting Initiative indicators to the different information requirements of the directive.

Overall, the authors’ study revealed an improvement in reporting. However, this does not apply to all information categories. A significant improvement can be seen regarding the information on policies and due diligence, principal risk and non-financial key performance indicators. Institutional theory suggests that the observed improvements among these reporting-experienced companies can be understood as the result of coercive pressure triggered by the directive’s requirements.

The authors’ study contributes to the debate on the impact of non-financial reporting obligations by providing empirical insights into the effects of Directive 2014/95/EU. These insights can inform political and managerial decision-making, particularly in view of increasing reporting obligations.

This paper aims to assess the impact of regulatory changes on corporate environmental disclosure practices in Europe. More specifically, the authors perform a difference-in-differences analysis to study the impact of the Paris agreement (United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21) and of the French Law 2015-992 on energy transition for green growth.

The sample consists of the listed companies belonging to the Euro Stoxx 50 index, and they are analysed over the 2010–2019 time horizon by means of an expert validated environmental disclosure dictionary and difference-in-differences analysis.

The main results show that both regulatory interventions contributed to improving corporate environmental disclosure. The authors also show that firms belonging to the most polluting sectors tend to provide more information on environmental matters, likely in an attempt to divert stakeholders’ attention.

By analysing an under-investigated topic, the paper calls for significant efforts by regulators to find the most suitable solutions to induce firms to increase their levels of transparency on the impact of environmental risks and on how these risks are managed.

The global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007–2008 had far-reaching consequences for the global economy, triggering widespread economic turmoil. We use the event-study method to investigate whether investors priced the effect of significant events before the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy in European and Asia-Pacific banks. Abnormal returns on the event days range from −4.32% to 5.03% in Europe and −5.13% to 6.57% in Asia-Pacific countries. When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt on September 15, 2008, abnormal returns averaged the lowest at −4.32% in Europe and −5.13% in Asia-Pacific countries. The significant abnormal returns show that Lehman Brothers' collapse was a turning point, and investors paid attention to the precrisis events as warning signs of the oncoming crisis.

Motivated by the increasing momentum of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, this research aims to test the impact of ESG-related news on stock returns, comparing different geographical areas to check whether the cultural background makes any difference.

Using a classic event–study methodology, this study measures extra returns following the broadcast of positive or negative ordinary news concerning ESG issues using a panel of major international companies located in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

ESG news are interpreted differently in different geographical areas. In Europe, bad news matter more than good news and produce a negative price impact. In the USA, a mirror picture emerges: good news matter more than bad news and produce a negative price impact. In the APAC area, ESG news are no news and are not correlated to significant extra returns. This study also shows that ESG reputation plays an important role and affects the impact of news on equity returns.

Both managers and equity investors need to be aware of the potential magnitude and direction of stock market’s reactions to news concerning ESG matters, taking also into consideration the location of the firm and the moderating effect of ESG reputation. Sustainability cannot be ignored anymore and need to be included into information data set and decision-making processes.

This study adds to the current literature insights on how ESG-related news impact in different geographical contexts. This study finds that news of similar tone may produce divergent effect on stock returns according to the prevailing cultural and economic interpretation of sustainability investments.

This study aims to identify the ability of gold and cryptocurrency (Cryptocurrency Uncertainty Index (UCRY) Price) as safe haven assets (SHA) for stocks and bonds in both conventional (i.e. stock indices and government bonds) and Islamic markets (i.e. Islamic stock indices and Islamic bonds (IB)).

The authors employed the nonadditive panel quantile regression model by Powell (2016). It measured the safe haven characteristics of gold and UCRY Price for stock indices, government bonds, Islamic stocks, and IB under gold circumstances and level of cryptocurrency uncertainty, respectively. The period spanned from 11 March 2020 to 31 December 2021.

This study discovered three findings, including: (1) gold is a strong safe haven for stocks and bonds in conventional and Islamic markets under bearish conditions; (2) UCRY Price is a strong safe haven for conventional stocks and bonds but only a weak safe haven for Islamic stocks under high crypto uncertainty; and (3) gold offers a safe haven in both emerging and developed countries, while UCRY Price provides a better safe haven in developed than in emerging countries.

Gold always wins big for safe haven properties during unstable economy. It can also win over investors who consider shariah compliant products. Therefore, it should be included in an investor's portfolio. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies are more common for developed countries. Thus, the governments and regulators of emerging countries need to provide more guidance around cryptocurrency so that the societies have better literacy. On top of that, the investors can consider crypto to mitigate risks but with limited safe haven functions.

The originality aspects of this study include: (1) four chosen assets from conventional and Islamic markets altogether (i.e. stock indices, government bonds, Islamic stock indices and IB); (2) indicator countries selected based on the most used and owned cryptocurrencies for the SHA study; and (3) the utilization of UCRY Price as a crypto indicator and a further examination of the SHA study toward four financial assets.

This study aims to examine the uncertainty spillover among eight important asset classes (cryptocurrencies, US stocks, US bonds, US dollar, agriculture, metal, oil and gold) using weekly data from 2014 to 2020. This study also examines the US macro uncertainty and US financial stress spillover on these assets.

The authors use time–frequency connectedness method to study the uncertainty spillover among the asset classes.

This study’s findings revealed that the uncertainty spillover is time-varying and peaked during the 2016 oil supply glut and COVID-19 pandemic. US stocks are the highest transmitter of uncertainty to all other assets, followed by the US dollar and oil. US stocks (US dollar and oil) transmit uncertainty in long (short) term. Furthermore, US macro uncertainty is the net transmitter of uncertainty to the US stocks, industrial metals and oil markets. In contrast, US financial stress is the net transmitter of uncertainty to the US bonds, cryptocurrencies, the US dollar and gold markets. US financial stress (US macro uncertainty) has long (short)-term effects on asset price volatility.

This study complements the studies on volatility spillover among the important asset classes. This study also includes recently financialized asset classes such as cryptocurrencies, agricultural and industrial commodities. This study examines the macro uncertainty and financial stress spillover on these assets.

This study aims to investigate the interconnectedness across the risk appetite of distinct investor types in Borsa Istanbul. This study also examines the causal impact of global implied volatility indices on the risk appetite of these investor groups.

The authors use a novel time-varying frequency connectedness framework of Chatziantoniou et al. and a new time-varying Granger causality test with a recursive evolving procedure by Shi et al. over June 2008 and July 2022.

The results show a high level of interconnectedness across the risk appetite of different investor types. The sizable spillovers to domestic types of investors either occur from professional or foreign investors, indicating the long-term dominant effect of foreign and more qualified investors on the domestic investors in Borsa Istanbul. The authors provide significant evidence of causality from the global implied volatility to the Borsa Istanbul risk appetite indices, which are getting stronger after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Unlike the previous studies, the authors analyze the risk appetite sub-indices of various types of investors to reveal behavioral distinctions and interconnectedness across them. The authors use a novel econometric framework to assess investors’ risk appetite in different investment horizons in a time-varying system. Together with volatility index (VIX), the authors also use volatilities of oil (OVX), gold (GVZ) and currency (EVZ), considering the information transmission not only from stock markets but also energy, metals and currency markets. The present data set covers significant financial crises, socioeconomic events and the COVID-19 outbreak.

This study aims to examine to what extent the Japanese financial markets are affected by the four periods of unconventional monetary policies (UMP) implemented by the Bank of Japan from 2013 to 2020.

Using the daily 10-year term spread as a proxy for monetary easing policy, this study uses four sub-sample periods from 2013 to 2020 to look into the effectiveness of UMP on the Japanese financial markets.

Our result shows that not all of the Bank of Japan's unconventional monetary policies are equally effective in influencing the Japanese financial markets. In particular, the QQE policy implemented from April 2013 to October 2014 effectively influenced the stock market, banking sector and foreign exchange market. However, the financial market impact of monetary policy is muted during the QQE expansion period. Likewise, the QQE with a negative interest rate policy influences only the banking sector. Finally, the QQE with its yield curve control policy effectively impacts the financial markets.

This research can be expanded by studying the international spillover effect of the Bank of Japan's UMP on the financial markets in Asian countries.

The findings of this study enable investors to understand the causal relationship between the Bank of Japan's UMP and the financial market indicators, thereby helping them to position their portfolio investments. From the policy perspective, the finding is useful to inform the Bank of Japan on which policy is relatively effective in affecting the financial markets. In light of the empirical finding, the Bank of Japan should continue to pursue the QQE YCCP or revert to the initial QQE policy, as the two policies are relatively more effective than the QQE expansion and QQE NIRP in affecting the Japanese financial markets.

The empirical finding highlights the importance of controlling for the impact of different QQE policies in the model. Future research may consider conducting sub-sample analysis to cater to the different QQE policy regimes. This approach provides a clearer picture and valid inferences on the financial market impact of each QQE policy.

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of Bank of Japan's QQE on the Japanese financial markets. For the market participants, the findings of this study suggest that investors should closely gauge the development of the unconventional monetary policies of the Bank of Japan because the monetary easing policy influences the decision-making process of commercial banks, pension funds, mutual funds, retail investors and other stakeholders in the financial markets. The policy twist will have future ramifications for their loan, investment and retirement fund portfolios.