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This paper focuses on execution costs as liquidity measure. Execution costs are related to volatility and are an important component of a firm’s cost of capital. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether emerging market firms have lower execution costs when they face less restrictions on foreign investment and when they have more foreign shareholders.

The authors begin by documenting the cross-sectional behavior of execution costs. The authors then obtain preliminary evidence on the interaction between execution costs, the investability index and actual foreign investment. These results foreshadow those the authors obtain with the regression analysis. The ordinary least square results show that more investable firms have lower execution costs after the authors control for firm size, stock price, return volatility, industry effects and country effects. This evidence is very robust and highly significant. Direct foreign ownership (FO) in emerging market firms also appear to be associated with lower execution costs. The economic benefit from lowering the investability index on trade execution costs is highly significant.

Using a large cross-sectional sample from 23 emerging markets, the authors show that firms with more ex ante restrictions on FO, measured by the investability index, have lower execution costs, such as quoted spreads (QS) and effective spreads (ES), after the authors control for firm size, stock price, return volatility, industry factors and country effects. In addition, direct FO in emerging market firms appears to be associated with lower execution costs. However, ex ante restrictions on FO dominate the influence of direct FO. For a 0.5 increase in the investability index in the range of 0–1, the QS will be reduced by 17 percent of the mean QS, and the ES will be reduced by 12 percent of the mean ES from the sample stocks.

There are important differences between the approach and most of the financial liberalization studies. First, whereas most of the earlier studies are conducted at the level of country or market analysis, the investigation is at the level of individual stocks. Second, the authors focus on a cross-sectional association that avoids a criticism leveled at time series analyses. Over-time studies often use specific time points to represent financial liberalization watersheds. This approach can be misleading when financial liberalizations are viewed as processes that unfold over time. Third, the proxies for financial openness are available not only for individual firms across markets, but the authors also make a distinction between potential and actual foreign investment. The authors further categorize actual foreign investment into direct and indirect FO.

Bitcoin is the best-known cryptocurrency which currently holds the largest market capitalisation and is regarded as a standard example of a cryptocurrency. There is, however, no consensus as to the nature of the Bitcoin. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether Bitcoin represents a new asset class by building on prior research.

The prior literature on asset classes is explored in detail and then applied to the Bitcoin. Four key criteria of asset classes are discussed, namely, investability, politico-economic profile, correlation of returns and risk-reward profile. Statistical techniques are used to inform the conclusions for the third and fourth criteria.

This research finds that the Bitcoin represents a distinct alternative investment and asset class. There are significant opportunities for investment. The politico-economic profile of the decentralised and consensus-based Bitcoin is dissimilar to other asset classes. The Bitcoin shares little or no correlation with other asset classes. Using Sharpe Ratios, it is shown that the Bitcoin provides risk-adjusted returns over and above most asset classes.

The aim of this research is to present a normative exploration into the asset class nature of the Bitcoin and, as a result, the aim is not to create positivist generalisable conclusions. This paper does not address cryptocurrencies, other than Bitcoin and does not constitute a detailed manual on modern portfolio theory.

This research adds to finance paradigm research on the Bitcoin by including a developing country perspective on Bitcoin as an asset class as prior studies have concentrated on developed country settings. Further, this research introduces recent economic data (2014 to 2017) in the form of daily observations to enhance prior understanding. It is important to understand if the Bitcoin represents an alternative investment and new asset class as this may affect investment decisions.

The present study aims to provide a practical and robust assessment technique for assessing countries' investability in global supply chains to practitioners. Thus, the proposed approach can help decision-makers evaluate and select appropriate countries in the expansion process of the global supply chains and reduce risks concerning country (market) selection.

The present study proposes a novel decision-making approach, namely the REF-Sort technique. The proposed approach has many valuable contributions to the literature. First, it has an efficient basic algorithm and can be applied to solve highly complicated decision-making problems without requiring advanced mathematical knowledge. Besides, some characteristics differentiate REF-Sort apart from other techniques. REF-Sort employs the value or value range that reflects the most typical characteristic of the relevant class in assignment processes. The reference values in REF-Sort and center profiles are similar in this regard. On the other hand, class references can be defined as ranges in REF-Sort. Secondary values, called successors, can also be employed to assign a value to the appropriate class. REF-Sort can also determine the reference and successor values/ranges independently of the decision matrix. In addition, the proposed model is a maximally stable and consistent decision-making tool, as it is resistant to the rank reversal problem.

The current papers' findings indicate that countries have different features concerning investment. Hence, the current paper pointed out that only 22% of the 95 countries are investable, whereas 19% are risky. Thus, decision-makers should make detailed evaluations using robust, powerful, and practical decision-making tools to make more reasonable and logical decisions concerning country selection.

The current paper proposes a novel decision-making approach to evaluate. According to the authors' information, the proposed model has been applied to evaluate investable countries for the global supply chains for the first time.

This paper aims to elaborate on the optimization of two particular cryptocurrency portfolios in a mean-variance framework. In general, cryptocurrencies can be classified to as coins and tokens where the first can be thought of as a medium of exchange and the latter accounts for security or utility tokens depending upon its design.

Against this backdrop, this empirical study distinguishes, in particular, between pure coin and token portfolios. Both portfolios are optimized by maximizing the Sharpe ratio and, subsequently, compared with alternative portfolio strategies.

The empirical findings demonstrate that the maximum utility portfolio of coins, with a risk aversion of λ = 10, outweighs alternative frameworks. The portfolios optimized by maximizing the Sharpe ratio for both coins and tokens indicate a rather poor performance. Testing the maximized utility for different levels of risk aversion confirms the findings of this empirical study and confers them more robustness.

Further investigation is strongly recommended as tokens represent a new phenomenon in the cryptocurrency universe, for which only a limited amount of data are available, which restricts the sampling. Furthermore, future study is to include more sophisticated optimization models using different constraints in portfolio creation.

In light of the persistently substantial volatility in cryptocurrency markets, the empirical findings assert that portfolio managers are advised to construct a global minimum variance portfolio. In the absence of sophisticated optimization models, private investors can invest according to the market values of cryptocurrencies. Despite minor differences in the risk and reward ratios of the portfolios tested, tokens tend to be more speculative, especially, if the Tether token is excluded, which may require enhanced supervision and investor protection by regulating authorities.

As the current literature investigates on diversification effects of blended cryptocurrency portfolios rather than making an explicit distinction, this paper reflects one of the first to explore the investability and role of diversifying coins and tokens using a classic Markowitz approach.

The author, a stalwart of the UK Asset and Liability Management Association, provides a guide to the construction and make‐up of bond indices and argues that users should assess them in great depth until they gain a proper understanding of what they will gain from their use.

This paper aims to compare and analyse the aspects of Shariah screening methodologies within the selected Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as well as comparing the methodologies with the USA, and to examine how Shariah screening methodologies affect financing and investing activities of a firm.

Shariah screening methodologies within the selected GCC countries and between the GCC countries and the USA are compared on the basis of the data collected from secondary sources.

Design, qualification and Shariah governance set the Shariah screening methodologies within the GCC countries apart. Feasibility, duration, economic viability and funds required differentiate these Shariah screening methodologies between the GCC countries and the USA. Shariah screening methodologies implied in the USA is more stringent than in the GCC countries.

The suggestions in this study include using a longer research timeline, examining many more number of countries’ Shariah screening methodologies and exploring other types of Shariah screening methodologies.

The possibility of generalising the implementation of strict and uniform Shariah screening methodologies across all the country-specific Shariah indices amongst Muslim nations, globally, is likely to benefit all the Muslim countries, by strengthening the understanding, interaction and economic co-operation amongst these countries.

People’s needs can be tended to if Maqasid Al-Shariah (objectives of Shariah) is achieved through flexibility, dynamism and creativity within the social policy.

Aspects of Shariah screening methodologies are compared and contrasted within the selected GCC countries as well as between the GCC countries and the United States and the role of Shariah screening methodologies is examined in order to determine the extent of what is Shariah-Compliant and what is Non-Shariah Compliant for a firm.

Regeneration concerns the physical and economic renewal of locations with development and investment in property a fundamental part of the process and product. Considers the case of Dublin, where designated areas, including the dock‐lands, have been stimulated by taxation breaks within a structure‐agency model. These mechanisms are initially reviewed to provide a context in which the property market has been operating. Focuses on the performance of office property in Dublin and compares rental return evidence for the city centre market with that for the International Financial Services Centre, one of the original designated renewal areas in the dock‐lands. Conclusions focus on how taxation breaks can be used to create new office locations and how the regeneration market can become tax‐driven with dual structures existing between urban regeneration areas and the prime market.

This paper aims to investigate the pricing efficiency of Saudi Sharia-compliant (i.e. Islamic) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The paper adheres to a positivist research philosophy with a deductive research approach where data is collected, analyzed and interpreted to examine a hypothesis. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions are applied to investigate pricing efficiency and persistence.

The results show that Saudi ETFs do not currently offer proper diversification for investors, possibly due to their low trading volumes and the delays of market prices in reflecting net asset value (NAV). On average, ETFs trade at a premium to their NAVs. Moreover, the authors find that the deviations of ETF prices from their NAVs (i.e. premiums or discounts) do not disappear in one day. The results reveal a significant positive relationship between the trading volume of Saudi ETFs and volatility, a significant positive correlation between ETF returns and contemporaneous deviations and a significant negative relationship between returns and lagged deviations. These findings can be interpreted as evidence against the market efficiency of Saudi ETFs.

Individual and institutional investors can use Saudi ETFs, especially as their efficiency improves with increased trading volume (liquidity). Saudi regulators must increase their efforts to educate market participants and expand the availability of information to enhance transparency and awareness of the benefits of investing in ETFs, which will positively affect liquidity and pricing efficiency in the future.

This paper is the first to perform empirical tests on Saudi ETFs. Saudi Arabia deserves further attention because it is the most significant stock market in the Gulf Cooperation Council and only recently allowed foreigners to participate.

Property performance indices have invariably focused upon prime markets with a variety of approaches used to measure investment returns. However, there is relatively little knowledge regarding the investment performance of property in regeneration areas. Indeed, there is a perception that such locations carry increased risk and that the returns achieved may not be sufficient to offset the added risk. The main objective of this paper, therefore, is to construct regeneration property performance indicators consistent with the CBRE rent index and average yield monitor.

Local market experts were asked to estimate rents and yields for hypothetical standardised offerings for a range of regeneration locations throughout the UK, covering the period 1995 to 2002.

The results show that rental growth was similar in regeneration locations compared to the prime market. However, the analysis highlights a major yield shift for property in regeneration areas in the short to medium term. The downward pressure in yields would suggest that once a regeneration area becomes established and rental growth emerges, investor interest is stimulated resulting in increased competition and a shortening of yields.

The significance of this research is the quantification of property investment performance from regeneration areas that previously has not been available to investment institutions and decision makers. From a policy perspective this analysis is of relevance in confirming the maturing of locations that have received high levels of public sector support and indicating the effectiveness of regeneration policy mechanisms in creating sustainable urban environments capable of meeting private sector investment goals.

The assessment of interdependence between stock markets is an important aspect of international portfolio management. The purpose of this paper is to examine and highlight the diversification potential of South Asian stock markets vis-à-vis developed and European stock markets.

The developed stocks markets include USA and UK, and South Asian stock markets include India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka while DJ STOXX 600 index is used to represent the European stock markets. Monthly data are used to examine long-run relationship through ARDL bound testing approach and estimates are obtained using DLOS. Short-term dynamics are captured through vector error correction-based Granger causality.

South Asian stock markets are closely linked with each other; similarly, developed/European markets are interlinked. US stock market not only impacts European stock markets, it also Granger cause South Asian stock markets. The findings suggest increase in comovement of South Asian stock markets with the global markets after financial crises of 2007-2008.

The diversification benefits of South Asian stock markets for international investors are still evident due to their low relationship (in both long and short run) with developed/European stock markets.

Given the emergence of South Asian stock markets, new insight on their relationship with developed stock markets can provide interesting findings for international portfolio diversification. The South Asian equity markets are an important source of investment because of their immense growth and weak correlation with international markets.