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This study investigates the role of market concentration and efficiency in banking system stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. We empirically test the hypothesis that market concentration and efficiency are significant determinants of bank performance and stability during the time of crises, using a sample of 575 banks in 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The main sources of bank data are the BankScope and BankFocus (Bureau van Dijk) databases, World Bank development indicators, and official websites of banks in MENA countries. This study combined descriptive and analytical approaches. We utilize a panel dataset and adopt panel data econometric techniques such as fixed/random effects and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator.

The results reveal that market concentration negatively affects bank profitability, whereas improved efficiency further enhances bank performance and contributes to the banking sector’s overall stability. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that during the COVID-19 pandemic, bank stability strongly depended on the level of market concentration, but not on bank efficiency. However, more efficient banks are more profitable and stable if the banking institutions are Islamic. Similarly, Islamic banks with the same level of efficiency demonstrated better overall financial performance during the pandemic than their conventional peers did.

The main limitation is related to the period of COVID-19 pandemic that was covered in this paper (2020–2021). Therefore, further investigation of the COVID-19 effects on bank profitability and risk will require an extended period of the pandemic crisis, including 2022.

This study provides information that will enable bank managers and policymakers in MENA countries to assess the growing impact of market concentration and efficiency on the banking sector stability. It also helps them in formulating suitable strategies to mitigate the adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our recommendations are useful guides for policymakers and regulators in countries where Islamic and conventional banking systems co-exist and compete, based on different business models and risk management practices.

The authors contribute to the banking stability literature by investigating the role of market concentration and efficiency as the main determinants of bank performance and stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is the first to analyze banking sector stability in the MENA region, using both individual and risk-adjusted aggregated performance measures.

This paper examines the time-varying efficiency of nine major Middle East and North Africa (MENA) stock markets namely Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Morocco and Tunisia during times of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and vaccines.

The authors use two econometric approaches: (1) autocorrelation tests including the wild bootstrap automatic variance ratio test, the automatic portmanteau test and the Generalized spectral test, and (2) a non-Bayesian generalized least squares-based time-varying model with statistical inferences.

The results show that the degree of stock market efficiency of Egyptian, Bahraini, Saudi, Moroccan and Tunisian stock markets is influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Furthermore, the authors find a tendency toward efficiency in most of the MENA markets after the announcement of the COVID-19's vaccine approval. Finally, the Jordanian, Omani, Qatari and UAE stock markets remain globally efficient during the three sub-periods of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

The results have important implications for asset allocations and financial risk management. Portfolio managers may maximize the benefit of arbitrage opportunities by taking strategic long and short positions in these markets during downward trend periods. Policymakers should implement the action plans and reforms to protect the stock markets from global shocks and ensure the stability of the stock markets.

This study aims to investigate the impact of market competitiveness on investment efficiency, and the moderating role of ownership and regulatory structures.

In this study, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), Lerner Index (LI) and industry-adjusted Lerner Index (LIIA) were used to measure market competitiveness. The research population consisted of companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Using a systematic elimination, 199 companies were selected within eight years during 2014–2021.

The results showed that market competitiveness (based on the LI, LIIA and HHI) positively affected investment efficiency. Moreover, institutional ownership and managerial ownership affected the relationship between market competitiveness (based on all proxies of market competitiveness) and investment efficiency. Blockholders’ ownership also moderated the relationship between market competitiveness (based on LIIA and HHI) and investment efficiency. The hypothesis testing had robustness based on additional analyses.

In recent years, competitive environment and the ownership structure of companies have changed to a certain degree, paving the way for the private sector to enter many areas of activity especially in emerging Asian markets. Moreover, investment drivers and investment efficiency in developed markets may not be generalized to emerging Asian markets. Therefore, the present findings can show the significance of this research to fill the existing gap in the literature and provide insights into ownership and regulatory structures as a governance mechanism in market competitiveness and investment efficiency.

This study aims to systematically review the literature in the fields of liquidity, informational efficiency and default risk. The authors outline the key research streams and provide possible pathways for future research.

The study adopts bibliographic mapping to identify the most influential studies in the research fields of liquidity, informational efficiency and default risk from 1984 to 2021.

The study identifies four key research themes that include efficiency and transparency of markets; corporate yield spreads; market interactions: bonds, stocks and cryptocurrencies; and corporate governance. By assessing publications published from 2018 to 2021, the authors also document seven key emerging research trends: cross markets, managerial learning and corporate governance, state ownership and government subsidies, international evidence, machine learning (FinTech approaches), environmental themes and financial crisis. Drawing on these emerging trends, the authors highlight the opportunities for future research.

Keyword searches have limitations since some studies might be overlooked if they do not match the specified search criteria, even though their relevance to the topic is under investigation. Adopt the R project to expand this review by incorporating more literature from other databases, such as the Scopus database could be a possible solution.

The four key research streams contribute to a comprehensive understanding of liquidity, informational efficiency and default risk. The emerging trends integrate existing knowledge and leave the chance for innovative research to expand the research frontier.

This study fulfills the systematic literature review streams in the fields of liquidity, informational efficiency and default risk, and provides fruitful opportunities for future research.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between stock liquidity, future investment, future investment efficiency and the moderating effect of financial constraints.

To serve the purpose of the study, the data of 178 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange in 2012–2017 were examined. In this research, two Amihud liquidity and stock trading turnover measures were taken for the liquidity. Due to variance heterogeneity, the FGLS test was used. Moreover, a modified multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the moderating role of financial constraints.

The results showed a significant positive relationship between the firm stock liquidity in the current year and the next year investment; the firm stock liquidity (based on the stock trading turnover) in the current year and the next two years’ investment; the firm stock liquidity (based on the trading turnover index) in the current year and the next year investment efficiency; and the firm stock liquidity (based on the stock trading turnover) in the current year and the next two years’ investment efficiency. Moreover, financial constraints negatively moderated the relationship of firm stock liquidity (based on trading turnover index) in the current year and investment in the next year; investment in the next two years; investment efficiency in the next year; and investment efficiency in the next two years.

Given the importance of investment and investment efficiency in emerging markets especially in Asian emerging markets, and because the predicted impacts through financing constraints are usually unclear, this paper attempted to fill the existing gap and be innovative in this regard.

This study’s goal was to identify how several markets have developed over time and what determinants have influenced this process, based on adaptive markets hypothesis (AMH). In this regard, the authors consider that agents are driven by the seeking for abnormal returns to stay “alive” and their environment could somehow modify their decision-making processes, as well as influence the degree of efficiency of the market.

The authors collected the daily closing-of-the-market index from 50 countries, between 1990 and 2022. The sample includes emerging countries, developed countries and frontier markets. Then, the authors ran multilevel modeling using Hurst exponent as an informational efficiency metric estimated by two different moving windows: 500 and 1,250 observations (approximately 2 and 5 years).

The results indicate that the efficiency of the markets is not constant over time. The authors also have identified that markets follow a cyclical pattern of efficiency/inefficiency, and they are currently in a period of convergence to efficiency, possibly explained by the increase in computational capacity and speed of the available information to agents. In addition, this study identified that country characteristics are associated with market efficiency, considering institutional factors.

Studies of this nature contribute to the literature, considering the importance of better comprehension of market efficiency dynamics and their determinants, specially observing other theories on the relationship between information and markets (like AMH), which work with other investor assumptions than those used by efficient market hypothesis.

Eco-innovation products, which means achieving more efficient and responsible use of resources and reducing the detrimental impact on the environment, can win a competitive advantage for the enterprises. But it is not easy to implement due to the high cost of eco-innovative technologies development, the uncertainty of market needs and return risk of investment. Many enterprises seek collaborations from their upstream suppliers to jointly carry out eco-innovation, such as Apple, IBM and Nike. A unique feature of collaboration is that efforts by one party enhance the marginal value of the other party's efforts. However, the collaboration will make the partner know the eco-innovation technology and prompt the partner to encroach the market to sell competitive products by herself. Motivated by this observation, this paper considers the optimal collaboration strategy on eco-innovation between upstream and downstream supply chain member and the optimal encroachment strategy of upstream supplier in a supply chain.

This paper models a supply chain wherein a supplier provides products or materials for her manufacturer and cooperates with her manufacturer in eco-innovation. Also, the supplier could encroach on the market to sell similar products by herself. Then this paper uses game theory and mathematical modeling to do relative analysis.

The analysis reveals several interesting insights. First, eco-innovation collaboration makes supplier encroachment no longer only rely on the encroachment cost. The delayed realized eco-innovation efficiency information also plays a vital role. Second, different from previous research, the authors find the manufacturer's preference for supplier encroachment depends on the uncertainty of eco-innovation efficiency and potential market demand. Third, both partial and full encroachment strategies of the supplier can effectively improve the eco-innovation level.

The paper is the first to take the interplay between collaboration and encroachment into account in a supply chain. The results caution enterprises and policymakers to take vertical collaboration and delayed realized information into account in the competitive supply chain before making any operational decisions. Furthermore, the authors propose that governmental intervention aimed at stimulating supplier encroachment in appropriate circumstances can contribute to the improved environmental performance of products.

This research paper aims to explore asymmetric market efficiency of the 13 Euro countries, i.e. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain, concerning the period before global financial crisis (GFC), after GFC and period of COVID-19 pandemic.

Multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) is applied to examine the persistence and anti-persistency. It also discusses the random walk behavior hypothesis of these 13 countries non-stationary time series. Additionally, generalized Hurst exponents are applied to estimate the relative efficiency between short- and long-run horizons and small and large fluctuations.

The current study results suggest that most countries' markets are multifractal and exhibit long-term persistence in the short and long run. Moreover, the results with respect to full sample confirm that Portugal is the most efficient country in short run and Austria is the least efficient country. However, in long run, Austria appeared to be highly efficient, and Slovakia is the least efficient. In the pre-GFC period, Greece is said to be the relatively most efficient market in the short run, whereas Austria is the most efficient market in the long run. In the case of Post-GFC, Netherland and Ireland are the most efficient markets in short and long run, respectively. Lastly, COVID-19 results indicate that Finland's stock market is the most efficient in short run. Whereas, in the long run, the high efficiency is illustrated by Germany. In contrast, the most affected stock market due to COVID-19 is Belgium.

This study will add value to the present knowledge on efficient market hypothesis (EMH) with the MF-DFA approach. Also, with the MF-DFA approach, potential investors will be capable of ranking the stock markets of Eurozone countries based on their efficiency in the period before and after GFC and then specifically in the period of COVID-19.

本研究旨在探討13個歐元區國家在環球金融危機前後, 以及2019新型冠狀病毒病肆虐時期之不對稱市場效率; 這13個國家包括: 奧地利、比利時、芬蘭、法國、德國、希臘、愛爾蘭、義大利、荷蘭、葡萄牙、斯洛伐克、斯洛維尼亞和西班牙。

研究人員使用多重分形去趨勢波動分析法、來探討持續性與反持續性。這分析法也用來討論正在研究中的13個國家的非平穩時間序列的隨機漫步假說; 而且, 廣義赫斯特指數被用來估算長期/短期投資與大/小波動之間的相對效率。

研究結果間接表明了大部份國家的市場都是多重分形的; 而且, 它們無論以短期抑或以長期來審視觀察, 均能展示持久性。再者, 就整體樣本而言, 研究結果確認了在短期來看, 葡萄牙是效率最高的國家, 而奧地利則效率最低。唯以長期來審視觀察, 奧地利則似乎效率很高, 而效率最低的則是斯洛伐克。在環球金融危機爆發前, 就短期而言, 希臘被認為是相對效率最高的市場, 而長期而言, 效率最高的則是奧地利。至於在環球金融危機爆發後, 就短期而言, 荷蘭是效率最高的市場, 而就長期而言, 效率最高的則是愛爾蘭。最後, 2019新型冠狀病毒病的結果顯示, 就短期而言, 荷蘭的股票市場是效率最高的, 而長期而言, 德國則展示了其高效率性。而受疫情影響最大的股票市場則是比利時。

研究採用了多重分形去趨勢波動分析法、來探討股票市場的效率, 並以此分析法來討論有關國家的非平穩時間序列的隨機漫步假說, 這使我們對效率市場假說有進一步的認識; 就此而言, 本研究為有關的探討增添價值; 而且, 有意投資者在使用多重分形去趨勢波動分析法下, 能夠基於歐元區國家的股票市場在環球金融危機前後, 以及更明確地在2019新型冠狀病毒病肆虐時期的效率, 來把這些股票市場分等級。

環球金融危機、2019新型冠狀病毒病、效率市場假說、多重分形去趨勢波動分析.

In China, engineering insurance has been questioned as not being beneficial as expected. This paper seeks to further understand how China's engineering insurance industry functions and to provide a macro perspective explanation for engineering insurance's underdevelopment.

Three industrial organization hypotheses were extended to the engineering insurance context: structure conduct performance (SCP), relative market power (RMP) and efficiency structure (ES) hypotheses. This paper employed the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) bootstrap to test the hypotheses using panel data from 2008 to 2017.

The results suggest that the SCP paradigm is validated in China's engineering insurance market, indicating a concentrated market where the welfare of consumers (e.g. owners, contractors and designers) may be eroded. Several factors are identified to have significant impacts on engineering insurers' performance, such as the investment return, percentage of engineering business, the ratio of outstanding claims, the number of large contractors, market rivalry and entry barriers.

Despite the sheer size of China's construction industry and the urgent need to improve risk management, the insurance industry that serves construction firms engineering insurance is underdeveloped. Engineering insurance is yet to be understood from a macro perspective, which may reveal the underlying reasons for engineering insurance's underdevelopment. The industrial organization theories provided a theoretical framework to test the functioning of this specific industry. The disaggregated data (engineering line specific) is employed to ensure effective regulation and policymaking.

The present study assesses the commercial bank profit efficiency and its relationship to banking sector competition in a rapidly growing emerging economy, India from 2009 to 2019 using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA).

Lerner indices, conventional and efficiency-adjusted, quantify competition. Two SFA models are employed to calculate alternative profit efficiency (inefficiency) scores: the two-step time-decay approach proposed by Battese and Coelli (1992) and the recently developed single-step pairwise difference estimator (PDE) by Belotti and Ilardi (2018). In the first step of the BC92 framework, profit inefficiency is calculated, and in the second step, Tobit and Fractional Regression Model (FRM) are utilized to evaluate profit inefficiency correlates. PDE concurrently solves the frontier and inefficiency equations using the maximum likelihood process.

The results suggest that foreign banks are less profit efficient than domestic equivalents, supporting the “home-field advantage” hypothesis in India. Further, increasing competition drives bank managers to make riskier lending and investment choices, decreasing bank profit efficiency. However, this effect varies depending on bank ownership and size.

Literature on the competition bank efficiency link is conspicuously scant, with a focus on technical and cost efficiency. Less is known regarding the influence of competition on bank profit efficiency. The article is one of the first to examine commercial bank profit efficiency and its relationship to banking sector competition. Additionally, the study work represents one of the first applications of the FRM presented by Papke and Wooldridge (1996) and the PDE provided by Belotti and Ilardi (2018).