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This study aims to analyze the effect of the board of directors on financial performance, either directly or indirectly, through the existence of risk management after the issuance of the Palestinian Code on Corporate Governance in Palestine.

This study uses a panel data of 31 Palestinian listed companies from 2010 to 2016. It also uses structural equation modeling (SEM) model.

The results of the SEM model show a significant positive relationship of the existence of risk management and the tenure-chief executive officer (CEO) with financial performance. However, CEO duality has a significant negative relationship with financial performance. The results also show a significant positive relationship of CEO duality and board size with financial performance through the existence of risk management.

This study adds to the existing literature by analyzing the effect of the board of directors on financial performance, either directly or indirectly, through the existence of risk management in Palestine, one of the youngest stock exchanges in the region, which assists in testing the validity of agency theory in a young and small emerging Islamic market context.

The results of this paper are significant for shareholders and managers of companies to make proper choices to secure the interests of stakeholders and increase the flow of capital and foreign investment.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is one of the first papers to investigate the effect of the board of directors on financial performance, either directly or indirectly, through the existence of risk management in Palestine.

This study aims to investigate the effect of the board of directors on financial performance, either directly or indirectly through the existence of risk management after the issuance of the Palestinian Code on Corporate Governance (PCCG) in Palestine.

This study presents an empirical investigation of 31 nonfinancial Palestinian-listed companies from 2010 to 2016. This study utilizes the structural equation modeling (SEM) model.

The results of the SEM model find that there is a significant positive effect of the existence of risk management and the tenure-Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on financial performance. However, CEO duality has a significant negative effect on financial performance. The results also find that the effect of CEO duality and board size are significantly positive on financial performance through the existence of risk management.

This study adds to the existing literature by investigating the effect of the board of directors on financial performance, either directly or indirectly through the existence of risk management in Palestine as one of the youngest stock exchanges in the region that assists in testing the validity of agency theory in a young and small emerging Islamic market context.

The results of this paper are significant to shareholders and managers of companies to make proper choices in order to secure the interests of stakeholders and increase the flow of capital and foreign investment.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is one of the first papers to investigate the effect of the board of directors and financial performance, either directly or indirectly through the existence of risk management in Palestine.

Higher degree of and commitment to voluntary disclosure (VD) and corporate governance (CG) helps contain information asymmetry, leading to lower cost of equity (Ke). This study provides evidence on the nexus among VD, CG, and Ke from a context characterized by extreme political instability.

This study uses all non-bank companies listed with the Palestine Exchange during 2009–2018. The level of VD was estimated by using a checklist of 35 items modified for the context of Palestine. A second checklist with 19 items was used to measure the commitment of the Palestinian companies with CG requirements. Five proxies for Ke were tested: three ex-ante Capital Asset Pricing Model-like proxies and two ex-post realized return proxies.

The findings state that the VD negatively impacted Ke. Interaction effect of CG and VD helps reduce the Ke. As such, for firms with better CG, the increase in VD decreases the Ke more than their standalone effect. For control variables, leverage, size and growth of firms exhibited positive impacts on Ke, whereas quality of auditors found a negative connection.

Managers in similar context, like Palestine, may prefer flexibility of smaller size and adopt conservative growth strategies to cope with adverse events. Firms adopt CG and VD as complementary forces to tackle instability and market expectation.

Studies connecting VD-CG-Ke nexus from similar context are rare. Results of this study forward that emphasis on disclosure and governance practices will help boost the confidence of the investors, reduce the Ke and create an incentive for more investment.

This study aims to adopt the Altman model in order to predict the performance of industrial companies listed on the Palestinian Stock Exchange during the period of time between 2013 and 2017.

The study sample consisted of 12 industrial companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange, and their financial disclosure period extended for 5 years. Multiple linear regression model was used in the analysis to determine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable where the independent variables were (X₁, X₂, X₃). This study is based on one basic assumption, which is that the Altman's model cannot predict the performance of the Palestinian industrial sector.

The results of the analysis proved the negation of the zero main hypothesis. This means that Altman's model can predict the performance of the Palestinian industrial sector at the level of statistical significance (a = 0.05), as well as the existence of a statistically significant relationship between each of the independent variables (X₂, X₄, X₅) and the dependent variable (Log (Z-score)). Hence, the relationship of X₁ and X₃ with the dependent variable was not statistically significant.

This paper highlights different challenges that face the adaption of Atman's model and performance prediction in the Palestinian industrial sector. The findings of the analysis have the potential to help future researchers in examining and dealing with new challenges.

This paper presents a vital review of adopting Altman's model in the Palestinian industrial sector. A number of recommendations have been made, the most important of which is that most of the companies are located in the red zone. The Altman's model must be adapted in order to fit the Palestinian environment according to the results of statistical analysis and according to a proposed model, which is Log (Z) = −0.653 + 0.72X₂ + 0.18X₄ + 0.585X₅.

This study aims to explore the use, effectiveness, motives and obstacles of analytical procedures (APs) used by auditors in Palestine, a context characterised by a pool of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a limited skill set, poor quality of data, political uncertainty and a community-based business culture.

The study considers the audit market in Palestine using a sequential mixed-methods approach combining a questionnaire survey and a series of in-depth interviews. A total of 129 Big-4 and non-Big-4 auditors were surveyed.

The use of APs is driven by the auditor size (Big-4 vs non-Big-4) and the client size (large vs SMEs). Even though the use of APs has increased over the past decade, audit objectives, know-how, and personal, family and social connections among auditors and clients influence the quality of the audit process.

Small firms take advantage of the lack of audit governance in Palestine. Our findings suggest that the regulators should help bridge the knowledge-sharing programmes between the small and large audit firms to help improve audit quality.

Studies on audit quality, particularly using APs, in the context of politically unstable cases such as Palestine are limited. The study has implications for the use of APs in the case of SMEs to prepare for the technological revolution that will modernise audit procedures and quality soon.

This paper aims to investigate whether the sustainability disclosure with the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects has an impact on the financial performance represented by Tobin’s Q, return on assets (ROA) and return on equity indices in the Levant countries for the period 2012–2019, which was a period of turmoil and political repercussions that affected the countries of the region.

Using the content analysis technique, the data was collected from 124 nonfinancial companies from Levant countries (Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon), and 883 observations were collected as panel data for the research analysis.

The findings indicate that the environmental, social and ESG collective performance maximizes financial performance, while the governance performance influences ROA only. This suggests that companies pay great attention to various stakeholders, mainly external. Maximizing stakeholder value remains an optimal strategy to achieve the company’s financial goals. Thus, improving the disclosure levels of nonfinancial performance in the capital markets will improve the chances of growth of the financial performance indicators of companies.

The study provided insights about the ESG role and its impact on the financial performance of companies in a less explored context by previous literature, namely, the Levant.

The present research aims at identifying the latent factors that are driving the rise of the shadow economy in Palestine, assesses its magnitude from 1998 to 2021 and investigates the influence that its size has on the financial sustainability of Palestine's public budget.

The researchers employed the multi-indicator multi-causes (MIMIC) model to estimate the size of the shadow economy and investigate its effect on the financial sustainability of the public budget. Economic factors such as direct taxes, indirect taxes, government welfare, government spending and unemployment were considered causal variables, while indicators of financial sustainability included budget deficit, public debt and gross domestic product (GDP). The shadow economy served as an intermediary variable.

Based on the findings, the researchers recommend regulating and formalizing legitimate activities within the shadow economy. Additionally, they suggest promoting investment projects to reduce unemployment rates, lowering taxes on essential goods and consumer items and providing support to local producers in Palestine. These measures aim at addressing the challenges posed by the shadow economy and fostering economic stability.

The study reveals that the average size of the shadow economy in Palestine between 1998 and 2021 was 43.80%, fluctuating within the range of 39.92%–46.30%. It further establishes that an increase in direct and indirect taxes as well as unemployment contributes to the expansion of the shadow economy. Conversely, government welfare and spending exert a diminishing effect. Moreover, the study finds that the rise of the shadow economy correlates with an increase in public debt, budget deficit and GDP, indicating a negative impact on the financial sustainability of the public budget.

This paper uses test panel data for the biggest companies listed on the boards of directors of the Palestine Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2022 and will focus on the relationship between the corporate governance index, accounting conservatism, and the comprehensive index of corporate governance.

The relationship between corporate governance and accounting conservatism is experimentally investigated for its impact on the likelihood of stock price breakdown and decline among companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange between 2016 and 2022, using a mixed utilities approach.

The findings demonstrated the adverse correlation between corporate governance, accounting conservatism, and stock prices. Higher levels of corporate governance can effectively reduce the likelihood of future stock price increases, while conservative accounting policies can effectively prevent stock price collapses in these listed companies. Higher levels of corporate governance can greatly lessen the detrimental effect of accounting conservatism on the likelihood of future stock price breakdowns and declines. Both accounting conservatism and corporate governance have substitution effects in decreasing the danger of stock price collapse.

The limitations of the current research are that higher levels of corporate governance can significantly reduce the harmful effect of accounting conservatism on the probability of stock price breakdown and decline in the future on the study sample used, and these results cannot be generalized to all company stocks that were excluded in this study. The last research limitation is that the sample size of this study is somewhat small, and therefore the effects of the results cannot be used on all unlisted companies, and they cannot be generalized to all of these companies except only to companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange.

Our findings have interesting managerial and policy implications. Listed firms should first strengthen external audit oversight, improve the method of disclosing accounting information, and improve the system architecture to raise the level of accounting conservatism. Moreover, it is imperative to enhance and improve the ownership structure of publicly traded firms, construct a robust mechanism for replacing shareholders, fortify the duties of the board of directors, proficiently fulfil the role of independent directors, and develop and refine the internal and external framework for corporate governance.

This study provides insights about reducing the probability of a stock market breakdown and collapse from two sides: enhancing corporate governance, improving accounting conservatism, enhancing the reliability and integrity of disclosure, and growing the number of sustainable disclosures. These suggestions can also be used as a template for Palestine's capital market's gradual and sustainable expansion.

This paper aims to investigate the determinants that contribute to the financial stability and banking sector of Palestinian banks listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange (PEX) by using yearly data for the years 2012–2022.

Pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and two-stage least squares (2SLS) were used to identify the variables and factors affecting the financial stability and banking sector of Palestinian banks. The study’s data were collected from the banks listed on PEX and from the yearly reports posted on the Palestine Monetary Authority’s (PMA) webpage over the years from 2012–2022. According to this research’s analysis, SMEs loans and capital sufficiency have a statistically significant positive impact on the stability of Palestinian banks. Unobserved heterogeneity, simultaneity and dynamic endogeneity are taken into account when using the 2SLS regression approach to adjust for the study endogeneity factor.

The study’s findings show that some factors and determinants might have both good and negative effects on financial stability and banking sector. Loans to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and enough capital are two characteristics that statistically have a major favourable impact on the stability of Palestinian banks since they help the banks withstand deficits. A further potential discovery relates to the favourable effects of financial inclusion (FI) and digital financial services (DFS) on the stability of banks.

This research has faced some limitations, such as the lack of a defined index from the regulatory organizations, this research is based on information from bank annual accounts. It has mostly relied on self-developed or World Bank indexes. Furthermore, the research solely used information from the supply side (banks); demand-side data were not taken into consideration.

This paper has managerial implications for stability of banking sector. The Palestine Monetary Authority, as the central bank, must increase the percentage of bank loans directed to small and medium-sized companies and oblige bank management to adhere to adequate capital standards, which contributes to strengthening the Palestinian banking sector and increasing its profits. The study findings advise banks that are enjoying financial stability to speed up the pace of FI and DFSs because most of these reliable banks have relatively low FI ratios. PMA is responsible for preserving the stability of the financial system. PMA, decision makers and banks management must retain adequate liquidity in their institutions and raise client collateral expectations to raise credit conditions.

This paper adds some contributions to the literature. To adjust for discrepancies between various types of banks, the authors concentrate on conventional and Islamic banks, which enables us to use a homogenous data set as opposed to depending on dichotomous variables. The authors used Z-scores, which have recently been used in research, to measure stability and FI at the level of specific institutions. This research contributes in some key aspects that no prior research has addressed. Conventional banks are different from Islamic banks, and a number of issues might impact their stability. To evaluate the connection between FI and DFSs, it is important to consider the actions of bank regulators.

This study aims to explore and verify the influence of the corona pandemic on the stock returns of the Palestinian companies listed on the Palestine Exchange during the period 2020–2021.

The research makes use of secondary financial data from 52 companies in the industrial, investment, services, banking and insurance sectors. Many financial ratios are calculated to assess stock returns: current ratio, cash ratio and average collection time as liquidity measures; debt-to-equity ratio as an indication of leverage or solvency; and net profit margin as an indicator of profitability. The research examines ratios between the (2020 and 2021) precorona outbreak using the Wilcoxon signed rank test and financial ratio analysis during the corona pandemic.

The findings show that liquidity in the investment, banking, insurance and industrial sectors has decreased significantly, whereas liquidity in the service sector has improved. The statistics reveal a considerable growth in debt in the service sector, while it stays unchanged in the other sectors. However, there is no discernible change in profitability during and after the corona outbreak.

The present research faced many limitations, such as the approach to gathering primary data, which depended heavily on disclosures, financial reports and secondary data, as well as only analyzing one context and one country.

The findings of this study can guide the Palestinian government and decision-makers to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and must act quickly because strong short-term policies are more functional than long-term policy measures. In addition, the temporal discrepancy between their policy actions and financial regulations regarding the stage of the outbreak, integrating monetary treatment methods, strengthening their control over exchange rate fluctuations and extending the duration of financial participation measures that ensure stable exchange rates, such as attempting to restrict trade of the monetary system between countries was assessed to reduce the important monetary stimulation policy.

This study presents important facts and results for regulators and decision-makers regarding the investment, industry, banking, insurance and services sectors as sectors that are most affected by the corona pandemic as a sample for this study from the Palestinian companies listed in Palestine Stock Exchange due to the corona pandemic.