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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.

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.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a relationship between women’s presence on boards of directors and companies’ financial performance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and, if so, whether this relationship is positive, negative or neutral.

The research sample included 47 companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2020. Panel regression analysis was used to examine the study’s hypothesis and achieve the study’s objectives.

The presence of women on the board of directors positively affects a company’s financial performance and disclosure of CSR. However, measuring the CSR disclosure sub-components separately shows a decrease in the disclosure index towards both the environment and employees. Moreover, the level of female representation on the boards of directors of the Palestinian companies studied is generally low.

Concerning the study limitations, the sample, which comprised all companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2020, was small. Concerning the implications of the study results, it is recommended that all companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange incorporate women on their boards of directors and in their executive management and audit committees.

The presence of women on Palestinian companies’ boards of directors enhances decision-making policy because of the differences between the genders as well as women’s capacity and unique skills.

This research contributes to the literature on women’s representation on the boards of directors of the Palestinian companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange with the possibility of issuing mandatory instructions for their existence. This study also attempts to provide a better understanding of the financial performance and disclosure of CSR of companies with women on these boards and helps determine whether the relationships between these variables are positive, negative or neutral. Furthermore, this study attempts to determine the extent of these companies’ commitment to the indicators of CSR disclosure.

This paper aims to investigate the relevance of two groups of valuations models as follows: the accounting models based on the residual income (RIM) and the standard market model, on equity price, return and volatility relevance.

The models are tested on companies traded on Palestine exchange from 2009 to 2018, using panel regression analysis. Two-price and two-return models derived from RIM to compare with the market model and four volatility models.

The standard RIM outperformed other models in equity price modeling. The dividend discount model (DDM) outperformed the rest of the models in terms of return estimation. However, the authors find that the market model can explain equity variance better than RIM and DDM models.

For investors, market beta does not necessarily capture all relevant factors of value and traditional financial statements are still important in providing relevant information and different models are used for different values perspectives (price, return and volatility).

Previous studies focus on comparing the price and return relevance of accounting-based models (RIM and cash flow models). Three aspects differentiate this paper and contribute to its originality, namely, the uniqueness of the context, incorporating the market model into the picture along with the accounting-based models and adding Volatility dimensions of relevance.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of governance mechanisms on corporate failure.

This study used a hypothesis-testing research design to collect data from the annual reports of 35 companies listed on Palestine Exchange from 2010 to 2019. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed, along with correlation analysis to evaluate linear relationships between variables. The variance inflation factor was used to test multicollinearity, and binary logistic regression was utilized to develop the research model.

There is a significant positive relationship between board of directors' independency, institutional ownership and the quality of external audit, and corporate failure reduction. No significant relationship has been found among corporate governance variables such as board size, board meetings' frequency, board members' remuneration and audit committee existence, and corporate failure reduction.

Several empirical research studies have developed models to predict corporate failure using accounting and financial data. However, limited research has empirically investigated the impact of the different mechanisms of governance on corporate failure prediction.

The research highlighted the significance of companies' commitment to governance principles and their impact on predicting failure. The study suggests that decision-makers and managers can adopt different governance mechanisms to support corporate success and avoid those that may lead to negative consequences and failure.

This research is the first in Palestine to use a comprehensive list of corporate governance mechanisms to predict the failure of companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange between 2010 and 2019.

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 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.

The purpose of this paper is to employ agency theory to identify the determinants of the audit delay among Palestinian companies listed on Palestine Stock Exchange (PSE).

Drawing on the agency theory, eight hypotheses are tested using data collected from the year 2011 annual reports for all the 46 listed companies on PSE. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the influence of a set of company characteristics, ownership structure variables, and corporate governance mechanisms.

The result of the analysis demonstrated that the audit reporting delay is influenced by the board size, corporate size, status of audit firm, company complexity, existence of audit committee, and ownership dispersion.

The main shortcoming of the current study is that the analysis covered the Palestinian companies’ annual reports for only one year. A time series analysis might give fuller and understandable picture about the audit report lag (ARL) determinants. The outcome of the study can be used by companies’ managements and policy makers in Palestine to improve future disclosure.

This paper adds to the limited audit delay literature in Middle East countries in general and Arab World in particular. This paper not only examines the determinants of the audit delay but also attempts to theorize such delay.

This study aims to examine how the salient board gender diversity among board directors affects firm performance both directly and indirectly, through the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in listed firms on the Palestine Stock Exchange over the period 2010–2017.

Based on panel data of 384 observations from all firms listed on the Palestine Security Exchange during the period from 2010 to 2017, this study uses panel data regression to examine the effect of the predictors on firm performance. In addition, to mitigate the endogeneity issue, the analysis was repeated by using one-step generalized method of moments.

The results show that board gender diversity has a positive and insignificant influence on firm performance. However, under the moderating effect of CSR, the finding turns from positive insignificant to positive significant.

The study is timely given that gender diversity plays pivotal roles in determining the performance in terms of monitoring and controlling and further willing to engage in social responsibility. The prior research in Palestine has never investigated the effect of board gender diversity. As such, Palestine has not established a legal quota of minimum female representation on boards, and because of it, the country has weak women’s representation among firms. It, therefore, becomes a necessity to examine the influence of board gender diversity on the financial performance of listed firms in Palestine. Besides, the mixed result in previous literature on the board gender diversity and firm performance indicates that there is an indirect effect that needs alternative explanations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between capital structure and debt lifetime among listed companies in Palestine stock market.

This study investigates firms that have been listed on the Palestine securities exchange (PSE) over a five‐year period (2000‐2004). In total, 28 companies were listed in PSE since 1999. Only 15 firms working in different economic sectors qualified to be included in the study sample according to the availability and continuity of published financial statements during the period of 2000‐2004. Variables used for the analysis include profitability, leverage ratios (total debt (TD), short‐term debt (STD) and long‐term debt (LTD)), liquidity (LQ), age, asset structure, and firm size and sales growth are also included as control variables. The panel character of the data allows for the use of panel data methodology. Panel data involves the pooling of observations on a cross‐section of units over several times.

The study has shown that the service companies have the highest TD ratio (53.69 percent), followed by industrial companies (50.86 percent), trade companies (34.11 percent) and agriculture companies (24.02 percent). The one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows no significant difference in the use of debt, neither total, LTD or STD among companies in the four sectors. Adding to that, ANOVA indicates insignificant differences among the companies in the sample with respect growth opportunities, size, age, tangibility (TAN), and LQ. The correlation analysis has shown that TD is positively and significantly related to TAN, on the country, no significant relationship between the long debt and STD on the one hand and age, growth, LQ, TAN, and size on the other hand.

This paper is the first that employs a new database containing the market and accounting data (from 2000 to 2004). This study will contribute in examining the relationship between capital structure and debt lifetime among listed companies in the Palestine stock market.