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This paper tests whether employers responded particularly negatively to African American job applicants during the deep U.S. recession that began in 2007. Theories of labor queuing and social closure posit that members of privileged groups will act to minimize labor market competition in times of economic turbulence, which could advantage Whites relative to African Americans. Although social closure should be weakest in the less desirable, low-wage job market, it may extend downward during recessions, pushing minority groups further down the labor queue and exacerbating racial inequalities in hiring. We consider two complementary data sources: (1) a field experiment with a randomized block design and (2) the nationally representative NLSY97 sample. Contrary to expectations, both analyses reveal a comparable recession-based decline in job prospects for White and African American male applicants, implying that hiring managers did not adapt new forms of social closure and demonstrating the durability of inequality even in times of structural change. Despite this proportionate drop, however, the recession left African Americans in an extremely disadvantaged position. Whites during the recession obtained favorable responses from employers at rates similar to African Americans prior to the recession. The combination of experimental methods and nationally representative longitudinal data yields strong evidence on how race and recession affect job prospects in the low-wage labor market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine wealth dynamics through the Great Recession along a dimension previously not studied, religious affiliation. Specifically, this paper analyzes wealth differentials and relative wealth losses among religious groups at the mean and along the wealth distribution before and after the Great Recession.

Drawing on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and including a wide array of control variables, the paper analyzes the impact of religious affiliation groups on wealth pre- and post-Recession, using OLS, generalized least squares and quantile regression models.

The findings show that wealth differentials among religious groups exist both before and after the Recession and that wealth disparities are greater for people at the low end of the wealth distribution, who lost disproportionately more wealth across religious groups.

The results suggest that the Great Recession further increased wealth inequality yet along another dimension, religious affiliation. These findings imply that in order to decrease wealth inequality and minimize other harmful effects of adverse macroeconomic events, religious institutions may provide education on financial management strategies, especially to those at the low end of the wealth distribution.

This paper is the first of its kind to build upon two bodies of literature: the research on religion and wealth and the research on wealth losses and the Great Recession. It is also the first paper to explore the religion–wealth relationship after the Great Recession and along the wealth distribution.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on examining the first day returns of initial public offerings (IPOs) and the role of information on their performance. The study tries to optimize the returns of the new issues during 2005-2012 with risk as a constraint.

The initial returns are measured through the market-adjusted excess return and the risk associated with the new issue is measured through underwriters’ reputation. The returns have been optimized through a mixed integer linear problem using the Maple software.

The previous studies show that various informational variables affect the listing day returns significantly. The results of the present study indicate that the mean of initial returns for IPOs during 2005-2012 is 18.03 and the mean risk for these issues is 0.46. The findings also suggest that the optimal returns are obtained in the pre-recession era (2005-2008) and the value for the same is 50.02 percent.

The current study contributes in the investment decisions for global investors as every investor wants to maximize his/her returns. The optimal returns with risk as a constraint will help the investors in improving their investment decision as a prudent investor does not aim solely at maximizing the expected return of an investment but is also interested in optimizing with the minimization of risk.

This paper aims to gauge the quality of risk disclosure in 3,872 annual reports of Indian corporates, using a risk disclosure index (RDI) developed to capture both quality and quantity of risk disclosures.

Focussing on 69 risk items, the paper uses manual textual analysis and scores risk items using an ordinal scale, as opposed to the general practice of using a dichotomous scale.

The average risk index is low, but greater in the post-recession period than in the pre-recession period. Most disclosures are qualitative, both backward and forward-looking, and exhibit a negative tone. In addition, company age and industry sector have a significant impact on disclosure levels.

The choice and weighting of semantic qualities used to construct RDIs used in disclosure studies are inherently subjective. This exploratory study uses univariate analysis and does not explore the reasons for poor disclosure.

In addition to its usefulness for investors and companies’ management, the findings of non-compliance with certain mandatory provisions and a low average RDI is particularly relevant for policymakers and regulatory bodies.

Development of a summary measure/RDI that is novel in its differential weighting of the semantic qualities pertaining to quantification, time-orientation and tone. Further, it serves as an exploratory study about risk disclosure practices in the Indian context that reveals notable differences from findings of previous risk disclosure research. Moreover, the study examines the relationship between firms’ age and risk disclosure levels, a largely ignored aspect in disclosure research.

Health risks associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have severely affected the financial stability of airline companies globally. Recapturing financial stability following this crisis depends heavily on these companies’ ability to attain efficient and productive operations. This study uses several empirical approaches to examine key factors contributing to carriers sustaining high productivity prior to, during and after a major recession. Findings suggest, regardless of economic conditions, that social distancing which requires airline companies in the Asia Pacific region to fly with a significant percentage of unfilled seats weakens the performance of those companies. Furthermore, efficient operations do not guarantee the avoidance of productivity declines, especially during a recession.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the changing nature of commercial leases with specific reference to the landlord and tenant relationship, lease lengths and incentivisation in the post-recessionary UK property market.

The research applies data analysis utilising the Estates Gazette Interactive database coupled with survey analysis conducted across three UK cities to investigate and compare the changing nature of the commercial property leasing market and the landlord and tenant relationship.

The empirical analysis highlights that recessionary conditions prevalent in the market from the 2007 global crisis has caused a reassessment of lease structures, leading to shorter lease terms and increased use of incentives, as tenants have been empowered to negotiate more flexible leases due to their stronger market position.

This paper builds upon previous research conducted back in 2005, investigating commercial leases in the market up-cycle. The recent volatility in the commercial property sector requires fresh insights and in-depth analysis of lease patterns, length and covenant strength, which is fundamental for investor decision-making. In addition, past research has tended to consider solely landlord or occupier perspectives, whereas this research offers new insight into the landlord–tenant lease negotiation process.

This is a comparative study of the nature of operating decisions made by agricultural and non-agricultural banks, affecting their actual growth plans in the years around and during the Great Recession of 2008. The main empirical question is whether banks under greater economic stress shortly before, during, and immediately after the recession made deliberate adjustments in their growth decisions vis-à-vis predetermined sustainable levels.

Higgins' sustainable growth challenge is employed to evaluate banks' growth decisions involving four growth levers (profitability, earnings retention, asset management, and financial leverage). Actual growth trends are related to business growth rates deemed sustainable given available financial capability as prescribed by Higgins' model.

Both banking groups made cautious growth decisions during the sample period. Actual growth rates were below sustainable levels. Agricultural banks registered steadily increasing sustainable growth rates from the pre-recession years until the recovery period, while non-agricultural banks were more constrained to grow given their declining sustainable growth levels. Notably, agricultural banks showed relatively more aggressiveness in raising slightly actual revenue growth to levels much closer to sustainable levels. This could have resulted from their less volatile profit margin trends and usual pressure to maintain acceptable liquidity conditions in order to gain access to external funds.

This study presents an additional application of Higgins' model to agricultural finance. The comparative analysis of banking groups becomes even more relevant these days as recent economic discussions focus on indicators of an imminent recessionary period.