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The purpose of this research is to systematically scrutinize the influence of macroeconomic determinants on trade openness, through the lens of various trade theories, with a particular focus on the economies of the GIPSI countries – Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

This study investigates the macroeconomic factors influencing trade openness in the GIPSI economies from 1995 to 2020. Methods include stepwise regression (SR) for model selection, Pedroni panel cointegration test and panel regression results. The analysis uses advanced panel regressions, including FMOLS, Panel OLS and FEM. The long-term dynamics were tested using Pedroni cointegration, while Granger causality testing was used to examine the causal direction between the trade openness ratio and trade determinant.

The results show both long-term and short-term relationships between trade openness and (1) foreign direct investment, (2) labor force participation rate, (3) trade reserves and (4) trade balance. The researchers also detected unidirectional and bidirectional causality relationships between trade openness and these four factors. The study also revealed that trade reserves (TR) emerge as the most influential determinant of trade openness, and per capita income does not exhibit economic significance concerning the trade openness of GIPSI economies.

This research is conducted within the context of the GIPSI nations (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy). As such, the outcomes may not be universally applicable to other economic systems due to the distinct institutional settings and governance structures across different economic groups. Future investigations may explore the relationship between trade openness and its determinants by incorporating different variables.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study investigating the theory that suggested trade drivers drive the trade openness of GIPSI countries context. By focusing on GIPSI countries, the study offers a unique perspective on the dynamics of trade openness in economies that have experienced financial crises and stringent austerity measures.

The nexus of commodity prices with inflation is one of the main concerns for a nation's economy like India. The literature does not have enough volatility-based study, especially using the multivariate GRACH family of models to find a link between these two. It is the main reason for the conduct of this study. This paper aims to estimate the volatility effects of commodity prices on inflation.

For ten years (2011–2022), future prices of selected seven agriculture commodities and inflation indices (wholesale price index [WPI] and consumer price index [CPI]) are gathered every month. BEKK GARCH model (BGM) and DCC GARCH model (DGM) are employed to determine the volatility effect of commodity prices (CPs) on inflation.

The authors find that volatility's short-term (shock) impact on agricultural CPs to inflation does not exist. However, the long-term volatility spillover effect (VSE) is significant from commodities to inflation.

The study's findings have a significant implication for the policymakers to take a long-term view on inflation management regarding commodity prices. The findings can facilitate policy on the choice of commodities and the flexibility of their trading on the commodities derivatives market.

The findings of the study are unique. The authors do not observe any study on the volatility effect of agri-commodities (agricultural commodities) prices on inflation in India. This paper applies advanced techniques to provide novel and reliable evidence. Hence, this research is believed to contribute significantly to the knowledge body through its novel evidence and advanced approach.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between audit committee expertise and asymmetric information in the US equity market.

The authors use measures of information asymmetry for 705 US firms (5,260 firm-year observations) over the period from 2007 to 2018, and use the theory of expertise (Ericsson and Smith, 1991) to examine the association between audit committee financial expertise and information asymmetry. The authors use multiple econometric approaches such as firm fixed-effect regression and two-stage ordinary least squares regression to control for possible endogeneity and reverse causality and find that the results remain the same.

The authors find that the existence of an audit committee with financial expertise is negatively and significantly associated with information asymmetry. The authors further provide empirical evidence through which audit committee financial expertise affects the firm’s informational environment. Additional analysis supports the argument that the audit committee’s financial expertise enhances the firm’s informational environment by increasing (decreasing) analyst following (dispersion).

One limitation to consider, like most studies on audit committees, is that the authors do not examine the actual role performed by the audit committee. The authors focus on the characteristics stipulated by the Sarbanes–Oxley Act 2002 and stock exchange rules regarding the financial expertise of audit committee members only.

This study is useful to policy makers, standard setters, investors, activists, managers, lenders and various stakeholders who rely on the financial statements of firms with an expert audit committee on board. The outcome of this study promotes recruiting audit committees with financial expertise due to the assumed benefits of this trait to the US firm.

The results of this study are not event-dependent and therefore have persistent effects, which is important to the evaluation of the usefulness of a regulation. This study promotes recruiting audit committees with financial expertise on boards because of the assumed benefits to the firm and investors.

This study is the first to document that financial expertise of audit committee characteristics is not only negatively related to the magnitude of information asymmetry but also driven by the financial expertise of audit committee members rather than chairs.

The reality with many developing countries is that the countries have failed to create enough jobs for the poor and vulnerable. Under such circumstances, vulnerable employment plays a critical role in providing earning opportunities to people who are unemployed and determining the economic and social progress of such economies. The study aims to examine the possible non-linear relationship between vulnerable employment and growth in light of this background.

The study employed five-yearly averaged data of 73 developing countries for the period 2000–2019. The empirical analysis is performed using the dynamic panel data analysis and the two-step system generalised method of moments (GMM) approach. The estimations are run separately for male, female and total vulnerable employment. The threshold levels are obtained using Sasabuchi (1980) and Lind and Mehlum (2010) (SLM) test. Several sensitivity checks are performed to validate the results.

The findings of the study suggest a non-linear U-shaped relationship between vulnerable employment and growth. Thus, a positive association between vulnerable employment and growth is witnessed at higher levels of vulnerable employment. At lower levels, the relationship is negative. Threshold levels for male, female and total vulnerable employment are 46.80%, 49.29 and 50.94%, respectively. Therefore, vulnerable employment beyond the threshold levels is found to be positively associated with growth.

Countries below the threshold level of vulnerable employment should understand why these workers are not able to contribute to the growth despite working so hard. If any socio-economic barriers hinder their contribution towards growth, such barriers require greater policy attention. Countries with vulnerable employment levels above the threshold level should recognise the contributions of these workers towards the growth and actively support them in increasing their economic contribution. In either case, given the precarious circumstances under which these workers work and the pittance earnings, policy interventions aimed at ensuring decent working conditions and better earnings for these workers are encouraged.

The current study is the first one to examine the relationship between vulnerable employment and growth to the best of the author's knowledge. As such, it makes novel contributions to the literature on development policy.

This study aims to examine the association between non-audit fees and audit quality by using the context of gender-diverse audit committees. Further, the authors assess whether this link is moderated by industry-specialist auditors.

This study used non-financial FTSE-350 firms over the period of seven years. In addition, the authors use ordinary least squares regression to test the research hypotheses.

The authors find that female directors on audit committees are negatively related to non-audit fees, suggesting that non-audit fees reduce audit quality. Moreover, the results indicate that industry-specialist auditors positively moderate the link between gender-diverse audit committees and non-audit fees. This suggests that non-audit fees improve audit quality when the auditor is an industry-specialist.

The study does not support blanket restrictions on non-audit fees. It recommends regulators to consider industry expertise of auditors when devising non-audit fee restrictions. Moreover, the findings of this study have implications for firms aiming to understand whether non-audit fees could be used for enhancing audit quality.

By using the context of female directors on audit committees, the authors conclusively assess the link between non-audit fees and audit quality. Further, this study provides a more robust evidence on whether industry-specialist auditors affect the relationship between non-audit fees and audit quality.

This study aims to assess if the voluntary reporting of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a widely used non-generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) measure, has effects on information asymmetry and value relevance and how the adjustments to GAAP earnings made to derive it contribute to these effects. This study focuses on firms from two countries with contrasting institutional settings, Canada and France.

Relying on multivariate analyses and using Heckman’s procedure to address the sample self-selection issue, this study first estimates the likelihood of a firm to report adjusted EBITDA. Then, this study examines if adjusted EBITDA, as well as the adjustments made to GAAP earnings to derive adjusted EBITDA (adjustments), affect a firm’s information asymmetry and its value. These adjustments are essentially GAAP-grounded items that are discarded by management to derive non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA. The dependent variables are share price volatility, as a proxy for information asymmetry, alongside market-to-book and stock market return as indicators of value.

In terms of the used sample, results suggest that Canadian firms are much more likely to report adjusted EBITDA than French firms. Chief executive officer (CEO) attributes (CEO power) appears to increase such likelihood. Moreover, for both Canadian and French firms, adjusted EBITDA is associated with reduced stock market volatility, an indication of lower information asymmetry, as well as higher market-to-book and returns, suggesting value relevance. The results also indicate that investors view the adjustments to GAAP earnings made by management to derive adjusted EBITDA as not value relevant (similar to noise). The GAAP-grounded elements that management discard to derive adjusted EBITDA actually increase information asymmetry.

This study adds to prior research on the interface between a CEO attributes and governance and non-GAAP reporting. This study also provides evidence that, despite very different institutional settings, non-GAAP reporting conveys relevant information to capital markets’ participants in both France and Canada. Hence, a country’s institutional setting may have a differential impact on the disclosure choice but not on the resulting value relevance of such disclosure. Finally, this study extends the non-GAAP literature by examining the value relevance of a widely used yet under-researched measure, adjusted EBITDA.

This study aims to test the link between enterprise digital transformation and technological innovation and the mechanisms and channels behind this link.

This study systematically examines whether and how enterprise digital transformation affects technological innovation in China.

Enterprise digital transformation effectively improves technological innovation. This result remains stable in robustness and endogeneity checks. The channel mechanisms of this promoting effect are internal (improvement of internal control quality and alleviation of agency costs) and external (increased attention of analysts and reduction of customer concentration). Moreover, this promoting effect is more significant for state-owned enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, enterprises in areas with low marketization and enterprises that do not enjoy digital subsidies from the government.

Enterprises need to attend to the mechanisms behind the link between digital transformation and technological innovation and to the unique effects of different enterprise attributes and capital markets, such as size, the ownership nature, the degree of regional marketization and government subsidies. Doing so will effectively promote digital transformation and technological innovation and strengthen core competitiveness.

This study provides systemic evidence of the link between enterprise digital transformation and technological innovation. The findings enrich the research literature on enterprise digitization and the factors of influencing enterprises’ technological innovation and provide a reasonable explanation for how enterprise digital transformation affects technological innovation.

This study aims to examine whether the newly available auditor tenure information is associated with non-GAAP earnings, as the recent requirement to disclose the initial year of auditor-client relationship in audit reports may give the impression that longer auditor tenure may be related to lower audit quality.

Using a sample of firm-quarters from 2017 to 2020, the authors conduct both univariate and regression analyses. We use hand-collected data for auditor tenure, SEC comment letters, and non-GAAP variables.

First, the authors find that the likelihood of disclosing non-GAAP earnings monotonically increases with auditor tenure on a univariate basis. Second, auditor tenure is negatively associated with aggressive non-GAAP reporting. Third, the authors document evidence of aggressive reporting in general; that is, items excluded in calculating non-GAAP earnings are associated with future performance. However, the association declines with longer auditor tenure. Finally, the authors report evidence that the likelihood of receiving an SEC comment letter that contains non-GAAP comments decreases with longer auditor tenure.

The results show that regulators need to consider both GAAP and non-GAAP disclosures’ costs and benefits when enacting auditor tenure regulation. Investors can benefit from the findings in evaluating the quality of non-GAAP earnings. The findings are also relevant to the SEC when allocating limited resources in monitoring non-GAAP reporting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study showing that auditor tenure is associated with the quality of non-GAAP earnings. Given that financial reporting quality should be understood as a comprehensive system comprising both mandatory and voluntary disclosures, this study complements the literature that examines the effect of auditor tenure on financial reporting quality using GAAP reporting.

This paper examines the reaction of the Egyptian stock market to two substantial devaluations of the Egyptian pound (EGP) in 2022 and tests the informational efficiency of the Egyptian market.

The paper uses the event study framework to analyze the significance and direction of abnormal returns of the leading index of the Egyptian stock market (EGX30) on and around the devaluation days. It employs both the constant mean model and the market model to estimate the normal returns of the EGX30. Additionally, the paper uses data on two equity indices, one global and one for emerging markets, as benchmarks for normal returns.

The paper finds that the Egyptian stock market experienced significant positive abnormal returns on the devaluation days of the EGP in March and October of 2022, indicating a positive market reaction to the devaluation. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the Egyptian market may not be informationally efficient as significant positive abnormal returns were observed two weeks before and two weeks after the devaluation day, suggesting news leaks and delayed reactions, respectively.

This study is the first to examine the impact of the recent two devaluations of the EGP in 2022 on the Egyptian stock market. It complements existing literature by analyzing the immediate market reaction to two consecutive devaluations in an African country. Furthermore, the paper evaluates the efficiency of the Egyptian market in processing information related to exchange rates.

The purpose of this paper was to study the direct impact of audit quality on environmental, social and governance (ESG) transparency. It aimed also to investigate the moderating effect of media coverage on the relationship between audit quality and ESG transparency in the USA.

The sample consisted of US companies listed in the Standard and Poor’s 500 Stock Index between 2010 and 2019. The Thomson Reuters database was used to collect ESG disclosure scores and governance information. The authors applied multiple panel data regressions.

The results showed that audit quality has a direct positive effect on ESG transparency. The findings also showed that the high exposure to public media by firms, the more they commit to high audit quality leading to disclose more transparent ESG information.

The results illustrated the significance of an external audit on an organization’s ESG report. Second, improving data quality has significant consequences not only for rating agencies but also for investors, businesses and researchers. These steps are required to increase the information content of ESG ratings.

The findings demonstrated that third-party external verification improves the dependability of nonfinancial reporting, hence bridging the confidence gap between corporations and the market regarding sustainability reporting.