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The purpose of this research is to determine whether the trading of equity index futures contracts on the South African Futures Exchange (SAFEX) results in an increase in the volatility of the underlying spot indices. Since equity index futures contracts were first listed in the USA in 1975, various studies have been undertaken to determine whether the volatility of shares in the underlying indices increases as a result of the trading of such futures contracts. These studies have lead to the development of two schools of thought: [a] Trading activity in equity index futures contracts leads to an increase in the volatility of index shares. [b] Trading activity in equity index futures contracts does not lead to an increase in the volatility of the index shares and could in fact lead to greater stability in equity markets. Although some evidence of higher volatility in expiration periods was found, volatility in the expiration periods was not consistently higher than in the corresponding pre‐expiration period.

Biotech share price is highly volatile, compared to most other industries. There is limited explanation for what causes such a high volatility. The purpose of this study is to explore how R&D strategies selected by biotech firms affect their share price volatilities. Specifically, the paper empirically investigates the impact of drug discovery and development diversification on share price volatility.

Regression analysis is applied to observe the effect of R&D strategy on share price volatility. Share price volatility is regressed on the measure of drug discovery and development diversification. Strategies are classified into two categories: diversified vs. concentrated. Meanwhile, other factors that have an influence on share price volatility such as firm maturity, firm size, and book‐to‐market ratio are controlled. For robustness, a return model is also used to further test the effect of R&D strategy, and sensitivity analyses using alternative drug discovery and development diversification measures are performed. Empirical data was collected for publicly‐traded biotech firms from COMPUSTAT, CRSP and Biospace.

The major finding of this study is the significant impact of R&D strategy in term of drug discovery and development diversification on share price volatility. Firms that have more diversified drug portfolios are associated with lower share price volatilities; and lower stock returns. In contrast, firms that have more concentrated drug portfolios are associated with higher share price volatilities; and higher stock returns.

Future research can explore effects of other aspects of the drug discovery and development as well as other firm attributes on biotech share price volatility. In addition, share price volatility may have impacts on managerial issues such as employee stock option issuance. Such impacts should also be studied.

This study targets a major aspect (i.e. R&D strategy) of the very fundamental value drive in the industry (i.e. drug discovery and development) to shed light on the limited understanding of what contribute to biotech share price volatility. The benefit of produce diversification has been examined in some other industries; however, its benefit is largely unknown in the biotech industry. This study has implications for investor risk assessment and corporate risk management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between dividend policy and share price changes in the UK stock market.

Multiple regression analyses are used to explore the association between share price changes and both dividend yield and dividend payout ratio.

A positive relation is found between dividend yield and stock price changes, and a negative relation between dividend payout ratio and stock price changes. In addition, it is shown that a firm's growth rate, debt level, size and earnings explain stock price changes.

The paper supports the fact that dividend policy is relevant in determining share price changes for a sample of firms listed in the London Stock Exchange.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to show that corporate dividend policy is a key driver of stock price changes in the UK.

The Chinese stock market is a typical emerging market with special features that are very different from those of mature markets. The objective of this study is to investigate whether and how these features affect the volatility‐volume relation for Chinese stocks.

This paper examines the roles of the number of trades, size of trades, and share volume in explaining the volatility‐volume relation in the Shanghai Stock Exchange with high frequency trade data used.

The results confirm that the volatility‐volume relation is driven mainly by the number of trades on the Chinese stock market. The number of trades explains the volatility‐volume relation better than the size of trades. Furthermore, some results are obtained that differ from those of mature markets, such as the US market. The results show that the second largest sized trades affect the volatility more than other trades on the Chinese market.

The results show that, in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, informed traders camouflage their private information or manipulation behavior through the second largest sized trades. The results may have important implications for work explaining the volatility‐volume relation on the Chinese stock market, further providing a reference by which to regulate emerging markets.

The study aims to explore the relation between dividend policy of any company and its stock volatility.

Companies listed on six GCC stock markets are used in the analysis and the data ranges from 2006 to 2020. Fixed effect and random effect panel data analysis is used to explore the association between stock volatility and the dividend policies.

A significant negative relation is observed between dividend payout and stock volatility. Also, significant negative relation between stock volatility and equity is found, whereas insignificant positive relation is observed between asset growth and stock volatility.

The data of all listed companies on six GCC markets were not available.

The question of raising dividend or maintaining at the current level is of utmost importance for the managers of any company before making any investment decisions. Also, the investors look at the dividend announcements as a sort of signal about the future prospect of the company. A stable or fluctuating dividends may be preferred by the investors that ultimately changes the stock price of any company.

The relationship between dividend policy and the volatility of stock price is explored for emerging GCC markets which is the major significance of this paper which will have many social impacts on various stakeholders of any company including investors, regulators and employees, etc.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study for GCC markets is done to establish a relation between stock volatility and the dividend policies which is needed by the academicians to further explore the behavior of these markets.

Are share markets too volatile? While it is difficult to ignore share market volatility it is important to determine whether volatility is excessive. This paper replicates the Shiller (1981) test as well as applying standard time series analysis to annual Australian stock market data for the period 1883 to 1999. While Shiller’s test suggests the possibility of excess volatility, time series analysis identifies a long‐run relationship between share market value and dividends, consistent with the share market reverting to its fundamental discounted cash flow value over time.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of scandal on investor valuation of sport by examining changes in share prices of three football clubs involved in the 2006 Italian “Calciopoli” scandal.

Share price variation and volatility across 2006 is analysed for Juventus (the centre of the scandal), Lazio (also involved) and Roma (uninvolved) over different (qualitatively defined) phases of the scandal. Movements in share price are compared to three benchmark indices – FTSE MIB, DJ Stoxx Europe 600, and DJ Stoxx Europe Football – indexed from 2 Jan 2006. Unadjusted analysis of share price movement matched with events to inform the likely causes of variation.

Despite speculation and high volatility, the share price of all three clubs increased by 30 per cent in 2006, outperforming benchmark indices (15 per cent). This suggests the Calciopoli scandal increased the perceived value of the clubs.

Generalisation of these findings requires more sophisticated statistical and econometric analysis of the Calciopoli scandal, and application of the method to other instances of scandals in sport.

Intuitively, scandals in sport have a negative impact. This paper suggests that scandal could have a positive impact on a club's share price and therefore the overall financial value of sport.

There is a dearth of literature on the economic consequences of scandals in sport. This paper contributes to the development of that literature and investigates some economic consequences of a particular scandal in Italian football.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the share price volatility of Mediterranean banks and their dividend policies, with particular emphasis on the variation of results across sub-samples and the outcomes when omitting outlier observations.

The authors use dividend yield and dividend payout as proxies of dividend policy, and regress these ratios together with other control variables to model volatility. The robustness of the results is assessed by re-using a data set which omits the outliers relating to the aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis and by forming sub-samples using cluster analysis.

The results show that the elimination of outliers and the setting up of sub-samples lead to different inferences about the underlying relationship between dividend policy and volatility. In addition traditional indicators of statistical significance may give the impression of a robust relationship, when this may not be the case.

The paper offers insights to stock traders and corporate managers in terms of better understanding the effect of dividend policies on share price volatility and its related risks and opportunities.

The study presents noteworthy empirical evidence in terms of its rigorous approach towards checking the robustness of results.

Focusing on the spillover effects between the CSI 500 stock index futures market and its underlying spot market during April to September 2015, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether Chinese stock index futures should be responsible for the 2015 stock market crash.

Using both linear and non-linear econometric models, this paper empirically examines the mean spillover and the volatility spillover between the CSI 500 stock index futures market and the underlying spot market.

The results showed the following: the CSI 500 stock index futures market has significant one-way mean spillover effect on its spot market. The volatility in CSI 500 stock index futures market also has a significant positive spillover effect on its spot stock market, and the mean value of dynamic correlation coefficient between the two market volatility is 0.4848. The spillover effect of the CSI 500 stock index futures market on the underlying spot market is significantly asymmetric, characterized by relatively moderate and slow during the period of the markets rising, yet violent and rapid during the period of the markets falling. The findings suggest that although the stock index futures itself was not the “culprit” of Chinese stock market crash in 2015, its existence indeed accelerated and exacerbated the stock market’s decline under the imperfect trading system.

Different from the existing literature mainly focusing on CSI 300 stock index futures, this paper empirically examines the impact of the introduction of CSI 500 stock index futures on 2015 Chinese stock market crash for the first time.

This study aims to examine how environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance influences stock price volatility, with a specific focus on the moderating role of tax engagement.

ESG performance is measured by an ESG score calculated from the weighting of three dimensions: environmental, social and governance. Stock price volatility is measured by the degree of stock price variations over 12 months, based on the last 52 weeks’ prices. A sample of French-listed firms in the SBF120 is used, with 770 observations extracted from the 2012–2022 period. The feasible generalized least squares approach is used to eliminate endogeneity and multicollinearity problems.

The results show that the ESG score negatively impacts stock price volatility, with this impact being more significant in the social dimension than in the environmental and governance dimensions. In addition, the tax payment variable moderates the relationship and increases the effect of the ESG score on stock price volatility. These findings suggest that ESG practices and tax transparency are not only ethical elements but also key components for financial stability, promoting the high-quality development of listed firms.

This study is significant for firms, regulators, policymakers and investors. Overall, it underscores the importance of firms adopting ESG activities and engaging in tax management to mitigate risks and maintain viability in the contemporary business environment.

This study provides new empirical evidence regarding the factors driving corporate stock price volatility. In addition, it offers pertinent policy recommendations for businesses and governments regarding the significance of ESG investments.