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The relevance of transparency related to public finances is considered fundamental for good economic policy management. An environment of greater fiscal transparency allows the private sector greater predictability, improving the entrepreneur’s decision-making ability. This study empirically analyzes fiscal opacity’s effect on business confidence in an emerging economy.

We use monthly data from the Brazilian economy from January 2010 to March 2023. Based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) regressions, we analyze whether fiscal opacity, measured by the signal-to-noise ratio, affects business confidence. Moreover, to evaluate the duration of a shock transmitted by the fiscal opacity on business confidence, we consider an impulse-response function generated by a Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR).

We found that fiscal opacity resulting from the lack of information to anticipate the budgetary result of the public sector deteriorates business confidence.

We present robust empirical evidence that allows us to assume that using a strategy to reduce fiscal opacity through mechanisms that provide reliable economic data and fiscal forecasts is essential for fiscal policy to affect business confidence positively. Reducing fiscal opacity provides greater clarity regarding the budget outcome, reduces economic uncertainty and improves the fiscal policy expectation channel.

This paper is the first to analyze how the lack of information for market agents to anticipate the government’s budget execution accurately (fiscal opacity) affects business confidence.

The paper analyzes the impact of bank opacity on financial stability in an emerging economy.

Based on a unique dataset of 31 Vietnamese commercial banks from 2007 to 2019, the paper captures earnings opacity via discretionary loan loss provisions and reflects individual bank stability through the accounting-based Z-score index and its disaggregate components. The least squares dummy variable corrected (LSDVC) approach is employed for empirical analysis.

In contradiction to most studies on developed economies, earnings management improves bank financial stability in Vietnam. Earnings management is more important for the financial stability of smaller banks. Further, the effect of financial information disclosure on bank stability is strengthened by unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, particularly economic downturns, the global financial crisis and uncertain times in banking.

This is the first study to shed light on how bank opacity influences bank financial stability in an emerging market. The evidence with the conditioning roles of bank size and macroeconomic factors, such as uncertainty in banking, is entirely novel in the related literature. Additionally, the paper contributes to a growing body of banking literature by using the LSDVC estimator to examine the association between bank opacity and bank stability.

This study aims to investigate the opacity of bank assets because of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 9 implementation. It highlights that the Asian-Pacific countries’ banking industries are experiencing economic volatility. In other words, it examines information asymmetries because of the standards requiring a mechanistic treatment. Thus, this focuses on the tragedy of the commons (ToTC) caused by the implementation of the standard.

This research selects a sample of banking firms in the Asia-Pacific region from 2010 to 2021. Furthermore, it examines the impacts of IFRS 9’s implementation on earnings forecasts and share-return conveyances. This research first uses the OLS regression for examining the bank assets’ opacities, which may affect future earnings and information conveyancing. Second, it arranges these opacities, earnings and stock returns with the 2-SLS regression to find the staging associations because of hierarchical relevances.

This study finds that bank assets’ opacity is caused by a standard’s implementation, which is a ToTC, and this study signifies its first occurrence. Simultaneously, it recognises an information asymmetry because of the implemented procedural calculation mandated by the standard. Furthermore, these opacities affect future earnings and information conveyancing that inherited information asymmetries, which have affected them as the second ToTC. Finally, current and future earnings as a consequent impact of asset opacity are recursively associated with stock return conveyancing as the third ToTC.

This study demonstrates hierarchical information about bank asset opacities, starting by recognising and measuring them in financial statements. Then, these recognised and measured asset opacities are associated with current and future earnings, ending on the ordinarily and staged influencing of stock return conveyancing. Moreover, it reveals hierarchical information in the direct-ordinarily and staged associations among bank asset opacities, earnings and return conveyances. Thus, these associations are valid and occur because of the mandates of the standard’s measurement.

This paper studies the association between earnings opacity and corporate social responsibility disclosures of firms listed on the Vietnamese Stock Exchange.

We utilize a dataset comprising a sample of all listed Vietnamese firms for the period of 2014–2022. Data regarding corporate social responsibility information are gathered manually. Following Dechow et al. (1995), Kothari et al. (2005) and Bhattacharya et al. (2003), earnings opacity is measured by using three proxies, including abnormal accruals, earnings smoothing and loss avoidance. Our hypothesis was tested via ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. To address endogeneity problems, we use the two-stage instrumental variable method (IV-2SLS) as well as the generalized method of moments (GMM) to ensure the robustness of our results.

We find that earnings opacity is positively related to corporate social responsibility disclosures. Cross-sectional analyses indicate that managers of firms disguise their opportunistic behaviour by disclosing more information about corporate social responsibility. The evidence also shows that firms experience long-run underperformance when having higher earnings opacity and greater sustainability disclosures. Our results remain robust even after correcting for endogeneity using the IV approach and the GMM method.

Evidence from this study can serve as a warning signal to the investment community, highlighting that some methods aimed at enhancing a firm’s corporate social responsibility disclosures might be used to obstruct other unethical activities. Moreover, the results of this study can help regulators gain a better comprehension of firms' reporting patterns concerning corporate social responsibility initiatives. It should not only reform the corporate social responsibility regulation but also impose stronger litigation for firms to enhance the quality of corporate social responsibility disclosures.

We are the first to present evidence regarding the relationship between earnings opacity and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Vietnam.

This study examines the importance of income income-shifting arrangements of US multinational corporations (MNCs) on future stock price crash risk.

This study employs a sample of 7,641 corporation-year observations over the 2005–2017 period and uses ordinary least squares regression analysis.

The authors find that the income-shifting arrangements of MNCs are positively and significantly associated with stock price crash risk after controlling for corporate tax avoidance and other known determinants of stock price crash risk in the regression model. This result is robust to alternative measures of stock price crash risk and income-shifting, and several endogeneity tests. The authors also observe that income-shifting arrangements increase stock price crash risk both directly and indirectly through the information opacity channel. Finally, in cross-sectional analyses, the authors find that the positive association between income-shifting and stock price crash risk is more pronounced for MNCs that use tax haven subsidiaries and have weak corporate governance mechanisms.

The authors provide new empirical evidence that MNCs will likely face significant capital market consequences regarding their income-shifting arrangements.

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) has high opacity, high brightness and whiteness, owing to its high refractive index value. It is mainly used in the coating industry and continuous efforts have been made to replace some of the TiO₂ in paint with new pigments. This study aims to replace part of TiO₂ pigment with various percentages of BaSO₄, CaCO₃ and kaolin in styrene butyl acrylate-based paint formulations, without changing the properties of paints using only titanium dioxide.

To determine the optimum use rate of new pigment mixing, opacity, gloss, scrub resistance and weather resistance properties have been investigated in the water-based paint formulation. The morphological properties of these samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy analysis.

In the total color change (ΔE) measurements, it was observed that the sample coded 85Ti/15Ba produced extremely similar results to the situation when TiO₂ was used alone. It was seen that the best results were obtained when 85Ti/15Ba was used instead of TiO₂.

Comparison research on the impact of replacing TiO₂ with BaSO₄, CaCO₃ and kaolin on the performance characteristics of water-based styrene butyl acrylate-based paint formulations has not been done in the literature, according to the literature search.

This study aims to make a distinction between actualized and claimed affordances of blockchain by examining how a specified user group interprets and translates the actualized affordances from a known use context into their existing practices. This allows us to develop and advance the concept of affordances-in-practice as an enactment of action possibilities through practices in a specified use context.

We focus on the field of sustainable investment (SI) and its relation to emerging blockchain technologies in the pursuit of sustainable development goals (SDGs). We used a field study involving 29 interviews with SI practitioners and blockchain entrepreneurs in South Africa, supplemented with an analysis of 91 practitioner and industry documents.

Our findings show that when there is a lack of actual use cases in the field of SI, the claimed affordances of blockchain are subject to a sensemaking process, which considers how action possibilities can be enacted and transformed through practices and how institutional constraints and socio-cognitive barriers can determine the available action possibilities.

A notable limitation relates to the relative novelty and emerging status of blockchain. As affordances are based on available information and experience, this leaves room for claimed affordances. We discuss the implications of the interplay of the actualized and claimed affordances in blockchain applications in the field of SI.

We discuss the practical implications of addressing claimed affordances and field opacity in the SI field.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine blockchain affordances for good in the context of achieving SDGs through SI. Our affordances-in-practice framework holds theoretical promise to pinpoint and explain how practices can shape action possibilities despite having difficulties in evaluating the underlying technological potentialities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine failures in internal and external controls associated with sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), using three caselets to illustrate the fraud triangle theory factors.

This study uses a qualitative research approach. Caselets are used to illustrate the fraud triangle factors associated with SWFs.

Ideally, SWFs would be characterized by opacity and the strategic flexibility to advance political goals, but this operational agility facilitates an environment ripe for fraud, in large part because there is little transparency with regard to their regulatory structure. Elements of the fraud triangle inherent in the structure of SWFs contribute to the fraud found in the three case examples.

The authors use three SWF fraud cases rather than statistical sampling of all SWFs, which limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research should explore additional recommendations for the evaluation of SWF governance.

The overlap between public sector governance and SWF governance creates an environment amenable to fraud, and as a result, fraud has occurred in several SWFs. Governance recommendations should take into account the lessons learned from previous SWF fraud cases.

Ideally, SWFs would be characterized by opacity and the strategic flexibility to advance political goals, but this operational agility may also facilitate an environment ripe for fraud, in large part because there is little transparency with regard to their regulatory structure.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to identify the fraud triangle risk factors associated with sovereign wealth funds using SWF fraud caselets.

This study aims to examine stock price synchronicity during the COVID-19 crisis using 32,452 firms from 61 countries. This paper explores the impact of government effectiveness on synchronicity while distinguishing between developed and emerging markets.

The research analysis employs ordinary OLS pooled regression analysis.

This paper presents worldwide evidence that stock price synchronicity was significantly higher during February and March 2020. This paper shows that synchronicity increased with the intensity of the crisis. In addition, the government's role reduced the COVID-19 impact on synchronicity, which was stronger in developed markets than in emerging markets.

The novelty of the study lies in documenting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stock price synchronicity. The findings add to a deeper understanding of market behavior amid significant disruptive shocks.

This study aims to examine the correlation between the readability of financial statements and the likelihood of future stock price crashes in nonfinancial companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. It further explores the possible moderating effect of audit quality on this relationship.

The study uses ordinary least squares regression, generalized least squares estimation and two-stage least squares methodology to examine and validate the research hypotheses. The sample comprises 107 nonfinancial companies registered on the Egyptian Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2019.

The results reveal a significant negative association between the readability of financial statements and stock price crash risk. This suggests that companies with more complex financial statements tend to experience higher future crash risks. Additionally, the study identifies audit quality as a significant moderating factor. Higher audit quality, often indicated by engagements with Big-4 audit firms, strengthens the influence of financial statements readability on stock price crash risk. This implies that while high audit quality enhances investor confidence and market stability, it also accentuates the negative consequences of complex financial statements.

The findings of this paper have significant implications for regulators and standard-setting bodies in Egypt. They should consider refining and revising existing standards to emphasize the importance of enhancing the readability of financial reports. Additionally, auditing firms should actively engage in efforts to ensure clearer and more transparent financial reporting. These actions are vital for boosting investor confidence, strengthening Egypt’s capital market and mitigating potential risks associated with information opacity and complexity.

This study represents a pioneering endeavor within the Arab and Egyptian financial environments. To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is the first examination of the association between the readability of financial statements and stock price crash risk in these contexts. Furthermore, it explores factors such as audit quality that may influence this connection.