Ph.D. Arias-Moya, José

This is the first article in investigating how COVID-19 affects Oceania’s financial markets. Specifically, we investigate if COVID-19 pandemic has an effect on herding behaviour in the Australian stock market. Using a sample of all firms listed over the period from 10 June 2008 to 19 June 2020, we find evidence that COVID-19 pandemic increases herding behaviour. The results report that herding behaviour manifests during crisis and extreme periods.

This article investigates whether COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on herding behaviour in Europe. Using a sample from the stock exchanges of France (Paris), Germany (Frankfurt), Italy (Milan), United Kingdom (London) and Spain (Madrid), over the period from January 03, 2000 to June 19, 2020, we found robust evidence that COVID-19 pandemic increased herding behaviour in the capital markets of Europe.

This article makes progress in understanding how the heterogeneity of governance factors, and changes in the political/economic landscape influence family firms’ risk taking. Using a sample of 133 Chilean listed firms, this article studies the risk taking behavior of family firms from 2009 to 2016. Using several informational sources, an unbalanced panel data set is built to make estimations employing the two-way fixed effects OLS data panel regressions. GMM is also employed for robustness. Chilean family firms’ risk-taking, measured through z-score and ROA volatility, is higher than in non-family firms. This would be a response to take advantage of business opportunities that enhance their long-term position in financial and socioemotional wealth. Results also indicate that founders’ leadership (on the board of directors) aligns with higher levels of corporate risk, while the influence of founders’ descendants within the board is in the opposite direction. Finally, political uncertainty has a negative and statistically significant influence on Chilean family firms’ risk taking. Context (defined as point of reference) is a critical factor in explaining family firms’ strategic behavior through socioemotional wealth. Performance above/below expectation, the danger of bankruptcy and the global financial crises have been used as points of reference (context) to explain family firms’ risk taking, but political and economic landscapes have not been included before as explanatory variables.

Using data on 52 countries’ banking systems from 2005 to 2014, we explore how the legal and institutional environment influences banking system performance. Using panel data and controlling for financial and economic development indicators, we find evidence of several relationships related to banking system performance. First, a higher degree of legal protection for both lenders and borrowers positively affects banking system performance. Second, there is a positive relationship between the degree of law enforcement and banking system performance. Third, better regulatory quality positively affects banking system performance. Fourth, neither the degree of information sharing nor the control of corruption has a significant effect on banking sector performance. Finally, we find no significant differences in banking sector performance by type of economy.

El inminente desarrollo del mercado de derivados a nivel internacional, como así mismo en el nuestro (volumen promedio de transacciones cercano a USD 2.000 millones, lo que representa un 43 % del volumen del mercado de contado) y el creciente interés de las empresas por cubrir sus riesgos financieros, motivó el desarrollo del presente documento en el cual se busca profundizar sobre el tratamiento contable de los activos derivados bajo las distintas normativas, enfocándonos básicamente en la clasificación, valoración, reconocimiento inicial y posterior de estos activos. Este documento analiza y compara el tratamiento contable y financiero de los activos derivados bajo distintas normas contables, entre ellas: la norma local chilena según los PCGA3, la norma americana, bajo los USGAAP y la norma europea basada en IFRS, con el objetivo de determinar las diferencias significativas en el tratamiento contable de los activos derivados. Para lograr este objetivo, se procedió a la revisión bibliográfica de textos relacionados con el tema de valoración de activos derivados, administración del riesgo y estrategia de cobertura, así como el análisis de textos actualizados relacionados a las normas descritas, obteniendo como resultados preliminares algunas similitudes, como aquella en la cual todos los productos derivados deben reconocerse como activos y pasivos, en el balance de situación financiera, inicialmente a su valor razonable y algunas diferencias como las asociadas a los requerimientos formales en la contabilidad de coberturas, la revalorización de los activos derivados implícitos, los límites de las coberturas, entre otras.