Do corporate carbon emissions affect risk and capital costs?

This study explores the impact of corporate carbon emissions on idiosyncratic risk and capital costs. Leveraging a dataset comprising 1016 company-year observations from Australian-listed companies over the period 2007 to 2020, our panel regression analysis reveals significant associations. We find that companies with higher carbon emissions experience elevated idiosyncratic risk, contributing to increased capital costs in both debt and equity markets. Our results remain robust after using alternative model specifications, accounting for the diverse nature of corporate carbon performance among industries, shaped by unique industrial factors. These results highlight the significance of carbon emissions pricing within financial markets and emphasize the importance of standardized corporate carbon disclosure in enhancing market efficiency, facilitating more accurate valuation, and guiding resource allocation in the broader economy

Our research shows higher carbon emissions increase costs for Australian businesses

Imagine every ton of carbon dioxide a company emits is slowly inflating its costs — not just in terms of potential fines or fees but in the capital it needs to grow and operate. This isn’t just an environmental issue, it’s a stark reality many companies experience today. Our new research, looking at more than a thousand Australian-listed companies from 2007 to 2020 reveals higher carbon emissions significantly increase the costs to business. Similar analysis has been done in Europe and North America where environmental regulations are tough and longstanding. But ours is the first analysis of its type in Australia where regulations are less stringent

Management control systems and governance from its institutional context

This study aims to evaluate the institutional role of intangible mechanisms such as organisational values, beliefs, norms and common practices and their interaction with management control systems (MCSs) in improving corporate governance. We use the belief systems lever from Simon's levers of controls framework and more informal mechanisms to evaluate the impact of organisational initiatives on governance in response to the increasing concerns from key stakeholders. Our longitudinal study draws on data reported between 2007 and 2021 and collected from a sample of multinational listed firms across 55 countries using the triangulated approach. Based on the stakeholder approach inspired by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), our study recommends an innovative social management control systems (SMCS) model that supports the positive impact of promoting internal intangible control mechanisms to strengthen governance performance. Therefore, it supports the argument that other institutional elements of MCSs, beyond the traditional monitoring mechanisms, are also crucial to achieving organisational goals. Our study provides evidence of how organisations seek to achieve their objectives by creating a trusted relationship with different stakeholder groups that promote behaviour aligned with those objectives

The impact of corporate ESG performance disclosure across Australian industries

The aims of this study are threefold. Firstly, it examines the long-term improvement in the corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Secondly, it highlights the favourable financial implications of the higher corporate ESG performance disclosure. The third aim is to provide insight into the industrial impact on the relationship between corporate ESG performance disclosure and financial performance. This study uses a sample of all Australian publicly listed companies between 2007 and 2017 and conducts a panel regression analysis. It also performs several robustness checks to address the methodological, sample selection and endogeneity issues concerning corporate ESG performance disclosure. The findings show a tangible improvement in Australian companies' corporate ESG performance disclosure, favourably associated with financial performance. However, while the corporate ESG performance disclosure appears to be linked to higher financial performance, this is not the case across different industries. The industrial impact on the association between corporate ESG performance disclosure and financial performance has several implications. Firstly, the stakeholders' pressure on companies to address ESG-related concerns is substantial, enhancing corporate financial performance. Secondly, the findings indicate that corporate ESG performance disclosure does not benefit corporations in different industry sectors equally. It, therefore, requires more focus and interpretation by corporate decision-makers. Thirdly, by promoting ESG-related disclosure, managers should consider diverse stakeholders in different industries that weigh business objectives differently. The results of this study provide insights for corporate managers regarding prioritising resource allocations to ESG-related activities that could impact financial performance differently in different industry sectors. The results of this study contribute to the growing literature on the financial implications of corporate ESG performance disclosures, notably different industrial characteristics

Does fiscal consolidation affect non-performing loans? Global evidence from Heavily Indebted Countries (HICs)

This study explores fiscal consolidations’ impact on non-performing loans (NPLs) in highly indebted countries (HICs) following the global financial crisis (GFC) and subsequent sovereign debt crisis. A dynamic panel data estimator was applied to obtain the unbiased estimator due to NPLs’ time persistence. The findings reveal that fiscal consolidation measures increase NPLs since they limit the household and business loan-serving capacity. Extended analysis categorises fiscal consolidation episodes into (1) the fiscal consolidation weak form (FCWE) and (2) the fiscal consolidation strong form (FCSE). The extended analysis results reveal that the FCWE and FCSE improve NPLs by 1.55% and 31.10%, respectively. The weak-to-strong form transition of the fiscal consolidation analysis resulted in improving NPLs by 28.55 percentage points. NPL definition challenges, the potential influence of loan restructuring and regulatory restrictions, and implications for policymakers and financial institutions in managing NPLs in highly indebted economies were explored. Investigating the potentially different effects of both forms of fiscal consolidation (FCWE and FCSE) on NPLs in countries with different definitions of NPLs, including a comparison study between different definitions, was identified as an implication for future research. Finally, future studies should examine how restrictions on IFRS 9 may affect the FCWE and NPL as well as FCSE and NPL associations

Industry and Stakeholder Impacts on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Financial Performance : Consumer vs. Industrial Sectors

We examine the longitudinal relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and financial performance by investigating attributes among firms operating in different industry sectors longitudinally. Using panel regression analysis on Australian publicly listed firms from 2007 to 2021, we find that CSR performance positively influences financial performance. Furthermore, our industry-specific analysis uncovers notable distinctions. Specifically, within the consumer product markets, including recreational facilities, travel and tourism, lodging, dining, and leisure products, firms benefit from stakeholder rewards for their CSR efforts, leading to sustained financial gains. However, this positive association is absent for firms operating in industrial product markets, where stakeholders do not offer similar rewards for CSR performance. The significance of stakeholder engagement becomes evident in consumer market sectors, as firms with higher levels of CSR performance secure stakeholder support, resulting in superior long-term financial performance. Our findings contribute to the existing CSR literature and offer practical insights and implications for managers operating in diverse product market industries, including the dynamic field of tourism and hospitality seeking to harness CSR performance, meet stakeholder expectations, and achieve financial advantages

Flight-to-Liquidity and Excess Stock Return : Empirical Evidence from a Dynamic Panel Model

This study examines the impact of the flight-to-liquidity (FTL) phenomenon on the excess stock return by applying the previously developed generalised method of moments (GMM) framework. For this purpose, we use the data covering the period from 2004 to 2018 for 122 public companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). This study uses six proxies to measure the expected and unexpected illiquidity. The empirical investigation reveals that expected and unexpected illiquidities greatly influence smaller firms more notably than larger ones, which induces FTL phenomena into the market. Moreover, a FTL phenomenon triggered the Pakistani equity market during the financial crisis, when a significant decline appeared and the less liquid stocks were strongly affected. The results reveal that FTL risk is priced in the Pakistan equity market, making large stocks relatively more attractive in times of dire liquidity. These findings further suggest that the market participants in the Pakistan equity market, including policymakers, regulators and investors, should not ignore FTL phenomena while designing their portfolios

Fluid dynamics topics in bloodstain pattern analysis: Comparative review and research opportunities

This comparative review highlights the relationships between the disciplines of bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) in forensics and that of fluid dynamics (FD) in the physical sciences. In both the BPA and FD communities, scientists study the motion and phase change of a liquid in contact with air, or with other liquids or solids. Five aspects of BPA related to FD are discussed: the physical forces driving the motion of blood as a fluid; the generation of the drops; their flight in the air; their impact on solid or liquid surfaces; and the production of stains. For each of these topics, the relevant literature from the BPA community and from the FD community is reviewed. Comments are provided on opportunities for joint BPA and FD research, and on the development of novel FD-based tools and methods for BPA. Also, the use of dimensionless numbers is proposed to inform BPA analyses

Report on the Second International Workshop on Narrative Extraction from Texts (Text2Story 2019)

The Second International Workshop on Narrative Extraction from Texts (Text2Story’19 [http://text2story19.inesctec.pt/]) was held on the 14th of April 2019, in conjunction with the 41st European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR 2019) in Cologne, Germany. The workshop provided a platform for researchers in IR, NLP, and design and visualization to come together and share the recent advances in extraction and formal representation of narratives. The workshop consisted of two invited talks, ten research paper presentations, and a poster and demo session. The proceedings of the workshop are available online at http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2342/info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ECIR 2018: Text2Story Workshop-Narrative Extraction from Texts

The 1st International Workshop on Narrative Extraction from Texts (Text2Story 2018) was held in conjunction with the 40th European Conference on Information Retrieval, ECIR 2018, Grenoble on the 26th March 2018. The workshop aimed to help foster the collaboration of researchers on a wide range of multidisciplinary issues related to the text-to-narrative- structure. The program consisted of two keynote talks, six research presentations, a poster session and a slot for demo presentations. This report briefly summarizes the workshop.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio