EXCHANGE RATES AND VOLATILITY IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: A TEST FOR UNCOVERED INTEREST PARITY

At times of heightened global capital market volatility, high-yielding currencies tend to depreciate, while low-yielding currencies tend to serve as a€ssafe heavena€t. We present the results of a test for Uncovered Interest Parity for selected European cuExchange rates, Volatility, Central and Eastern Europe, Uncovered interest parity, Financial crisis

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: the Surgical Perspective

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), namely Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are relatively rare diseases in our country, known as a low prevalence geographic region. IBD are a multidisciplinary problem, that implies gastroenterologists, as well as surgeons. Surgical management in inflammatory bowel disease is often impaired by a high complication rate and a significant recurrence rate, specific mostly for Crohn’s disease. Indications for surgery include failure of medical therapy (including delayed puberty for young patients and drug intolerance), toxic megacolon, bowel perforation, obstruction, enteric fistula and abdominal or perianal abscess. Advances in medical treatment options for IBD are continuously accumulating. However, a large number of patients still require surgical procedures during lifetime

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Uncovered Interest Parity and Financial Market Volatility

Our paper addresses the relationship between exchange rates changes and interest rate differentials in the UIP framework, by taking into account capital market and foreign exchange market volatility. We use eight currencies, of which five are Central and Eastern European and three are developed markets currencies, and their relationship to the US dollar. We use OLS regressions to capture the influence of volatility on UIP testing. We find that UIP is not validated, overall and in times of high volatility, but the direction in the exchange rate change indicated by the interest rate differential follows the UIP framework. The relationship between interest rate differentials and exchange rates changes is weak and taking into account market volatility does not significantly alter our results.exchange rates, volatility, uncovered interest parity

The Impact Of Eu Integration On The Risk-Return Trade-Off Of European Diversified Portfolios

The increase in international economic integration in the past decades, fueled by the amplified trade and financial flows around the world changed the size and scope of benefits that international investors may obtain from holding diversified portfolios. Our paper investigates the impact of in-creased capital market co-movements between emerging and developed markets from European Union, in the following directions: (1) analysis of cross-market correlations and identification of trends in cross-market correlations; (2) analysis of the risk-return performance of European portfolios formed of developed and emerging markets assets. Our approach attempts to investigate whether a di-versified portfolio on a European basis, which includes developed and emerging EU markets, offers euro-based investors a better risk and/or return as compared to a purely developed EU markets port-folio. If this were true, then EU emerging markets represent diversification opportunities for euro-based investors.international diversification, capital market integration, correlations, emerging mar-kets, European Union

What drives profitability in the Romanian ICT sector?

Identifying the major driving factors behind variations in profitability across firms is a question addressed by many researchers, at industry, economic sector, country level, or through regional and international comparisons. Empirical approaches have shown that profitability variation across firms and industries, is the norm, rather the exception. The paper investigates the factors underlying the profitability of Romanian companies in the ICT sector within the company-industry-localization framework, applying the variance components methodology and using aggregate profitability (ROA - Return on assets) as a measure of profitability. The ICT sector in Romania, one of the most dynamic in the last decade and the "winning sector" of the pandemic, operates with different levels of profitability depending on its two main components, Production and Services. At the same time, other disparities resulting from the characteristics of the business - size, personnel costs, productivity - are present. Our results show the high heterogeneity of profitability between firms in the ICT sector, but also the greater importance of the factors intrinsic to the firm compared to that of industry or location factors, which raises the question of whether this sector has incorporated into profitability the tax advantages it enjoys and how sustainable its performance will be once these advantages will diminish

ESG actions, corporate discourse, and market assessment nexus: evidence from the oil and gas sector

This paper focuses on the oil and gas sector because of its direct exposure to the complete range of ESG challenges, as well as strong pressure to change business models due to the energy transition. We investigate the ESG scores of a sample of global companies in this sector and their relationship to stock market performance and to the ESG intensity of corporate reports. As an original contribution, we incorporate the intensity of corporate discourse on technology-related sustainability topics for the first time in the literature. Our findings reveal that investors examine both sustainability discourse and results when determining a company’s value and validate the role of ESG scores and rankings in providing investors with an accurate and meaningful assessment of companies’ sustainability actions. Moreover, companies’ disclosure of their sustainable actions and technological developments related to sustainability is positively related to stock returns. This implies that a focus on sustainable practices and constant communication with investors might result in higher market performance. Furthermore, encouraging companies, particularly those in sectors and industries sensitive to ESG factors, to invest in ESG initiatives, is accompanied by improved performance, which makes them more attractive and better positioned to attract financing

Oil price volatility and airlines’ stock returns: evidence from the global aviation industry

The paper explores the long versus short-term attributes of the airline industry exposure to oil price risk in a macroeconomic framework that emphasizes the interconnections between various risk factors, which is the main contribution to the research in the field. A panel ARDL model and PMG estimator have been applied on monthly data between 2007 and 2020 to investigate the long-term equilibrium relationship between airline companies’ stock prices, oil price risk, financial market volatility, currency risk, inflation, and maturity risk. The negative impact of oil price risk on airlines’ stock prices is significant, robust, and pervasive, and is coupled with a concerning exposure to the US dollar currency risk. As another contribution, the paper analyses the prospects and challenges of the airline industry in dealing with oil price risk in the post-pandemic world. The results point towards the need of the airline industry to rethink its strategic decisions in the more uncertain and unpredictable post-pandemic world, requiring a more comprehensive approach of the complex and dynamic network of risk exposures and a reconsideration of hedging policies

An empirical assessment of the financial development: Environmental quality nexus in the European Union

Our study examines the dynamic relationship between financial development and environmental degradation in the European Union (EU) in a panel VAR (Vector Autoregressive) methodological framework over the period 1996-2018. Panel causality tests and impulse response functions show that financial development contributes to higher carbon emissions, although this effect is stronger in the short run and weaker in the long run. At the same time, financial institutions development is the major contributor to fostering increased environmental degradation instead of financial markets, which points towards an engagement of financial institutions towards offering financial products that led to environmental degradation and/or lagging financial markets in terms of promoting environmentally-related securities and ESG principles. By providing new insights into the relationship between financial development and carbon emissions, we hope to assist EU policymakers and businesses in reconsidering the role of financial development as an effective means of decreasing environmental degradation in the region