The impact of board gender composition on loan covenant violations

Research Question/Issue We examine the role of board gender diversity in attenuating loan covenant violations. We also investigate whether the relationship is influenced by female independent directors. Finally, we examine the channels of this relationship. Research Findings/Insights Drawing on gender socialization and diversity theories, our findings show that firms with gender-diverse boards are less likely to violate loan covenants. We also find that boards with more female directors have a stronger impact on loan covenant violations than those with fewer female directors, consistent with critical mass theory. Our results also suggest that the negative relationship stems from female independent directors rather than from female executive directors. Our channel analyses indicate that the relationship is routed through covenant strictness, the financial performance of firms, and better corporate governance. Our further analysis demonstrates that the relationship is pronounced in female-dominated industries and financially distressed firms, as well as in firms whose directors have greater experience. Our results are robust across a series of sensitivity and endogeneity tests. Theoretical/Academic Implications We contribute to an emerging strand of literature that examines the link between board gender diversity and loan covenants. We fill a gap in this stream of literature by providing the first empirical evidence that female directors in the boardroom reduce loan covenant violations through their greater integrative bargaining skills during loan deals, improving firm financial performance, and ensuring good corporate governance. Our study also contributes to the growing literature on the differential effects on corporate policies of female directors (independent and executive) and critical mass. Practitioner/Policy Implications This finding offers significant policy implications for managers, investors, and policymakers. Given the growing frequency of loan covenant violations, the presence of a gender-diverse board should serve as a potent indicator to creditors who have a concern regarding loans. In addition, our study adds to the ongoing debate regarding the business case of board gender diversity

Do all institutional investors care about corporate carbon emissions?

This paper investigates whether institutional investors promote the abatement of corporate carbon emissions. Using firm-level data on the U. S from 2007 to 2017, we find that institutional investors help reduce carbon emissions. The result is more pronounced in firms with more independent (investment companies, investment advisors, and pension funds), long-term, and monitoring institutional ownership. Our result holds when we employ a quasi-natural experiment and the difference-in-differences approach to address endogeneity. The channel analysis documents that institutional investors help reduce carbon emissions by reducing energy consumption. We also find that shareholder activism is a proximal monitoring mechanism through which institutional investors influence firms to achieve better carbon performance. Finally, our results show that the advantage for institutional investors from reducing carbon emissions is higher firm value

Cash-rich firms and carbon emissions

We investigate whether corporate cash holdings affect carbon dioxide emissions. Using a sample of 5402 firm-years observations from 943 U.S. firms during 2007–2017, we find that carbon emissions are lower in firms with higher corporate cash holdings. The effect of cash holdings on carbon emissions is more pronounced in firms with low leverage and less financial constraints. Our channel analysis further unveils that renewable energy consumption and carbon abatement investment are higher in cash-rich firms, which transmit lower carbon emissions. Our findings are robust to different identification strategies and alternative measures of cash holdings and carbon emissions. Overall, our paper provides novel evidence on the role of corporate cash holdings in mitigating carbon emissions

Seasonal Price Variation and Market Intregration of Tilapia (Oreochromis Niloticus) Fish in Some Selected Areas of Bangladesh

A study was undertaken to examine the marketing system and price behavior of tilapia fish in selected areas of Mymensingh district of Bangladesh during the month of March-May 2012. The objectives of the study were to estimate costs and margins, seasonal price variation and to test market integration of Tilapia fish. Primary and secondary data were used for this study. The higher marketing cost was incurred by aratdars and the lowest by retailer. On the other hand, retailers earned the highest net marketing margins. Analysis of market integration shows that Tilapia fish market in Bangladesh was well integrated. The study identified some problems related to economic, technical, marketing, social and natural calamities aspects and suggested some measures for solving these problems. The findings of the study revealed that the marketing of tilapia was a profitable business and some recommendations were provided for the improvement of tilapia marketing in the country. Keywords: Engle Granger co-integration, Market integration, marketing system, price behavior, Tilapia

Firm‐level energy and carbon performance: Does sustainable investment matter?

Pollution reduction is one of the important challenges confronting contemporary business and society. Firms are largely responsible for undertaking sustainable business practices and initiatives as they are major contributors to global pollution. This study empirically examines how sustainable investment influences firm energy and carbon performance. Using a sample of 23,501 firm-year observations from 2440 unique firms over the period of 2002 to 2018 in G-6 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States), we demonstrate that sustainable investment leads to better energy and carbon performance without compromising financial return. Our findings are robust to alternative variables, sub-samples, and different estimation techniques. This study contributes to the global discussion on sustainability and a low-carbon economy

Flow characteristics of disk bypass Pipeline Inspection Gauge (PIG) in natural gas pipelines using computational fluid dynamics

Disk bypass pipeline inspection gauge (PIG) is considered as an efficient device for pigging operations including cleaning, maintaining and inspecting pipelines. The PIG performance is influenced by the fluid flow characteristics as PIG moves forward due to differential pressure of fluid around the PIG. This study focuses on flow characterization of fluid around disk bypass PIG for natural gases pipelines including methane, ethane, and butane using computational fluid dynamics approach. The control volume method with steady state Turbulent k-? model was applied for simulation purposes using ANSYS Fluent 19 software. Fluid velocities at different sections around PIG and differential pressure were investigated for various bypass opening percentages. The results showed that by increasing bypass opening percentages from 5% to 15%, fluid velocity at bypass opening section has reduced 28.28%, 40.43%, and 21.21% for ethane, butane, and methane, respectively, while differential pressure reduced 88%, 86% and 89%. This indicated that 15% bypass opening percentage provided the best flow characteristics among all cases considered. At 15% bypass opening percentage, methane resulted in the lowest fluid velocity at bypass opening section and lowest differential pressure compared to others. Additionally, a correlation of differential pressure of these gases as a function of bypass opening percentage and other parameters was also developed for first time. All results are important for design selection of PIG parameters for efficient pigging operation

High levels of genetic variability and differentiation in hilsa shad, Tenualosa ilisha (Clupeidae, Clupeiformes) populations revealed by PCR-RFLP analysis of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop region

The hilsa shad, Tenualosa ilisha (Clupeidae, Clupeiformes) is an important anadromous clupeid species from the Western division of the Indo-Pacific region. It constitutes the largest single fishable species in Bangladesh. Information on genetic variability and population structure is very important for both management and conservation purposes. Past reports on the population structure of T. ilisha involving morphometric, allozyme and RAPD analyses are contradictory. We examined genetic variability and divergence in two riverine (the Jamuna and the Meghna), two estuarine (Kuakata and Sundarbans) and one marine (Cox's Bazar) populations of T. ilisha by applying PCR-RFLP analysis of the mtDNA D-loop region. The amplified PCR products were restricted with four restriction enzymes namely, XbaI, EcoRI, EcoRV, and HaeIII. High levels of haplotype and gene diversity within and significant differentiations among, populations of T. ilisha were observed in this study. Significant FST values indicated differentiation among the river, estuary and marine populations. The UPGMA dendrogram based on genetic distance resulted in two major clusters, although, these were subsequently divided into three, corresponding to the riverine, estuarine and marine populations. The study underlines the usefulness of RFLP of mtDNA D-loop region as molecular markers, and detected at least two differentiated populations of T. ilisha in Bangladesh waters

The role of stock markets on environmental degradation:A comparative study of developed and emerging market economies across the globe

It is well established in the literature that stock markets increase both economic activities and energy consumption across countries. Therefore, it is commonly believed that stock markets are expected to have a significant effect on CO2 emissions. However, it is not known whether these stock markets can contribute to more or less CO2 emissions. Hence, the goal of this study is to examine the impact of stock market indicators on CO2 emissions across a global panel of both developed and emerging market economies. The results establish that stock market indicators have a significant negative and positive impact on carbon emissions in developed and emerging market economies, respectively. Furthermore, the findings illustrate the presence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, implying that stronger stock markets lead to a further decline in carbon emissions. Given these findings, the study argues that the role of stock markets in the abatement of CO2 emissions significantly varies across both developed and emerging market economies. Significant implications have to do with the fact that developed markets might have initiated effective policies on listed firms to minimize carbon emissions, while emerging markets are yet to achieve this.N/

Understanding Communication of Sustainability Reporting: Application of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of rhetoric and rhetorical strategies that are implicit in the standalone sustainability reporting of the top 24 companies of the Fortune 500 Global. We adopt Bormann’s (Q J Speech 58(4):396–407, 1972) SCT framework to study the rhetorical situation and how corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) messages can be communicated to the audience (public). The SCT concepts in the sustainability reporting’s communication are subject to different types of legitimacy strategies that are used by corporations as a validity and legitimacy claim in the reports. A content analysis has been conducted and structural coding schemes have been developed based on the literature. The schemes are applied to the SCT model which recognizes the symbolic convergent processes of fantasy among communicators in a Society. The study reveals that most of the sample companies communicate fantasy type and rhetorical vision in their corporate sustainability reporting. However, the disclosure or messages are different across locations and other taxonomies of the SCT framework. This study contributes to the current CSR literature about how symbolic or fantasy understandings can be interpreted by the users. It also discusses the persuasion styles that are adopted by the companies for communication purposes. This study is the theoretical extension of the SCT. Researchers may be interested in further investigating other online communication paths, such as human rights reports and director’s reports

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe