Issue #4 (Volume 16 2019)

Nowadays in Ukrainian realities decentralization, as a process of expanding and strengthening the rights and powers of administrative-territorial units, contributes to the development of financial innovations, the accessibility of public goods, and improvements in the quality of life of the population.
The aim of the article goal is developing the recommendations for improving the financial support of the regions by introducing new tools of influence of communities and local self-governments on the economic growth of territories.
Using the methods of factor analysis, regression analysis, and significant components, the article determines the impact of regional economic development on the revenues of local budgets. The empirical findings show the close correlation between budgetary decentralization and industrial capabilities of the regions. A cluster analysis was carried out to identify the asymmetries of regional development in terms of financial capacity. It enabled to distinguish homogeneous groups of areas according to the indicators of their economic development. On this basis the authors substantiated the necessity of entrepreneurial activity stimulating, increasing the number of companies, and promoting a continuous flow of goods (works, services) from the producer to the consumer in different regions of Ukraine.

This research empirically looked at Enterprise Risk Management impact on accounting quality of selected listed firms in the Nigerian financial sector. The study engaged the use of content analysis of the selected listed firms’ annual financial reports and corporate websites in determining the ERM disclosure index and its impact on accounting quality for a period of five years (pre-ERM period) (2007–2011) and another five years period (post-ERM period) (2013–2017). In attaining the proposed objectives, the study employed the panel Generalized Method of Moments estimator to test the hypotheses and find out the relationship between the variables. The study observed from the findings that there is no significant association between enterprise risk management and accounting quality during the pre-ERM period. This study adds to the body of knowledge in the area of corporate reporting, risk disclosure, risk management and accounting quality in emerging economies especially the Sub-Saharan African countries.

Corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are important subjects for corporate sustainability that affect firm value (FV). At the same time research results in several countries provide diverse empirical evidence. This study analyzes the impact of corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm value (FV) through the cost of capital (CoC) in public companies of Indonesia. The research sample includes 27 companies that publish sustainability reports and corporate governance reports, with an observation period from 2010 till 2016. This study presents the analysis of three firm value proxies (Tobin’s q (TQ), Price Earnings Ratio (PER), and Price to Book Value (PBV)). Results of hypotheses testing using Partial Least Squares (PLS) show that CG and CSR have both direct and indirect effects on FV. These findings are consistent for all three firm value assessments. According to direct testing, CG has a negative effect on FV, while CSR has a positive effect. The CoC acts as a mediating variable in this relationship. The CG and CSR have a negative effect on CoC, while CoC has a negative effect on FV. The findings show that CG and CSR can improve the company performance and corporate image internally and externally, thereby increasing the investors` confidence, and companies have the opportunity to obtain inexpensive funding sources that can reduce CoC. A decrease in CoC can increase profitability and have an impact on FV increasing.

This research aims to apply the value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) model to test the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on market value of the Jordanian industrial firms. The research increases the awareness of the need for firms of all sizes to communicate and value their business beyond capturing numbers alone. The sample for this study is 73 Jordanian manufacturing shareholders companies during the period 2005–2017. The sample employed consists of 648 firm-year observations. Market value is measured using the market capitalization over the total assets. Valuation approaches are a challenging area created to enable the stakeholders, or outside parties, to put an economic value on a firm.
The IC and its components: capital employed (CEE), structural capital (SCE), and human capital (HCE) of industrial firms have been analyzed, and their impact on market value has been estimated using regression models. The results show that there is no relationship between IC and the market value; HCE is associated with the market value, and SCE and CEE are not associated with the market value. This could be explained by the increase in employees’ training, as a regular training program is an essential factor in managers’ and employees’ performance. Practically, investors have a positive view of a firm that has higher employee expenditure than its investment in physical capital. Future research should be made on the empirical analysis of other sectors to determine whether different results and explanations can be obtained.

This paper examines monthly and daily returns in eleven Asian-Pacific equity markets and the U.S. market, showing that the Asian-Pacific markets systematically follow the returns in the U.S. market (S&P 500 index). For investment managers, the important findings include the fact that each Asian-Pacific market moves differently in response to U.S. market changes over a given time period and the response of most of these markets to changes in the U.S. market is not stable over time. Therefore, in their attempt to diversify a portfolio using individual Asian-Pacific country equities, past correlations and covariances are not necessarily a good predictor of future values, especially for the less developed countries. On average, more developed markets react more strongly to U.S. market changes than do the less developed markets. All markets exhibit asymmetries relative to the U.S. market, where reactions are stronger following down-days than following up-days. Finally, the tests suggest that the Asian-Pacific markets have little or no influence on U.S. market returns.

International investors’ interest in the capital markets in the region of Gulf countries has dramatically increased in last two decades. Thus, it would be motivating to investigate their characteristics, where the January anomaly is a major one. This paper studies the veracity of the January effect rule in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stock markets and examines the predictive power of January returns. Seven GCC stock markets are tested – the market indices in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia – from January 1, 2001 until December 31, 2018, a timeframe which has rarely been analyzed. Ordinary least square (OLS)-based dummy variable regression equation was used as the conventional econometric procedure in the works of financial calendar anomalies in stock markets. Some evidence is reported for the markets of Dubai and Kuwait. The paper also provides an additional explanation for the performance of stock market of Kuwait. The findings are opposite to the well documented evidence that emerging markets are less efficient and hence it is likely that several market anomalies are further pronounced. The results suggest that the predictive power of the January anomaly can be considered as a temporary anomaly in the GCC markets, since it is concentrated in only a couple of GCC markets and does not persist in time.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the effect that halving has on the fair market value of bitcoins. The main hypothesis of the study is that the decline in the cost of miners’ remuneration for mining is a significant factor that affects the price of cryptocurrencies. The article examines the factors that regulate the issuing process. The significance of a limited supply of bitcoin is detailed in the article, as well as the mechanism for the implementation of the issue of new bitcoins. The study compares the historical inflation data of the US dollar and the projected data on the inflation of bitcoin. The article analyzes the main technical element of cryptocurrency – halving – when the miner’s reward is halved. This analysis includes the mathematical methods of statistical data processing. Research results show that reducing remuneration by half every four years leads to an increased market value of the cryptocurrency. This relationship is clearly illustrated by the Kendall rank correlation method. The results of the study can have a significant impact on the fundamental assessment of bitcoin and can also enable investors to assess any of the existing and operating cryptocurrencies according to this method.

Within the framework of behavioral finance, this research shows that financial behavior can be assessed as a cognitive construct. Using certain variables, a multidimensional “cognitive finance” construct can thus be established. Through a technological – psychometric type design with descriptive data analysis, a factor analysis is presented to determine which latent variables tend to charge significantly in order to assess the validity of the dimensions comprising the construct of capital structure and explore its dimensions in relation to financial theory. A 44-item questionnaire is adapted and applied to a sample of chief financial officers from diverse public and nonpublic companies in Mexico. The analysis reveals the existence of four construct dimensions consistent with corporate financial theory. The model helps to explain how decision-makers react to uncertainty and environmental conditions, directly affecting the valuation of firm’s losses or earnings. As evidenced by the results, application of the Item Response Theory to the field of behavioral finance could open up new avenues to the study of cognitive biases, involved in the financial decision-making process. Thus, this implies that behavioral finance can also be treated as “cognitive finance.”

Due to a huge financing gap in many developing nations, governments use budget deficit to facilitate growth and development. However, deficit financing deepens the economic woes of these economies, leaving them in a vicious cycle of deficits. In Nigeria, for instance, fiscal deficits cause country’s bad performance and ranking both in global growth and development indicators. Thus, the use of fiscal deficit to enhance economic performance has proved to be futile and also has left bad economic consequences. Based on the econometric method of Autoregressive Distributed Lag, this study examines how selected macroeconomic indicators influence fiscal deficits in the budgetary policy of Nigeria. Historical data between 1981 and 2017 were used for the study. The study shows a significant positive effect of inflation, oil revenue, and lagged exchange rate on fiscal deficits. There is also evidence that external debt and current exchange rate decrease the level of fiscal deficits. However, the research did not prove robust evidence of fiscal deficit persistence. Government policy should target low level of inflation and exchange rate appreciation as well as the productive investment of oil revenues and economic diversification as the panacea for persistent use of fiscal deficits.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are imperative for the growth of a striving economy because they cater for a huge level of manpower and vast resources. Therefore, it is essential that their stability and performance should be ensured in order to promote the economic growth of Nigeria. SMEs are pronged to unsecured financial risk, which can lead to the collapse of the enterprises. Various studies have been done on the small and medium enterprises’ contribution to the Nigerian economic growth, but only few have addressed how financial risks affect it. This study aims to investigate how financial risk affects SMEs` performance. In other to achieve this exploratory research design was used and data were sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin from 1986 to 2017. The study uses autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) techniques as the tool of analysis. It reveals a negative and insignificant relationship between financial risk and SMEs` performance in Nigeria in the long run. However, exchange rate risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk and inflation risk have a significant, but negative impact on small and medium enterprises in the short run, as well as the long run. Financial risk adversely affects the performance of Nigerian SMEs and, therefore, should be controlled to enhance their performance.

Being financed by third-party capital requires the companies to put up collateral or assets in guarantee, consisting of real estate, inventories, and accounts receivable that in turn depend on specific life cycles, among other aspects. The main object of this study is to analyze whether corporate debt is related to age and collateral. To do so, a sample of 194 public and private Brazilian companies was studied between 2010 and 2017. The findings indicate that more mature businesses have lower debt levels. In terms of the collateral variable and interactions between collateral and age, a negative relation was noted with financial leverage, contrary to what was expected. This fact indicates a possible lack of quality in collateral over time. Furthermore, it is noted that there is no directly proportional relationship between progression in age and collateral. The contribution of the study consists of analyzing the relationships between collateral and age in terms of the debt levels of public and private Brazilian businesses. The distinctions between these groups may throw light on organizations in the emerging countries in terms of how to handle financing decisions with financial and capital market institutions.

The main aim of the paper is to measure hedging efficiency using the Short Put Ladder strategy formed by barrier options in the equity market. The researchers hedge full protection against price’s drop, combining the European down and knock-in put options with the lowest exercise price and vanilla or barrier put options with the higher exercise prices. The authors chose the analyzed alternatives according to the requirement of the zero-cost strategy. The aim of the investigated hedging variants is to secure the minimum constant selling price for the underlying asset’s price drop. Theoretical results of this approach were applied in the equity market, i.e., SPDR S&P 500 ETF. The authors analyzed and compared all hedging variants to each other, however, only the selected techniques were presented in the paper. The findings reveal that the barrier options used for managing the equity risk produce significant reductions of that risk. The right combination of options with the strike prices and the barrier levels wisely selected plays a significant role in risk elimination. Finally, according to the findings, the recommendations for potential investors are introduced.

This study investigates the volatility and co-movement of gold prices across Tokyo, London, and New York gold markets. Using a dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) model, the authors estimate the cross-correlation and volatility of gold in each pair among three markets over the period from 1993 to 2012. Both the time-varying correlations and realized distributions are explored. After estimating the DCC as well as the corresponding distributions of the DCC among the three markets, the results suggest that: (i) the DCC probability distribution of London and New York shows a higher volatility associated with a higher DCC value; (ii) the DCC probability distribution between London and New York as well as between Tokyo and London both express the similar and overlapping pattern, implying that these markets are almost equal, and neither dominates; and (iii) New York exhibits a spillover effect of Tokyo’s variance, while the latter does not influence New York’s variance. The shapes of the distributions show that the distribution of high DCC is wider than that of low DCC, meaning that risk increases with the dynamic correlation. The implications of these gold DCC probability distributions encourage investors to diversify their global portfolios and manage latent risks in different gold markets effectively. Besides, the volatility-threshold DCC model suggests that the correlations are more sensitive to extreme volatility thresholds in London and New York markets, whereas the correlation is significantly affected by all levels of volatility at 50%, 75%, 90%, and 95% thresholds in Tokyo and London markets. Investors may not be able to diversify portfolio risk by choosing London and New York at the same time once gold becomes volatile as a high correlation is observed in the extreme thresholds.

This study aims to investigate the effect of macroeconomic factors on Palestine and Amman Stock Exchange returns. Also, the study handles the political events in the area and their impact on Palestine and Amman stock markets returns. This study applied the macro-econometric model based on Arbitrage Pricing Theory. In addition, the most important political events are selected, and their effect was tested using the event study methodology. The results show that the consumer price index, gross domestic product, and exchange rate have a significant impact on stock index returns, but industrial production index and balance of trade have no significant effect. In addition, the results reveal that the political events have a significant effect on Palestine and Amman stock markets returns. For instance, at Palestine Stock Exchange, seven out of eleven events had a significant impact on the Palestinian general index returns. Regarding the Amman Stock Exchange, there were nine out of eleven events, which had a significant impact on the Jordanian general index returns. The main results show that the macroeconomic factors and political events have a significant impact on the Palestine and Amman stock market returns. Both Palestine and Amman Stock Markets are inefficient and the markets do not absorb uncertain information and noisy events.

The paper presents the phenomenon occurring in recent years on the Polish life insurance market, which enforced corrective protective actions by investment consumers of insurance products. The essence and assumptions of the new financial market paradigm are discussed, presenting the process of changes in supervisory and regulatory standards, adopted and implemented strategies in the development of protective policy together with the review of the most important legal regulations, solutions in terms of increasing product transparency and creating a new life insurance policy model to highlight pro-consumer activities. The practical implications of the study are grounded on the analysis of main problems of life insurance market in Poland and indicate the possibilities of applying appropriate solutions in the field of insurance distribution based on the latest legal regulations, recommendations and consumer needs, setting new standards and practices that raise the level of consumer safety, and in the future can become a possibility for development of the investment products market.

This study applied Altman Z-score model to assess the bankruptcy risk of a set of multidisciplinary enterprises of various types, mainly small and medium enterprises, with data taken from official financial reports of 180 enterprises in Soc Trang province. The binary logistic regression was employed to assess the impact of non-financial and financial factors on the bankruptcy risk of enterprises. The research findings showed that both the non-financial factors such as business area, types and size of the business, the educational level of managers and executors and other characteristics, and the financial factors (indicators) such as earnings before tax, net profit/equity ratio, earnings before interest and tax/total assets ratio, equity/total debt ratio, affect the bankruptcy risk of enterprises. Predicting the bankruptcy risk and measuring its determinants play an important role not only as an effective managing tool of the business, but also as evidence for policymakers to support the sustainable development of business.

The authors undertook to examine 720 monthly observations of activity in 15 Arab stock markets over four years (from 2014 to 2017) to identify the dynamic linkages among those markets. To achieve this, several forms of the Generalized Auto-Regressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model were utilized. Both panel and individual stationarity, in addition to cointegration tests, were employed to highlight the interaction between these markets. The results suggest that Arab stock markets have weak linkages with the exception of those of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The authors also find out that the TARCH, EGARCH, PARCH, and Component GARCH (1,1) models are suitable in terms of passing the econometric analysis tests. Nevertheless, they conclude that the EGARCH model is the most appropriate for capturing the cross-market dynamic linkages, thereby outperforming the other GARCH specifications under study. The empirical findings bear special implications for economic literature regarding linkages of stock markets in the Arab world.

The rise of robo-advisor wealth management services, which constitute a key element of fintech revolution, unveils the question whether they can dominate human-based advice, namely how to address the client’s behavioral biases in an automated way. One approach to it would be the application of machine learning tools during client profiling. However, trained neural network is often considered as a black box, which may raise concerns from the customers and regulators in terms of model validity, transparency, and related risks. In order to address these issues and shed more light on how neurons work, especially to figure out how they perform computation at intermediate layers, this paper visualizes and estimates the neurons’ sensitivity to different input parameters. Before it, the comprehensive review of the most popular optimization algorithms is presented and based on them respective data set is generated to train convolutional neural network. It was found that selected hidden units to some extent are not only specializing in the reaction to such features as, for example, risk, return or risk-aversion level but also they are learning more complex concepts like Sharpe ratio. These findings should help to understand robo-advisor mechanics deeper, which finally will provide more room to improve and significantly innovate the automated wealth management process and make it more transparent.

The paper aims to analyze the decision making based on expert polls for short-term foreign exchange (FX) forecasting from the viewpoint of the economic behavior theory. The paper offers the assessment of the problem of decision making for forecasting and investment into foreign currency. This study analyzes the relative accuracy of expert polls and forecasts, based on historical data, in the prediction of the most liquid currency pairs (EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD) as well as USD/RUB currency pair on time horizons 1, 2, 6, and 12 months. Observation period lasted from January 2018 to January 2019. For EUR/USD (56-62 experts), the polls were more accurate than historical simulations. For GBP/USD (28-70 experts), historical simulations were more accurate than polls. For USD/JPY and USD/RUB, historical simulations are better earlier, while polls are slightly better later. The main conclusion is that EUR/USD historical modeling is usually less accurate on the horizon more than half a year as compared with expert polls for making the decisions about the future exchange rate.

The present state of the financial market in Ukraine determines a lack of funding for agricultural enterprises. The research aims to find internal sources of funding for the reproduction of fixed assets for agricultural enterprises. The calculation of the depreciation return index is a component of financial analysis of the efficient renovation investment use. It allows controlling its targeting and influence on enterprises in a financial aspect in order to provide a stable position of the enterprise`s investor.
Implementation of economic and mathematical modeling using correlation and regression analysis verified a tight correlation between gross profit margins in agriculture and depreciation returns. For this purpose, general indexes were formed that is the primary value of fixed assets at the end of the year; the extent of their depreciation, depreciation and residual value of fixed assets at the end of the year, the average annual value of fixed assets, annual income, investment return and calculated gross profit and depreciation during 2001–2016 were determined.
The results of the calculations showed that the funds saved through depreciation (renovation investments), and retained earnings are the financial resources for continuous renovation of fixed assets of agricultural enterprises. Also, attraction to internal reserves should have an impact on the increase of the agricultural enterprises’ profitability and should facilitate the increase of production volumes due to the implementation of innovations.

Low financial literacy of population hinders the financial market development, limits the possibilities of using the savings for investing and creating the additional capital in the country. At the state level it results in inflation, the budget deficit creation, a decrease in country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves, an increase in internal and external government debt. The article analyzes the approaches to understanding the concept of financial literacy, tools for its measuring and comparing at micro and macro levels, dynamics of savings and gold and foreign currency reserves, peculiarities of financial literacy through the analysis of dynamics and structure of revenues and expenditures of the government budget and the population of Ukraine. Factors influencing the financial literacy of the population have been systematized. The findings give an idea of creating the optimal managerial influence based on the estimation of financial literacy of the Ukrainian population with the help of specific statistical indicators to expand the possibilities of such influence and to regulate the economic processes to achieve the financial stability of the state and the population. The study showed low financial literacy at both population and state levels. However, at the micro level, creating the credit relations, as well as income, expenses, and savings is more effective than at the macro level.

The world economic globalization determines the feasibility of rethinking fiscal system knowledge on the formation and implementation of debt policy in the countries with transformation and advanced economies. In order to improve the system of public administration, the proper level of financing of innovation-investment projects, the important task is to improve the effectiveness of debt policy instruments and to ensure the consistency of its components. This article describes the essence of debt policy. The features of formation and implementation of the EU and Ukraine’s debt policy in the public administration system are defined in the context of institutional transformations. The authors assess the share of gross debt of the EU countries and the sovereign debt of Ukraine in GDP; conduct a regression analysis of the impact of public debt in GDP on real GDP growth in Ukraine. The article discusses the debt policy tasks, summarizes and systematizes the approaches to its implementation in different countries. The authors identify the features of public debt management strategies in terms of marginal indicators of the budget deficit, public debt, and instruments for improving the effectiveness of the public debt management system. The impact of debt policy on country’s financial and economic security is substantiated.

The introduction of the first tradable stock index futures of VN 30 is a very good signal showing that Vietnam is starting to have a high-level financial market, which brings many expectations about sustainable and safe development of its stock market. However, risk concerns of this type of derivative products have been raising with many claims since then. This article aims to provide empirical evidences to show if futures trading plays important role of price discovery and information transmission for spot market. Using daily data collected about VN 30 Index Futures, VN 30 Index, VN Index from August 10, 2017 to February 28, 2019, which is divided into three sub-periods (increase/decrease/recovery), the research verifies VN 30 Index Futures’ role of price discovery and information transmission by applying Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). Empirical findings show that there is a stable equilibrium relationship between the two series groups (including VN 30 Index Futures, VN 30 Index and VN 30 Index Futures and VN Index) during three sub-periods or spot and futures markets are integrated and synchronized. In particular, VN 30 Index Futures’ price discovery and information transmission are clearly seen when the market falls or does not change a lot.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are a powerful economic force, significant employers, and creators of added value. In the European Union SMEs are the backbone of its economic and innovative potential, and for this reason, economic development and stability of SMEs are critical. The goal of this study is to apply modern controlling to the management of SME value growth using the tools and indicators of financial analysis. This study is based on a detailed analysis of 359 companies from the European Union in order to test 4 hypotheses. The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis to identify the dependence between the controlling management of a company, tools of financial analysis, innovative potential, level of digitization, internal auditing, and HR communication tools used in the SME. The statistical analysis confirmed a close relationship between the studied variables and created a model for managing the company’s value growth for the study sample of SMEs. Subsequent experimental testing was used to confirm these conclusions, and other important associations were found that are important for successful management of SMEs value growth. The findings obtained are applicable in practice and can be used for a deeper analysis of the issues in question.

The paper investigates the correlation between stock market, real estate market, and economic growth in Vietnam, which is an emerging country. Quarterly data in Vietnam from the third quarter of 2004 to the third quarter of 2018 were utilized. By using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, the results reveal that economic growth is positively associated with stock market and real estate market. An unprecedented finding of this study is that economic growth (GDP) is more correlated to stock market efficiency (SME) than net trading value by foreign investors (FI). Moreover, global financial crisis (GFC) exerts a negative impact on economic growth and real estate market in Vietnam. Further, net trading value by foreign investors (FI) also negatively influences real estate market (REM) in the short term. The study has greatly succeeded in giving first empirical evidence on the relationship between stock market, real estate market, and economic growth in Vietnam. More than that, the results show the key role of global financial crisis in this correlation. The findings are valuable to economies around the world, especially bringing a practical and meaningful value to developing countries like Vietnam.

The uniqueness of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the agriculture and fisheries sector has led to thoughts of innovation in the microfinance institutions (MFIs) that serve it. Service innovations in the agriculture and fisheries sector have been carried out in various countries to facilitate the development of this sector. This study aims to analyze the financing model of Islamic microfinance institutions (Islamic MFIs) based on the characteristics of the agriculture and fisheries sectors and the reconstruction of Salam contracts of Islamic financial institutions for farmers and fishermen. The research method used is qualitative descriptive analysis. The data were obtained through in-depth interviews with the agriculture and fisheries businesses in Central Java, Indonesia. The result showed that Salam contract constructed according to the characteristics of the fishing community to alleviate it from the shackles of moneylenders and wholesalers, including Islamic MFIs, farmers, and fishers as members of Islamic MFIs, buyers, Islamic banks and Islamic insurance. The output of this research is that farmers and fishermen can form a community to help one another with financial needs and are managed by Islamic MFIs that work in synergy with fisheries and agriculture companies, as well as an integrated Salam contract application system for Islamic MFIs.

Deciding whether an investment should be made or not requires an evaluation of the investment’s effectiveness. The choice of evaluation methods is related to the basic objective conditioning the implementation of the investment project. It often happens that the conditions in which a specific investment has been formulated change and so does the basis for its implementation, and it is necessary to adapt it to the new conditions. These new conditions could be recognized during the exploitation of the project so it is hard to take them into consideration at the stage of planning. The paper aims to evaluate the investments in commercial real estate with the option of alternative way of usage. This evaluation was carried out using the classical (discounted) methods of economic efficiency of investments and real options. Two groups of pricing real options models were used in the study: binomial models and continuous-time models. Results based on varied valuation methods lead to different conclusions. Unlike the discount methods, the real option approach allows valuing the project flexibility (which cannot be valued by classical methods). This value of flexibility in certain conditions indicates what should be the path of development of the project related with the transformation of commercial real estate for other purposes.

The industrial sector is one of the most vital sectors in the national economy, so different local and global factors affect its performance. The study examines the impact of the global and local macroeconomic variables on the industrial index of the Amman Stock Exchange. This study covered the period from January 2007 to December 2016, which is considered as a crucial period in the Middle Eastern countries. This period encompasses the worldwide economic meltdown from 2007 to 2008, the Arab spring of 2010 and the wars in Syria and Iraq from 2012 to 2014. The macroeconomic variables used in this study as domestic variables from Jordan were the deposit interest rate (IN), inflation rate (INF), money supply 2 (MS2), trade balance (TR), producer price index (PPI) and the industrial production index (IPI). At the same time the global oil price (WTI) was used as a global factor to measure the external shocks. This study used the ARDL bound testing approach to examine the co-integration, short-run and long-run relationships. Moreover, Granger causality test was used to detect the causality relationship in the short and long run between the selected macroeconomic indicators and the industrial index. It was found out that the inflation rate positively influenced the industrial index, which provides some evidence that the industrial sector in Jordan acts as a hedge against inflation. In addition, the global oil price showed a significant negative impact on the industrial sector. Some important implications for investors, government bodies, and policymakers are discussed.

The purpose of shareholders’ involvement in the process of governance is to add corporate value and achieve better governance and firm performance (FP). However, corporate governance (CG) practices can vary from country to country and change over time. This study examines the moderating influence of shareholders’ activism (SA) on the CG effectiveness – FP relationship in non-financial companies listed in the Libyan Stock Market between 2007 and 2016. CG effectiveness was the independent variable and consisted of five dimensions: board of directors, monitoring committee, audit committee, nomination and compensation committee, and ownership. Leverage, firm age and firm size were used as control variables. Return on investment was used to assess the corporate performance. SA was tested as a moderating variable using the interactive regression models. The study found out that the CG effectiveness is positively and significantly related to return on investment (beta = 0.608, p < 0.01). This relationship was strengthened by SA (R2 = 0.053, P < 0.05). Overall, the study shows that SA boosts the relationship between CG and FP in the Libyan Stock Market.

Foundations, methodological and empirical possibilities of measurement and analysis in the performance of financial investments within investment funds have been developed since they were once introduced in the 1970s, thus establishing a path of growing acceptance in financial markets and universities’ academies. The first approaches over the efficiency of these funds, considering their stochastic implications, occurred in the late 1990s and have evolved with the help of SFA – Stochastic Frontier Analysis, although it still needs more careful verification. This article measured and analyzed the stochastic frontier of efficiency over 33 different Brazilian investment funds from 2012 to 2015. For doing so, Battese and Coelli’s (1995) specifications was used. It shows the effects of inefficiencies, which are defined as explicit functions of specific factors in the context of panel data funds. They are estimated by the maximum likelihood method. Sharpe ratios (SR) were also calculated for comparative purposes. Based on these two indicators (SFA and SR), the most recommendable funds to invest and the ones in which the application should not be performed were identified. Such procedures have stimulated the necessary and promising studies, as well as future researches, which, in turn, may establish new methodological formulation as an efficient and effective instrument to choose the best and the safest funds to invest.

Successful crisis resolution of the enterprise depends heavily on its timely detection, which is facilitated by the use of forecasting models. This allows understanding the scale of the problems in a timely manner and developing the appropriate measures, applying various financial mechanisms to prevent it, and in case of occurrence, reducing the amount of losses. In this context, it is important to choose the most optimal informational model that would provide the most objective forecasts, considering the financial activity peculiarities of the analyzed enterprise. Given a wide list of models that predict the financial crisis, there is a need to analyze and select the most accurate model for enterprises in the real economy. Ten Ukrainian machine builders are used to assess the bankruptcy probability using the most popular models; a taxonomic analysis was carried out, which allows systematizing a large amount of data and analyzing their impact on enterprise development. An integral index was determined, which allowed predicting the financial performance dynamics. For each enterprise, ten indicators were used characterizing their financial state for the period 2014–2018. It is substantiated that the selected models differ from each other by the set of initial data and the number of coefficients from four to seven. It is also determined that the efficient use of studied models is quite different; so when choosing a model to predict the bankruptcy probability, it is necessary to consider the peculiarities of the enterprise’s production activity, the accuracy in creating the financial statements and many other factors, including the presence of company’s shares in circulation at the stock market. It is worthwhile to use a taxonomic analysis to make a comprehensive comparison of the enterprise financial state and to substantiate the final choice of the bankruptcy forecasting model.

Investing in recreation and wellness in transitional economies requires updating an inclusive approach and adjusting national regional policies. The article aims to provide the game and theoretical decision-making modeling regarding the direction of capital investment in the development of inclusive wellness and recreation in the regions of Ukraine. Considering this, a comparative analysis of relevant indicators, above all, the self-assessment level of population health, has been conducted. The “game against nature” method allows formalizing the social and market contradictions of regional development of wellness and recreation. Using Ukraine as an example, the analysis of the payoff matrix by decision-making criteria such as the Bayes-Laplace’s criterion, the Savage’s criterion, the Wald’s criterion and the Hurwitz’s criteria, establishes the priority areas for investment: the maximum investment amount is for the middle-income regions and the minimum – for the high-income regions. However, there is a significant disparity in investment in health and recreation across regions. The situation requires a transformation of the target function: from providing social subsidies to maximizing person’s well-being in the physical, mental, social and financial aspects. In the absence of inclusive economic institutions, it is proposed to equalize the weight of the “investment in health” and “investment in recreation” factors and redistribute the total volume of capital investment in regions with relatively low solvency and population health indicators.