Issue #2 (Volume 19 2022)

In Latin America, SMEs have difficulty accessing sources of financing that allow them to obtain more significant growth and strengthen their economic activity. Therefore, this paper aims to determine the impact of financing in the alternative securities market (MAV) on the economic and financial situation of Peruvian SMEs during 2017–2020. The methodology used in this study is a quantitative approach, descriptive, non-experimental design, and longitudinal measurement. In addition, a documentary analysis technique is employed. The population included 17 SMEs financed in the MAV; the paper considers the financial statements of 6 companies in the last 4 years as a sample. The results obtained show that SMEs financed through the MAV are of different categories and economic activities. Likewise, there is a predisposition of these in the issuance and placement of short-term instruments, determining a favorable economic and financial situation through the analysis of financial indicators, with sustainable profitability growth and an acceptable liquidity and solvency situation. The conclusion is that financing in the alternative securities market has contributed to the improvement of SMEs’ economic and financial state, allowing for sustainable growth and opportunities to diversify their operations.

The major event of the emergence of the infectious disease COVID-19 has changed the perspective and behavior of investors in the stock market. This study aims to analyze the determinants of the research roadmap cluster in the field of capital market performance. Analysis was conducted on manuscripts published in Scopus-indexed publications from 2020 to the end of 2021. Using the search engine software Publish or Perish (PoP), 400 manuscripts were obtained. Furthermore, manuscripts with high credibility were selected through double-blind review and journal categories. The results of the extraction of 240 article titles and their abstracts using VOSviewer revealed that the determinants of the research roadmap in the stock market during the COVID-19 outbreak were divided into four clusters, namely: 1) an increase in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin due to the spillover of oil and gold prices; 2) international stock market response and behavior; 3) major stock market performance results such as stock returns and equity; and 4) changes in stock market dynamics in the form of volatility and investor attention.

This study examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of the main indices and corporate returns in Jordan. The study employs two samples and two levels of analysis. The first one considers the effect of daily cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the daily return of the main index and sub-indices of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). The time-series analysis shows that there is a strong negative impact of the daily cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the daily return of the Amman Stock Exchange index. The results also indicate that the financial sector is the most affected during the epidemic, followed by the service and industry sectors. The insurance sector is positively affected, but not statistically significant.
The second level of analysis aims to test how different corporate financial characteristics might affect corporate immunity during the pandemic period. The sample includes all non-financial firms listed on ASE, with a total of 75 firms. Based on quarterly data, the findings show a statistically significant negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on non-financial corporate stock returns. Further, the evidence shows that larger firms with higher levels of cash holding have better immunity and thus experience higher returns during the pandemic period.

The investment decisions are subjected to risk and return of the financial asset. Options strategies help employ a suitable strategy to balance the risk-return trade-off. The study analyzes the risk-return trade-off of the long straddle, long strangle, long call butterfly (LCB), short straddle, short strangle, and short call butterfly (SCB) strategies. Moreover, it measures the impact of strategy risk and options premiums on strategy return using panel data analysis. Additionally, the study evaluates the performance of options strategies using the excess returns to risk approach under neutral and volatile market conditions. This paper considered companies of top-six sector indices of the National Stock Exchange from 2009 to 2020 and collected data of 18,720 option contracts and 3,744 observations for each strategy (22,464 observations). The study revealed that risks of long straddle and long strangle strategies have a positive impact, and options premiums negatively influence their payoff. ATM call premiums positively affect LCB payoff, while OTM and ITM call premiums positively influence SCB payoff. However, the risks of butterfly strategy did not influence its payoff. The risk of short straddle and short strangle strategies negatively influenced the payoff and were considered riskier strategies. Moreover, short straddle and short strangle strategies enhanced excess returns under both market conditions. The results would help the investors in choosing the appropriate strategy by analyzing the impact of risk on the payoff and the ability to enhance excess returns to the risk of various options strategies to incorporate in their investment.

This paper explores the influence of traditional and ESG stock market indices on a country’s net international investment position. To do this, different methods, including ANOVA analysis, multiply regression analysis, correlation analysis, VAR-analysis and R/S-analysis, as well as the Granger causality test, are applied to quarterly data on the net international investment position, traditional and ESG indices from Finland, Sweden, France, Spain and Ukraine over the period 2005–2021. The results of descriptive statistics show that ESG indices are more volatile than traditional, but these differences are statistically insignificant according to ANOVA analysis. Correlation analysis provides direct evidence that ESG indices are highly correlated with their traditional analogues (correlation level varies from 0.88 to 0.96). Regression analysis results show that traditional and ESG stock market indices have no significant impact on the net international investment position. ESG stock market indices and net international investment position data are persistent, and autoregressive models can be applied to these data sets. On average, Hurst exponent is above 0.75 for the case of ESG indices and above 0.85 for the net investment position. This paper provides recommendations to improve the responsible investment framework.

Acknowledgment
Alex Plastun gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (0121U100473).

Despite the success of behavioral finance, the question of whether behavioral biases persist in the face of expertise is an oft-expressed concern. It becomes pertinent to explore if investor sophistication is associated with behavioral biases, as traders gain sophistication with experience and knowledge. The current study explores this relationship by proposing a new conceptualization of investors’ sophistication via the processes of learning and competition. The study empirically explores if herding and overconfidence biases are related to learning and competition, and thus, with investors’ sophistication via these aspects. Using data from equity investors from India (n = 257), the study employs ANOVA and multiple regression analysis through indicator function to form dummy variables for different categories. The results of the study conclude that diversification is significantly related to both the biases using ANOVA (F(3,253) = 3.081; p < 0.05) as well as multiple regression (p < 0.05). The other variables considered are found to be non-significant (p > 0.05) for both the biases. The study controls for all the other observed variables of the conceptual model to find out the effect of the change in the observed variables on the level of investor sophistication, making this study a novel and a distinct attempt.

This study aims to compare the impact of the ownership structure as one of the essential internal mechanisms of governance on the proxies of external audit quality on a sample of 82 listed Egyptian companies and 77 listed Saudi companies from 2014 to 2021, employing the OLS regression analysis. The current study found mixed results according to the type of ownership and indicators of the external audit quality, both in Egyptian and Saudi companies. The results showed a significant effect of board ownership, management ownership, and family ownership on audit quality. However, the direction of this effect varied between positive or negative in Egyptian or Saudi companies, and the effect was sometimes insignificant. On the contrary, the results showed an insignificant effect of government ownership on audit quality in Egyptian and Saudi companies, or the effect was sometimes significant. The study results may help investors and stakeholders understand the ownership structure’s role as one of the internal governance mechanisms on audit quality. Studies show the effectiveness of governance mechanisms, whether internal or external, according to the institutional environment from one country to another. It also contributes to the use of various indicators to measure the quality of auditing and the quality of financial reports, such as returning the financial statements as an indicator of financial reports and an indicator of audit quality at the same time.

This paper aims to analyze business liquidity perceptions during the Covid-19 lockdown and how the lockdown affected businesses. The research methodology used in this paper consists of a literature review on businesses in the lockdown and an analysis of data collected through a survey conducted in the second quarter of 2020, immediately after the Covid-19 restriction measures were imposed. The sample used contains 180 businesses from a population of 166,386 businesses in Albania, providing a 7.30% error according to the Raosoft calculator. A more in-depth analysis was made by comparison, using box-plots for liquidity issues and problems faced by small, medium and large businesses (SMLEs) during the pandemic. The degree of significance of factors taken into consideration in this study is expressed by Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (PCC) and an econometric model. The processing and analysis of data was made using SPSS V21. From the analysis of the factors considered and the size of the business, two important conclusions emerge: (1) the exercise of activity for Albanian businesses is closely related to the payments and the business perspective (bankruptcy risk); (2) the fear of bankruptcy was felt more by big business, while medium business had fewer problems referring to all the factors taken into consideration. The econometric model determined the most important factors for assessing the level of impact of Covid-19: Failure Perception, Support from Solidarity Packages, and Cash Reserves Usage. Surprisingly, it is noticed that businesses attribute the use of cash reserves (C.R.U) to different expenses/liabilities compared to the traditional ones treated in this study.

This paper explores the effect of the return and volatility spillover between the Standard and Poor’s 500 index and FTSE All-Share index using the AG-DCC_ Dynamic Conditional Correlation model over the sample period from April 1995 to April 2019. It demonstrates that the Standard and Poor’s 500 return and volatility are crucial in forecasting the market’s future dynamics of the FTSE All Shares where it finds a significant spillover effect for both return and volatility from the Standard and Poor’s 500 to FTSE All Shares, while weak evidence has been found in the opposite direction, that is, an insignificant spillover effect for both return and volatility from FTSE All Shares to the Standard and Poor’s 500. In addition, the paper also finds high Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC) between both the Standard and Poor’s 500 and FTSE All Shares. Therefore, it finds asymmetric correlation and transmission mechanisms between the Standard and Poor’s 500 and FTSE All Shares, which means there is an asymmetric interconnectedness between two markets, so allocating assets between two markets will not benefit investor portfolios as investing in high-yielding shares do.

The paper examines the shift in stock indices’ behavior in BRICS nations, prior to and following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, using daily data of relevant stock indices from April 2019 to March 2021. The study seeks to ascertain the influence of COVID-19 on stock markets of BRICS countries. The descriptive analysis and graphical presentation established that the pandemic period was extremely variable, with high average returns. Furthermore, the findings reveal that, with the exception of China and South Africa, the BRICS nations’ stock indices were not cointegrated prior to the epidemic. Interdependence has increased throughout the epidemic, as three BRICS nation pairings, particularly Brazil and China, China and South Africa, and Russia and South Africa, are all cointegrated. This demonstrates that the COVID-19 problem strengthened the BRICS countries’ cointegration or relatedness. As a result, portfolio diversification opportunities have dwindled. Additionally, given the relatively high average stock indices, investors may generate significant returns by investing in indices rather than individual firms, especially during the pandemic crisis time.

The study investigates the interactive impact of tax planning and CG on firm value of the listed Nigerian consumer goods firms by examining whether this relationship is further strengthened or weakened in the presence of strong corporate governance. From the population of the entire 21 consumer goods firms of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), 19 firms with complete data were selected as a sample. Data were collected from the annual reports of these firms and both descriptive and inferential analyses were employed to estimate the relationship between the variables. Tax planning was measured using the effective tax rate and book-tax difference, firm value using Tobin’s q, while corporate governance was measured using board independence. The fixed effect panel regression was used to estimate the relationship. The study revealed a positive relationship between tax planning (for both proxies) and firm value although the relationship is statistically insignificant (p = 0.0981 and 0.387). Also, there is limited evidence to support the assertion that the interactive effect of tax planning and firm value is significantly moderated by corporate governance (p = 0.818). The combined implication is that evidence on the moderating effect of corporate governance on tax planning and firm value is limited and should be interpreted with caution suggesting that more empirical research should be carried out in this area. In addition, shareholders should demand more disclosure of tax-related matters as this will help prevent information asymmetry, improve monitoring, and increase the value effectiveness of tax planning.

Investment refers to various actions taken by individuals, including the younger generation in Indonesia, to prepare for the future. There are many programs around investment offered by the government in Indonesia for the short to long term. Therefore, this study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of personality traits, financial literacy, and behavior and family support on investment intentions using a quantitative approach. In addition, this study is also intended to add to the limited empirical evidence regarding investment among students in Indonesia. The model of this research framework is based on collaboration between theory and previous research as a reference in strengthening the justification of the findings. The sample consisted of 341 students spread throughout Indonesia, while the data was collected using a questionnaire distributed online and analyzed using the Smart-PLS. The overall findings of this study indicate that personality, financial literacy, and behavior have a significant effect on investment intentions among students in Indonesia. Furthermore, financial behavior indicates the role of intermediaries, while family support does not strengthen the effect of financial literacy on investment intentions among students in Indonesia. The students who take financial management courses will be more aware of the importance of financial literacy and financial behavior for investment intentions. Recommendations for further research can relate other variables affecting investment intentions that were not examined in this study.

In a number of countries around the world, population ageing raises concerns about the sustainability of pension systems. A younger generation has conventionally been least likely to save for retirement even if there is a need to take individual responsibility and start saving for their retirement as soon as possible. In this context, the aim of the paper is to identify behavioral barriers and interventions towards retirement savings ceiling to this part of the productive population. For this purpose, three online focus groups were deployed among 16 university students aged 23-24 years. Using the coding process, common categories, related codes and frequencies of responses were determined from the transcribed material. The results pointed at two crucial barriers related to retirement savings: behavioral (present bias, status quo bias, loss aversion, limited attention) and institutional (education, pension policy and trustworthiness of the state institutions). Additionally, three main categories of behavioral interventions were detected to overcome these barriers: simplification of decision-making (easy calculation of pension, default options), use of salience effects (information campaigns, visualization tools, personalized content) and minimizing feelings of loss (framing of messages, financial incentives, products with different types of liquidity). Based on findings, recommendations were formulated for three groups of stakeholders: government, industry (financial providers and pension funds) and employers. The results bring valuable insights to relevant stakeholders regarding behaviors and attitudes of the young generation on retirement savings issues.

Acknowledgments
This contribution was written with the support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, project number TL03000737 titled as “Behavioral economics as a population activation targeted tool within use of financial security banking products.”

This study examines the influence of corporate-specific factors and external factors on capital adequacy of Indian banks listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). This study used a GMM estimation (pooled, fixed, and random) for the period 2009–2018 to study thirty-seven Indian listed commercial banks. Banks’ capital adequacy (CAAD) is used as a dependent variable measured by equity to total assets. While corporate specifics factors include bank size, asset quality, liquidity ratio, deposit ratio, asset management, operating efficiency, return on assets, net interest margin, and non-interest income, external factors are economic activity, exchange rate, and interest rate. The results of this paper found that the deposit ratio, asset management, bank size, and operating efficiency are the main factors influencing banks’ CAAD of Indian listed firms during the period of the study. The outcomes revealed that the deposits ratio, asset management, and bank size have a negative and significant influence on banks’ CAAD, while operating efficiency has a positive and significant impact on CAAD. In terms of external indicators, the results revealed that gross domestic product and interest rate have a negative and significant effect on CAAD of Indian listed banks, except that the exchange rate has a positive and significant influence on CAAD.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the Arab Open University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for supporting this research paper.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption in financial markets worldwide and impacted the performance of investment avenues like mutual funds. It has been a challenging scenario for all mutual funds to sustain the pre-pandemic performance. To understand the mutual fund investment scenario further, this study focused on examining the post-pandemic performance in the year 2021 of various categories of mutual funds, the significance of scheme characteristics in determining the performance, risk-adjusted performance, and outperformance of various categories of funds. Out of 4,305 mutual fund schemes, tax planning funds (58%), sectoral funds (57%), and equity diversified funds (55%) achieved better returns. Further, using the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, the study estimated the effect of fund characteristics like scheme category, scheme type, scheme access type along with the fund’s tracking error and corpus size on funds’ return. The results show that tax planning, sectoral, and equity diversified funds significantly outperform. Tracking error significantly reduces the fund return by 4.52%. Scheme type, scheme access type, and corpus size were not significant. Equity, index, pension, and balanced category funds exhibit risk-adjusted performance, and only bond funds were able to outperform the respective benchmarks. The study adds to the existing literature by investigating the post-pandemic performance determinants of mutual funds.

This paper investigates whether there exists a Bowman paradox on the relationship between risk-return for Vietnamese firms. Data in the annual audited financial statements from 2017 to 2020 of 727 enterprises listed on the Vietnamese stock market are used in this study. The data set is divided into two different groups based on the reference point, which is the average return of the whole market and by industry. Correlation analysis and ordinary least square regression according to cross sectional data were performed in this study. After controlling for size, debt-to-total assets, and debt-to-equity ratios, the research results show that the risk-return relationship of the two groups of firms is mixed and can be explained by prospect theory. There exists Bowman's paradox for a group of firms whose return is below the reference point, these firms tend to seek risk versus return, so their risk-return relationship is negative. In contrast, this relationship is positive for the group of firms whose returns are above the reference point, or which tend to avoid risk. The slope coefficient of the group of enterprises below the reference point compared to the rest of enterprises is 2.5:1, which correctly reflects the ratio of the risk-seeking area to the risk-avoiding area in prospect theory.

This paper investigates the value relevance of the financial information reported by energy companies included in the NSE Energy Index after the mandatory adoption of the Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) for the 2016–2017 accounting year. The fixed-effects model was employed on the panel data of energy companies included in the NSE Energy Index to study the impact of the accounting information on the market price of the shares for the period 2017–2021. The study suggests that a company’s book value consistently explained the variation in the market price across each year individually. Moreover, with the control of time across firms for the study period, book value per share and net cash flow from investing activities have significant explanatory power on the market price of a company’s shares. Profit after tax, which is widely used to determine a firm’s performance, cannot explain the variability in the market price of shares.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into developing countries play an important role in the dynamics of economic growth. Meanwhile, financial development (FDV) and corruption have been considered a determinant of FDI. Therefore, this study aims to assess the effect of FDV and corruption on FDI in developing countries. In addition, this study explores the combined impact of FDV and corruption on FDI. Furthermore, the data for 108 developing countries were collected from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank from 1993 to 2017. The results showed that FDV has a positive and significant effect on FDI, while corruption does not have a statistically significant impact. This demonstrates that FDV has contributed to the growth of foreign investment and the important sources of financing for developing countries. However, the interaction between FDV and corruption has a negative effect on FDI. This implies that FDV followed by an increase in corruption tends to reduce FDI inflows. These results encourage policymakers to address issues regarding the joint impact of FDV and corruption on FDI in developing countries.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to express their gratitude to three anonymous reviewers and seminar participants at Mulawarman University for their insightful comments.

This study examines the effect of family control on the price reaction to rights issue announcements of publicly listed firms in Indonesia during the period of 2005–2018. The study uses agency theory, which discusses the conflict of interest between controlling/majority and non-controlling/minority shareholders. The results show that the price reaction to the right issue announcements for publicly listed firms in Indonesia is statistically significantly negative. The mean of cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) falls between –1.40% (for the Day 0 window period) and –3,43% (for the –5 to +5 window period). Further examination indicates that family control is associated with a more negative price reaction to these rights issue announcements. Specifically, for rights issue announcements of family firms, the mean cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) fall between –1,98% at announcement day (Day 0) and –5,23% for the event window period (–5 to +5). Meanwhile, for rights issue announcements of non-family firms, the current study found statistically insignificant price reactions to rights issue announcements for all the event window periods. These findings suggest that investors perceive higher agency problems among family firms where the family controlling shareholders tend to misuse and tunnel the rights issue funds for their own private benefit.

Identifying the characteristics of Indonesian local governments that disclose financial statements looks relevant in order to find out the reasons for local governments in making policies to disclose financial statements. This study aims to examine whether financial condition, financial independence and political competition have an effect on the disclosure of financial statements in local governments, particularly districts/cities in Sumatra, Indonesia. A sample of 151 districts and cities on the Indonesian island of Sumatra were used in this quantitative analysis. The use of cluster sampling due to the implementation of accrual accounting based on the government regulation No. 71 of 2010 is applied in all districts/cities in Sumatra and has the same characteristics. The data analysis technique used in this study is a multiple linear regression with the SPSS test tool. The results reveal that factors influencing the financial statements disclosure is influenced by financial conditions (β = 0.095; p < 0.05), financial independence (β = 0.069; p < 0.05), and political competition (β = 0.038; p < 0.05). Overall, the results show a strong conclusion regarding the factors that affect the financial statements of the Indonesian government. The findings of this investigation can be a useful consideration for local governments in improving the quality of their external communications and improving public governance.

This paper investigates the topological evolution of the Casablanca Stock Exchange (СSE) from the perspective of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Cross-correlations between the daily closing prices of the Moroccan most active shares (MADEX) index stocks from March 1, 2016 to February 18, 2022 were used to compute the minimum spanning tree (MST) maps. In addition to the whole sample, the analysis also uses three sub-periods to investigate the topological evolution before, during, and after the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Morocco. The findings show that, compared to other periods, the mean correlation coefficient increased remarkably through the crisis period; inversely, the mean distance decreased in the same period. The MST and its related tree length support the evidence of the star-like structure, the shrinkage of the MST in times of market turbulence, and an expansion in the recovery period. Besides, the CSE network was less clustered and homogeneous before and after the crisis than in the crisis period, where the banking sector held a key role. The degree and betweenness centrality analysis showed that Itissalat Al-Maghrib and Auto Hall were the most prominent stocks before the crisis. On the other hand, Attijariwafa Bank, Banque Populaire, and Cosumar were the leading stocks during and after the crisis. Indeed, the results of this study can be used to assist policymakers and investors in incorporating subjective judgment into the portfolio optimization problem during extreme events.

Inflation in Czech Republic in 2021 significantly deviated from the tolerance band. Although the economic results are lagging behind expectations, inflationary pressures, mainly from abroad, are still intensifying. At the same time, the rapid rise in consumer prices affects not only households and consumers, but also business and companies. As is known, a very important tool for understanding inflation is the Phillips curve, which shows the relationship between two variables, the first one is inflation and the second one is unemployment. The aim of this paper is to research the relationship between the short-term Philips curves and long-term Phillips curves for the Czech Republic. For this purpose, data on the inflation rate and unemployment rate between 1993 and 2018 were contrasted based on data published by the Czech Statistical Office. The short-term Phillips curve was assumed under adaptive expectation conditions, whereby a regression analysis was undertaken using SPSS statistical software to determine suitable values for the corresponding parameters. In addition, and in accordance with the trend figure and data description figure for both the unemployment rate variable and inflation rate variable, the basis for the development of the long-term Phillips curve is described. Subsequently, it is concluded that a mutually substitutive relationship exists with regards to the short-term and that the long-term is an irregular circular curve that moves in a clockwise direction.

This study examines the connectedness and time-frequency correlation of price volatility across the Chinese stock market and major commodity markets. This paper applies a DCC-GARCH-based volatility connectedness model and the cross-wavelet transform to examine the transmission of risk patterns in these markets before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as the leading lag relationship and synergistic movements between different time domains. First, the findings of the DCC-GARCH connectedness model show dynamic total spillovers are stronger after the COVID-19 outbreak. Chinese stocks and corn have been net spillovers in the system throughout the sample period, but the Chinese market plays the role of a net receiver of volatility relative to other markets (net pairwise directional connectedness) in the system as a whole. In terms of wavelet results, there is some connection to the connectedness results, with all commodity markets, except soybeans and wheat, showing significant dependence on Chinese equities in the medium/long term following the COVID-19 outbreak. Secondly, the medium-to long-term frequency of the crude oil market and copper market are highly dependent on the Chinese stock market, especially after the COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, the copper market is the main source of risk for the Chinese stock market, while the wheat market sends the least shocks to the Chinese stock market. The findings of this paper will have a direct impact on a number of important decisions made by investors and policymakers.

Thailand’s Single Stock Futures market has grown recently over the last ten years, evidenced by its 8th place in top 10 exchanges in the world by number of single stock futures traded in 2021. Since the main goal of any futures exchange is to list a successful contact, it is important to demonstrate the determinants of the success of Single Stock Futures. This study uses the sample consisting of 89 companies, on which stocks are underlying for Single Stock Futures in the period between January 2017 and December 2021, and finds that the best fitting method in modelling determinants of the success of Single Stock Futures is the fixed effects model. As expected, the results confirm the existence of a positive relationship between characteristics of underlying stock, including size, volatility, and liquidity, and the successful futures contract. Furthermore, the findings show the negative effects of the first year of contract trading and the tightened daily price limit of Single Stock Futures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic situation on contract success.

Acknowledgment
The author is grateful to the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Kasetsart University for financial support to conduct this research.

The lockdowns and restrictions imposed to control COVID-19 have made life miserable for people, especially those involved in informal economic activities. The pandemic induced financial hardships, caused financial anxiety and financial stress among informal sector participants. This study aimed to measure and analyze the financial stress and financial insecurity of one of the important informal sector elements (street vendors) in India. Street vendors in Bangalore were interviewed in this descriptive research through personal interaction and telephonic interviews. The collected primary data were processed using SPSS statistical package. The results have indicated that the pandemic inflicted financial stress on street vendors irrespective of their gender, marital status, age, education, monthly income, and type of product dealt. Financial stress levels varied depending on the number of dependents of street vendors and their business nature. Financial literacy differed according to street vendors’ marital status. A person becomes extremely sensitive and cautious in personal finance matters on getting married. Financial stress and financial literacy correlated negatively. 89.5% of street vendors perceived that they had financial insecurity in the future due to this pandemic. The results indicated that financial stress and financial literacy did not affect financial insecurity perceptions of street vendors. The predictors of financial insecurity have been marital status and the number of dependents of the street vendors (r2: 16.6%). However, marital status alone impacted the 6% variance in financial insecurity. This study concluded that the pandemic caused financial stress and financial insecurity among street vendors, but not financial stress and financial literacy.

In the last few decades, the continuous depreciation in the value of the naira occasioned by the dwindling external reserves affected the exchange rate resulting in several macroeconomic fundamentals in Nigeria. The objective of the study is to examine the impact of external reserves on economic growth in Nigeria. The study utilizes the descriptive approach for the trend analysis, while the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was relied upon in scrutinizing the contemporaneous dynamics for the unrestricted ECM. The data that were culled from several issues of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s annual report and statement of account covered the period 1986–2020. Descriptively, the study finds that economic growth rate and external reserves witnessed fluctuations with the latter being relatively more pronounced. Accordingly, the study finds that in the long run, all the explanatory variables were key determinants of economic growth in Nigeria. Specifically, economic growth is significantly and positively responsive to changes in external reserves by 0.22%, inflation rate by 0.08%, and a one period lag of GDP of 0.21% contrary to its negative response to changes in exchange rate of 0.10% in the short run. The paper recommended that the government may consider providing conducive environment for increased productivity, thereby increasing foreign reserves. Likewise, the situation that may encourage exchange rate misalignment should be avoided. Finally, inflation rate must be controlled within a single digit.

Acknowledgment
The support from Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria, to publish this article is appreciated.

Microfinance plays a catalytic role in the sustainability of small, micro, and medium enterprises (SMMEs). Given the prevailing failure rate of SMMEs in South Africa, a holistic view of microfinance institutions (MFIs) regarding microfinance is essential. This paper explores how MFIs enhance women-owned SMMEs’ sustainability in the Gqeberha area focusing on three MFIs subsidized by the South African government in Nelson Mandela Bay municipality. Systems theory was used to explore areas that MFIs should focus on to enhance the sustainability of women-owned SMMEs. A qualitative case study using semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires was employed. The research sample was drawn from three public MFIs in Gqeberha and 21 women-owned SMMEs who are beneficiaries of the MFIs. Coding and thematic analysis were used for data analysis. MFIs encounter challenges in adequately servicing women-owned SMMEs. A mismatch was identified in the provision and demand of microfinance services due to limited funding for MFIs. The non-financial support essential to keeping SMMEs afloat does not meet the needs of women-owned businesses. The microfinance services provided by MFIs play a significant role in supporting SMMEs to achieve sustainability. However, there is a need for a complementary service that should offer sector-specific business support because current services provided by the MFIs are generic, and SMMEs need sector-specific assistance.

Acknowledgments
Our special thanks go to the Department of Development Studies and Nelson Mandela University for the support that contributed to the success of this manuscript. We also acknowledge Dr. Ruth Albertyn for her technical and editorial support.

Generation Z is the future generation with technology familiarity and is a trendsetter in financial technology. This study aimed to compare (similarities and differences) perceptions of Generation Z Muslims in Indonesia and Malaysia in paying Zakat, Infaq, and Sadaqah (ZIS). This study uses a qualitative approach with phenomenological methods through focus group discussions. This method was chosen because it allows substantial interaction between participants to compare objects more boldly. Initially, there were 43 Generation Z students from Indonesia and 25 Generation Z students from Malaysia. The total reduction of participants was carried out to find the most relevant and appropriate participants by determining the criteria for having paid ZIS using financial technology (Fintech) at least once. With 10 participants from each country from the final narrowing results, two stages of Focus Group Discussion were carried out. The findings show the similarity of perceptions of awareness of use, including the need and importance of usage benefits. The similarity of perceptions regarding reputation was also found in professionalism and reliability. In contrast, similar perceptions of satisfaction occurred in aspects of multifunction and usability. In addition, differences were found in the perception of data security. There are still suspicions about data security among Indonesian participants. No studies directly compare Generation Z Muslims in the two countries that pay ZIS through Fintech. This study confirms that it is essential to increase the security of personal data when using fintech. Then there is a feeling of security and comfort for Generation Z who donated ZIS.

Sustainable firm value is the central concept for corporations, including the banking industry. This study examines the effect of profitability and bank size on firm value through capital structure. This study surveyed six banks registered in BUKU 4-member commercial banks operating in Indonesia that have been listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange and implemented digital banking practices from 2007 to 2019. The six banks are Bank Mandiri, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Negara Indonesia, Bank Central Asia, Bank CIMB Niaga, and Bank Panin. Data collection is carried out by tracing the banks’ reports from the Bloomberg system terminal. Data analysis used a two-stage least squares technique. The results showed that profitability negatively and significantly affected the capital structure with a coefficient of –0.374. Moreover, bank size influences the capital structure with a negative coefficient value of –0.334. In addition, profitability positively affects firm value with a coefficient value of 0.387. Furthermore, bank size influences capital structure with a beta coefficient value of 0.158. Finally, the bank size affects firm value with a coefficient value of –0.419. These findings provide an insight for bank management to enhance firm value by assessing profitability, bank size, and capital structure. This study also contributes to the ongoing research in financial management.

In peacetime, the main contribution of monetary policy to macroeconomic stability is to ensure the stability of price dynamics through regulating money supply. During the war, the market principles of the economy and the formation of its prices are violated, monetary transmission mechanisms do not work adequately, the role of the state in ensuring the proper functioning of commodity-money relations increases. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to generalize approaches to the formulation of monetary policy during the wartime and to substantiate the relevant recommendations for contemporary situation in Ukraine. Theoretical sources, advisory and research materials of international organizations and national macroeconomic regulators, statistical databases were used to achieve the stated aim. The generally accepted principle of modifying monetary policy during the wartime is the use by the central bank of instruments that expand the money supply – purchasing assets on the open market, outright purchase of government bonds on the primary market, special targeted refinancing of credit institutions. The paper suggest the design of the monetary regime of the war period, which provides for the modification of such aspects of the central bank performance as the target of monetary policy, the composition of interest rates on basic operations of the central bank, foreign exchange market regulation and regulation of capital flows, the relationships of the central bank and fiscal authority. It is argued that in the conditions of military economy, the main contribution of monetary policy to macroeconomic stability is achieved through ensuring the stable functioning of the government borrowing market and controlling capital flows.

This paper uses theValue at Risk (VaR) and the Expected Shortfall (ES) to compare the riskiness of the two currency exchange rate volatility, namely BitCoin against the US dollar (BTC/USD) and the South African Rand against the US dollar (ZAR/USD). The risks calculated are tail-related measures, so the Extreme Value Theory is used to capture extreme risk more accurately. The Generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) is assumed under Extreme Value Theory (EVT). The family of Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models was used to model the volatility-clustering feature. The Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) method was used in parameter estimation. Results obtained from the GPD are compared using two underlying distributions for the errors, namely: the Normal and the Student-t distributions. The findings show that the tail VaR on the BitCoin averaging 1.6 and 2.8 is riskier than on South Africa’s Rand that averages 1.5 and 2.3 at 95% and 99%, respectively. The same conclusion is made about tail ES, the BitCoin average of 2.3 and 3.6 is higher (riskier) than the South African Rand averages at 2.1 and 2.9 at 95% and 99%, respectively. The backtesting results confirm the model adequacy of the GARCH-GPD in the estimation of VaR and ES, since all p-values are above 0.05.