Recent evidence by Campbell et al. [J.Y. Campbell, M. Lettau B.G. Malkiel, Y. Xu, Have individual stocks become more volatile? An empirical exploration of idiosyncratic risk, The Journal of Finance (February) (2001)] shows an increase in firm-level volatility and a decline of the correlation...

This article applies a multivariate model to uncover the dynamic mean and volatility interdependence across the markets of Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arabic Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Oman from June 2005 to January 2012. Results show that the...

Unlike previous research which had focused solely on principal-agent conflicts in the Middle East, this paper enriches corporate governance literature of privately-held family firms in an emerging economy with inadequate legislative and enforcement framework, by examining conflicts between...

Repeated turmoil in equity indices in developed and emerging markets puts pressures on market participants to deal with the intense volatility of returns. After examining the normality of daily returns in Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) from June 1999 to May 2011 with Jarque-Berra test (1980), we...

This study seeks to trace dimensions through which corporate governance characteristics influence the financial performance of family owned businesses. Between the periods of 2009-2011, we examined 160 Lebanese family owned firms that were equally divided between a control and an experimental...

Over the past decades, there is an increased trend in the international financial integration as countries are removing and relaxing controls on cross-border investment. Capital can flow easily to the destination that offers higher returns as the results of decreasing obstacles to international...

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between liquidity and stock returns in the Vietnam stock market during the global financial crisis. Vietnam is one of a new group of frontier emerging markets referred to as CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa). We...

Despite the well documented gains from international diversification, investors continue to show a strong preference for investing in domestic assets, a phenomenon referred to in the literature as ‘home bias’. This bias comes at a price — a higher cost of capital for businesses. We...

Employing a panel data modelling technique, we contribute to two critical research issues: what is the link between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and economic growth and does the relationship change under different educational, institutional and economic conditions? Overall, the analysis...

The investor preference for home assets rather than a diversified portfolio of international assets termed 'home bias' remains a puzzle, given recent information and technology improvements, although presumed risk reduction benefits may have been reduced through improved financial market...