Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies

Banks are important for mobilizing savings and then channeling those funds to productive investment projects. While providing these and other services that contribute to economic growth and development, banks take on various types of risks with the expectation that the return they receive will compensate for the risks. This paper presents a simple model and tests the extent to which information asymmetry between bank owners and depositors induces risk-shifting behavior that allows for higher bank net interest margins. The empirical results support the hypothesis that the greater the degree of information asymmetry the higher net interest margins base upon a sample of 3,115 banks in 98 countries.

This study aims to investigate the timescale effects of the corporate governance measure on predicting financial distress of corporations. A new corporate governance measure is adopted in the logistic regression model. Historical data of the companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TSEC) were used in the empirical analysis. The analysis was based on three different prediction horizons comprising one-, two- and three-year horizons. The results confirmed that the accuracy of the logistic regression model for predicting corporate financial distress can be improved by incorporating the corporate governance measure. Moreover, the improvements of the correct rate for classification by incorporating the corporate governance measure increased as the prediction horizon was raised. The improvements of the correct rate for classification by incorporating the corporate governance measure are 2.9%, 4.4% and 5.8% for "Year 1", "Year 2" and "Year 3" models respectively.

In an earlier paper, we adopted a bi-variate BEKK–GARCH framework and employed a systematic approach to examine structural breaks in the Hang Seng Index and Index Futures market volatility. Switching dummy variables were included and tested in the variance equations to check for any structural changes in the autoregressive volatility structure due to the events that have taken place in the Hong Kong market surrounding the Asian markets crisis. In this paper, we include measures of daily trading volume from both markets in the estimation. Likelihood ratio tests indicate the switching dummy variables become insignificant and the GARCH effects diminish but remain significant. There is some evidence that the Sequential Arrival of Information Model (SIM) provides a platform to explain these market induced effects when volume of trade is accounted for.

We use Granger causality tests and an EGARCH model to analyze the pricing relations in the US between two exchange traded funds, the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) and the S&P 500 Index Fund (IVV). Daily data indicates that Hong Kong home market basically drives the FXI returns in the US. In case of intraday analysis, the US-based IVV appears to dominate the pricing of the FXI. The evidence supports the speculative pricing hypothesis that the location of trading has stronger effects than the influence of domestic effects summarized by FXI's lagged returns.

All 11 cases of listed banks in Taiwan involved in merger and acquisition during 2000–2006 are examined. In this paper, the cumulative abnormal returns of acquiring banks two days after merger announcement are found to be negative, although target banks' shareholders enjoy higher abnormal returns. For acquiring banks, the post-merger cost efficiencies are not improved. State-owned banks are more efficient and profitable. Operating restrictions on banks and the recession during sample period are the major reasons. It is also suggested that several state-owned banks should be preserved as a means of improving social welfare.

This study investigates whether there is a "China-concept factor", a common variation of stock returns, for firms that are listed in Taiwan stock markets and have real investments in China. We employ a methodology similar to that used by Lamont et al. (2001) in examining whether there is a financial-constraints factor. Listed firms in Taiwan stock markets for the period 1990–2004 are used to form portfolios of firms based on observable characteristics related to their real investments in China. We find that firms investing heavily in China have stock returns moving together over time, which suggests that firms investing in China are subject to common shocks. Firms investing heavily in China are found to exhibit higher average stock returns. There exists a China-concept factor for firms listed in Taiwan stock market and have real investments in China.