Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies

We use jurisdiction-specific effective tax rates (ETRs) to investigate income shifting as an aspect of tax avoidance by U.S. firms. Our central prediction is that tax-based incentives for shifting income, as measured by the spread between domestic and foreign ETRs, should be reflected in the share of pre-tax income earned by U.S. firms in foreign jurisdictions. The data lend substantial support to this prediction. We find robust evidence of a positive correlation between the foreign share of pre-tax income and the ETR spread that is consistent with firms shifting income both into and out of the United States. The evidence also indicates that firms respond asymmetrically to positive and negative ETR spreads. Specifically, the response to a negative spread is stronger than to a positive spread of the same magnitude.

Initiated by a central bank, this is the first study to examine and understand the trilemma as well as the quadrilemma monetary policy challenges in the case of Pacific Island countries. Taking Fiji as an example, over the 1975–2013 period, the trilemma, monetary independence and exchange rate stability might have been the more fervently pursued stance; the quadrilemma focus appears to have shifted to foreign reserves and capital account openness. When the full sample period is split into two subsamples, results show that the policy emphasis might have shifted from monetary independence, capital account openness, and foreign reserves to exchange rate stability, monetary independence, and foreign reserves. Policy implications are discussed.

We examine the impact of Level 3 assets held by nonfinancial companies on credit risk. Specifically, we investigate how the pricing uncertainty of Level 3 assets is reflected in credit ratings, corporate bond yield spreads, and incidences of bond covenants. We find that higher holdings of Level 3 assets are associated with lower credit ratings, higher yield spreads, especially for Level 3 assets sample, and incidences of bondholder-friendly covenants in the bond issues. Our findings are robust to the treatment of sample selection bias and the influence of macroeconomic factors. In addition, our direct test on the relation between the holdings of Level 3 assets and a firm’s distance-to-default shows that higher holdings of Level 3 assets reduce a firm’s distance-to-default. Overall, our findings support the view that Level 3 assets are perceived as increasing credit risk in the bond market.

This paper contributes to the literature on new firms in two ways. First, by addressing new venture investment, it focusses on a largely neglected, but important, issue of new firm business decisions. Secondly, it provides a valuable picture for how investing by new businesses is going to evolve over time. Our results suggest that investments by new firms are prone to an s-shaped time pattern rather than a random, linear, or a gradually growing trajectory or a capital market-driven behavior as is assumed usually in the literature on investment decisions. By constructing a framework for future research on new venture investment, this article suggests specific research opportunities for future contributions to this body of knowledge. Based on the developed theorem, four main strands for future research can be identified, namely, (1) the empirical validation of the theorem per se, including trajectory, duration, and level of investment; (2) the link between investment and funding of the venture; (3) the link between investment and new venture development; and (4) investment as an adjustment of aggregate capital stock.

Traditionally, central banks have used direct intervention in currency markets when the exchange rate has moved away from equilibrium or when the volatility has been excessive and the literature on the effects of indirect intervention is sparse. We examine whether indirect intervention has any impact on the exchange rate levels by examining the central bank verbal communications in Australia and Canada. We find evidence that the Bank of Canada’s (BOC’s) speeches reduce the mean exchange rate returns but not the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA’s) speeches. Our results show that the socio-economic similarities between countries do not guarantee a similar impact of indirect intervention.

There are two ad hoc approaches to Black and Scholes model. The “relative smile” approach treats the implied volatility skew as a fixed function of moneyness, whereas the “absolute smile” approach treats it as a function of the strike price. Previous studies reveal that the “absolute smile” approach is superior to the “relative smile” approach as well as to other sophisticated models for pricing options. We find that the time-to-maturity factors improve the pricing and hedging performance of the ad hoc procedures and the superiority of the “absolute smile” approach still holds even after the time-to-maturity is considered.

This study employs an alternative measure of liquidity risk to investigate its determinants by using an unbalanced panel dataset of commercial banks in 12 advanced economies over the period 1994–2006. Dependence on liquid assets for external funding, supervisory and regulatory factors, and macroeconomic factors are all determinants of liquidity risk. Because of higher funding costs for obtaining liquidity, liquidity risk is regarded as a discount for bank profitability, yet liquidity risk shows a premium on bank performance in terms of banks’ net interest margins. Liquidity risk has reverse impacts on bank performance in a market-based financial system.