We employ Eurobarometer micro‐level data on trust in institutions, in order to explore its determinants, considering socio‐demographic characteristics, and macroeconomic indicators. The main contribution of our analysis is the investigation of the potential impact of sovereign credit rating episodes and the adoption of bail‐out programmes. We find that trust in institutions is substantially eroded in countries that experience downgrade episodes and participate in fiscal adjustment programmes while it is significantly strengthened following credit rating upgrades.
PurposeThe goal of this paper is twofold. First, to examine the role of expectations in shaping agents' behaviour within an extended time frame which incorporates a prolonged harsh downturn of economic activity. Therefore, the authors allow for an indirect impact of economy-wide expectations operating via their coexistence with firms' balance sheet factors. Second, it is tested whether the behaviour of listed firms as regards to debt follows the pecking order theory.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use the panel data methodology in the estimation of the financial structure models since unobservable heterogeneity is an important determinant towards the target leverage. A fixed effects estimation procedure, with robust intercepts allowed to vary across firms, was employed to examine the relationship between leverage and performance.FindingsThe findings offer evidence of patterns of pecking order behaviour and thus for the necessity of internal financing over external debt. The authors also extended the set of determinants by investigating the effect of macroeconomic conditions on the debt decision of firms. Contrary to the authors’ expectations, short-run beliefs of economic agents appear to play a negative role in leverage.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature in a number of ways. First, following the growing literature of loan dynamics, the findings provide useful insights into corporate capital structure decisions in an economy in which businesses were almost excluded from external financing for over a decade. Second, in order to better understand corporate financing decisions, it is necessary to consider the overall economic framework in which companies and especially the listed ones operate.
In this paper, we investigate whether the characteristics of boards of directors are associated with earnings management. By employing a sample of listed firms in the Athens Stock Exchange during the period from 2008 to 2016 and applying two different earnings management models (Dechow’s ’96 and DeAngelo’s ’86) to explore, via the discretionary accruals, for the presence of earnings management, we surprisingly found no evidence of almost any effect of the investigated board characteristics, except CEO duality. Besides, we also found significant variation over time. This finding confirms the unpresented effect of the sovereign debt crisis on Greek firms. The corporate governance legal framework has been improved since the mandatory adoption of the International Accounting Standards, at least from the listed firms in the Athens Stock Exchange in 2005. Under the new rules, more detailed corporate governance information is included in the firms’ financial reports during the last decade.
Trust is considered a cornerstone in binding the society, the economy and the politics altogether. The rationale of trust takes into account the importance of both individual factors and social and institutional structures. However, since the onset of the crisis, net trust in institutions has generally declined. The literature has shown that economic and other macro-variables matter for trust in institutions along with individual characteristics. However, there is no systematic evidence on the impact of credit ratings and bailouts. Hence by employing a probit model and using the Eurobarometer survey from 2000 to 2014, this study focuses on rating episodes and bailouts while controlling for individual-level influences. Along with socio-demographic factors and economic conditions, rating episodes and bail-out plans are seen to reduce the tendency of people to trust.
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