No abstract

This study investigated the effects of financial literacy, financial self-control, and demographic determinants on individual financial performance and behavior during the Lebanese crisis period between 2019 and 2021. To the best of our knowledge, this may be the first study that compares the determinants of financial behavior for different generations, genders, marital statuses, and education and income levels. To do so, we conducted a comprehensive survey of 328 individuals and performed a logistic regression analysis. The empirical results show that an individual’s financial performance and behavior are positively affected by financial literacy, financial self-control, and demographic factors, in particular education and income levels. In addition, when we focused on the demographic factors, the results reveal that having good financial literacy increases the likelihood of an individual’s financial performance and behavior, in particular for Generations X and Z, males and females, single and married people, low- and high-educated people, and low- and high-income individuals. However, having good financial self-control only increases the likelihood of an individual’s financial performance and behavior at highly educated levels. The results are robust and come from various performed methodologies, and the results have important policy implications. The policies should be focused on enhancing an individual’s financial behavior and helping young adults acquire skills in self-control. Policies could also motivate local financial institutions to offer a variety of financial products and investment opportunities, targeting low-income and low-educated individuals, by providing subsidized funds with parallel mandatory financial studies.

This paper examines whether ownership concentration and certain type of ownership can affect the financial performance of Lebanese banks. It uses longitudinal data from the largest 35 Lebanese banks over the period 2009–2014 and employs the panel regression model. The empirical results show that ownership concentration and certain type of shareholders play an important role in the area of corporate governance in Lebanese banks. In particular, bank financial performance is positively associated with ownership concentration, managerial ownership, and foreign and institutional ownerships; however, family ownership is not related to bank performance. Also, this paper shows that both ownership concentration and managerial ownership have a U-shaped relationship with bank performance. Several robustness tests largely confirm the findings, with important implications for policy-makers. The findings are crucial to policy-makers and bankers who are interested in tailoring good corporate governance principles for the Lebanese banking sector.

No abstract

Extant literature suggests that the banking sector’s sustainability is achievable by minimizing the risk factors, in particular, credit risk (CR). Despite prior studies, there are fewer attempts to considerably probe the role of country governance settings in managing CR and ultimately achieving sustainability. Therefore, this study aims to test this nexus for the banking sector operating in BRICS developing economies. Specifically, this research attempts to explore whether country governance has a moderator role between CR and the exposure of environments to risk factors. To achieve these objectives, we conduct panel data analysis using the quantile (QR) and fixed effects (FE) estimation methods. The results show that increasing liquidity, profitability, capital requirements, and income diversification lead to decreasing CR, whereas increasing inefficiency causes an increase in CR. In addition, the results reveal that a country’s increasing vulnerability to a specific financial risk index (FRI), economic risk index (ERI), and political risk index (PRI); developing capital markets; increasing lending interest rates; and weakening country governance quality is significantly linked to increasing CR. Remarkably, the results underscore that country governance has a significant moderator role, and by enhancing the quality of country governance, the impact of country-specific FRI, ERI, and PRI on CR could be attenuated.