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This paper analyzes governance and ownership structure and their impacts on dividend policy in emerging markets during financial crises. Our results provide strong evidence of the significant role of corporate ownership structure and board characteristics in explaining the behavior of dividend policy mainly during crisis periods. We show that firms with a higher proportion of institutional shareholders pursue higher dividend payout ratios. This study is of particular interest for business managers in their choice of strategies to be adopted in respect for dividend policy during crisis periods.

This paper examines the factors influencing the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of foreign banks. We test whether the CAR of subsidiaries and branches in developed and developing countries depends on the same factors. We use data from 310 subsidiaries and 265 branches to test the impact of the parent banks' fundamentals on subsidiaries' and branches' capital ratios. We also study how the economic condition and regulatory environment in a bank's home country determine foreign banks' CAR. Our results provide strong evidence that the CAR of subsidiaries and branches operating in developing and developed countries do not depend on the same set of explanatory factors. We also find that the regulatory framework of a parent bank's home country affects the capitalization of its foreign subsidiaries in the host countries. Finally, we show that specific variables of the parent bank have a stronger effect for foreign banks highly related to the interbank market.

This study investigates how news-based scores in ESG (Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance) may have influenced the monthly stocks’ market return in Switzerland, the US, and the UK during the 2007–2011 period. We find that the variation of the overall ESG score is only significant in the UK. We also show that the changes in sub-category ratings of GRI (namely, governance, economic, environment, labor, human rights, society, and products) exhibit a small but significant impact on the stock’s performance during limited periods or on limited sectors, which varies among the countries. Finally, our non-parametric kernel regression highlights that the function linking a stock’s performance to its ESG-score changes is probably non-linear.Cette étude examine dans quelle mesure les informations ESG (Environnement, Social et Gouvernance d’entreprise), agrégées sous forme de scores, peuvent influencer les rendements mensuels des actions sur les marchés en Suisse, aux États-Unis, et au Royaume-Uni, au cours de la période 2007-2011. Nous constatons que la variation de la note globale ESG n’est significative qu’au Royaume-Uni. Nous montrons également que les changements dans les sous-catégories de notes du GRI (à savoir, la gouvernance, l’économie, l’environnement, le travail, les droits humains, la société et les produits) présentent un impact faible mais significatif sur la performance des actions, mais seulement sur des périodes restreintes ou pour des secteurs limités, qui varient contextuellement selon les pays. Enfin, notre régression non-paramétrique met en évidence la non-linéarité probable de la fonction reliant la performance d’une action à ses changements de score ESG.Este estudio investiga cómo las noticias basadas en puntuaciones en ESG (Enviromental, Social & Governance Index) pueden haber influido en la rentabilidad mensual de los valores de las empresas en Suiza, los EE.UU. y el Reino Unido durante el período 2007-2011. Los resultados muestran que la variación de la puntuación globalen ESG sólo es significativa en el Reino Unido. Además los resultados también muestran que los cambios de clasificación en las subcategorías (es decir, la gobernanza, la economía, el medio ambiente, el trabajo, los derechos humanos, la sociedad y los productos) presenta un pequeño pero significativo impacto en el rendimiento de las acciones durante períodos limitados o en sectores limitados, los cuales varían en los distintos países. Por último, nuestra regresión no paramétrica Kernel subraya que la función que relaciona el rendimiento en bolsa con los cambios en las puntuaciones ESG es probablemente no lineal