We investigate the effects of the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement on the German stock market by considering the impact of 20 announcements pertaining to the Agreement on 17 industries. The event study methodology is used for this purpose, together with several robustness tests, such as the nonparametric rank test and non-parametric conditional distribution approach. The change in systematic risk following the announcements is captured by using various risk models. In general, we find that the Paris Climate Agreement is achieving its objectives in the short run. Our results show that the announcements affected polluting industries in terms of risk and return. Furthermore, we observe two distinct diamond risk structures when (1) Conference of the Parties (COP) 21 took place, and (2) the Agreement came into force.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance quality and ownership structure on the relationship between the agency cost and firm performance. Both the fixed-effects model and a more robust dynamic panel generalized method of moment estimation are applied to Chinese A-listed firms for the years 2008 to 2016. The results show that the agency–performance relationship is positively moderated by (1) corporate governance quality, (2) ownership concentration, and (3) non-state ownership. State ownership has a negative effect on the agency–performance relationship. Various robust tests of an alternative measure of agency cost confirm our main conclusions. The analysis adds to the empirical literature on agency theory by providing useful insights into how corporate governance and ownership concentration can help mitigate agency–performance relationship. It also highlights the impact of ownership type on the relationship between agency cost and firm performance. Our study supports the literature that agency cost and firm performance are negatively related to the Chinese listed firms. The investors should keep in mind the proxies of agency cost while choosing a specific stock. Secondly; the abuse of managerial appropriation is higher in state-held firms as compared to non-state firms. Policymakers can use these results to devise the investor protection rules so that managerial appropriation can be minimized.

Although, there is an apparent consensus about the contagion effects of the current US subprime crisis. However, the transmission and repercussions of US subprime crisis, as well as the nature of the transformation suffered by different economic sectors between the US and other markets are such empirical questions that have not been dealt with comprehensively, yet. In this paper, by utilizing the multivariate GARCH analysis of Engle and Kroner (1995) for which a BEKK representation is adopted, we examine the transmission of the US subprime crisis across BRIC financial markets. Moreover, to identify the extent of contagion, we also inspect the diffusion of US subprime crisis to BRIC equity markets financial and industrial sectors. We found interesting evidence of volatility spillovers from US financial sector to all the BRIC markets financial sectors both in the full sample and crisis period. Similarly, except Chinese industrial sector, we observe contagion effects from US to Brazilian, Russian and Indian equity markets industrial sectors. Our results exhibit direct linkage for both returns and volatility between the US equity market and the BRIC markets. Equity markets of Russia and India, however, were found hardly hit during the crisis period among the BRIC countries. Finally, we found no support for the decoupling view while investigating the fastest growing emerging markets, the BRIC countries.