Purpose: This study quantified the hedge and safe haven features of bond markets for multiple cryptocurrency indices from June 2014 to April 2021 to highlight whether bond markets offer hedging facilities to uncertainty indices of cryptocurrencies.Design/methodology/approach: The authors employed the methodology of Baur and McDermott (2010) and AGDCC-GARCH model to measure the hedge and safe-haven characteristics of three bond markets (BBGT, SPGB and SKUK) for three uncertainty indexes of cryptocurrencies (UCRPR, UCRPO and ICEA).Findings: The authors find that bond markets are neither hedge nor safe havens except for SKUK which is a safe haven investment for cryptocurrency indices and offers substantial diversification during the periods of economic fragility. In addition, the hedge effectiveness of SPGB outperforms other bonds during crisis periods and provides sufficient diversification potential for cryptocurrency indices.Practical implications: The findings are important for policymakers, regulatory bodies, financial firms and investors in assessing hedge and safe haven characteristics of bond markets against cryptocurrency indices.Originality/value: Employing the novel methodology of AGDCC-GARCH with three different bond markets and three uncertainty indices of cryptocurrencies, the current study adds to the existing strand of literature in terms of quantifying hedge and safe-haven attributes of bond markets for cryptocurrency uncertainty indexes.

Purpose: The goal of this work is to determine whether Bitcoin behaves as a safe-haven asset. In order to do so, the influence of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) on Bitcoin returns and volatility was studied.Design/methodology/approach: It is evaluated whether, when compared with the evolution of EPU, Bitcoin's returns and volatility show behaviours typical of safe havens or rather, those of conventional speculative assets. When faced with an increase in EPU, safe havens – such as gold – can be expected to increase their returns and volatility, while conventional speculative assets will increase their volatility and reduce their returns. This study uses simple linear regression and quantile regression models on a daily data sample from 19 July 2010 to 11 April 2019, to analyse the influence of EPU on the returns and volatility of Bitcoin and gold.Findings: Bitcoin's returns and volatility increase during more uncertain times, just like gold, showing that Bitcoin acts not only as a means of exchange but also shows characteristics of investment assets, specifically of safe havens. These findings provide useful information to investors by allowing Bitcoin to be considered as a tool to protect savings in times of economic uncertainty and to diversify portfolios.Originality/value: This study complements and expands current research by aiming to answer the question of whether Bitcoin is a simple speculative asset or a safe haven. The most significant contribution is to show that Bitcoin is not a mere speculative asset but behaves like a safe haven.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to construct the first short-term financial distress prediction model for the Spanish banking sector. Design/methodology/approach: The concept of financial distress covers a range of different types of financial problems, in addition to bankruptcy, which is not common in the sector. The methodology used to predict financial problems was artificial neural networks using traditional financial variables according to the capital, assets, management, earnings, liquidity and sensibility system, as well as a series of macroeconomic variables, the impact of which has been proven in a number of studies. Findings: The results obtained show that artificial neural networks are a highly suitable method for studying financial distress in Spanish credit institutions and for predicting all cases in which an entity has short-term financial problems. Originality/value: This is the first work that tries to build a model of artificial neural networks to predict the financial distress in the Spanish banking system, grouping under the concept of financial distress, apart from bankruptcy, other financial problems that affect the viability of these entities.

Disclosure of gender equality policies and their effect on business profitability is a relevant area of research due to the existence of a gap in the academic literature and the need to decrease the gender gap in companies (5th Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations). To demonstrate the effect of disclosure of gender policies on business profitability, this study analyses the Social Responsibility Reports of 91 companies listed on the Spanish stock exchange for the period 2016–2018. Information on gender equality policies is extracted by using the content analysis technique. A positive association between disclosure of gender equality policies and the accounting profitability obtained by companies is confirmed by applying a panel data approach. Therefore, this research confirms that it is not only necessary to reduce inequalities, but it also has positive financial effects for companies and is a source of competitive advantage. The findings obtained have significant implications for business management.

In recent decades, the novel fact of considering corporate social responsibility (CSR) as part of the corporate strategy of companies has resulted in interest groups demanding the disclosure of such information. Likewise, considering their importance of transparency and governance today, it is necessary to make an approximation on the study of the divulgation of CSR information on companies listed on the Spanish stock market. The aim of this work is to determine whether the disclosure of the measures taken by the companies on CSR influences business profitability. Applying PLS-SEM on the information extracted from the sustainability reports of 103 companies listed on the Spanish continuous market, it is found that the disclosure of CSR measures improves business profitability in its social and economic dimensions, with no effect being found between the disclosure CSR in its environmental dimension on business profitability.