Purpose: This study examines the impact of financial technology (FinTech) on bank performance employing data from the United Kingdom (UK) banking sector for a period spanning from 2010 to 2019.Design/methodology/approach: This study employs static as well as dynamic panel data regression analysis to assess the impact of FinTech on the profitability of UK banks.Findings: The results show that FinTech firms positively impact bank performance. For every new FinTech firm introduced into the UK market, net interest margin (NIM) and yield on earning assets (YEA) increase by 6.385 and 3.192% of their sample means, respectively.Practical implications: Cooperating with FinTech firms, UK banks can broaden their portfolio of financial services offered to their customers and optimize their profit margins.Originality/value: This is the first study that examines the impact of FinTech on bank profitability employing data from a developed market.

Financial stability continues to grow in importance and remains a hotly debated topic since the turn of the new century brought a string of financial episodes that culminated with the Global financial crisis of 2007. While the Balkans have traditionally been considered to lie on the periphery of financial phenomena, this wide assessment of the region has changed with the large-scale turmoil caused by the Greek Sovereign Debt crisis. Therefore, to curb nascent instability, financial authorities should remain alert and devise a mechanism able to effectively detect stress in their respective financial systems. So far – in the quest to build a comprehensive and universal Early Warning System – a number of broad measures and indicators have been proposed; however, none of them have been specifically tailored to reflect the distinct character of the Balkan countries with their diverse, yet analogous political, social and economic idiosyncrasies. This paper attempts to tackle this issue from a financial policy standpoint by contributing to the current literature on the subject in three separate ways. First, it builds upon the most recent findings in this area to develop an aggregate financial stability index that measures financial stability levels in nine countries geographically belonging to the Balkan region, entirely or at least in part. Most importantly, this index juxtaposes some well known IMF- backed Financial Soundness and macroprudential indicators with World Bank development indicators and CESifo measures of world economic climate. Second, the authors perform a Chanut-Laroque analysis of contribution to volatility levels in the aggregate stability index in order to explore which sub-indexes can explain the improvement or deterioration of the index value for the 1995-2011 period. Third, this paper compares and contrasts the evolution of financial stability of two sub-indices reflecting the diverging nature of the two groups of countries (Western Balkans vs. EU members) regarding their standing relative to European Union status

Governments ensure majority of their revenues through taxes. If properly designed, taxation policies can be mechanisms of promoting sustainable economic development and inclusive economic growth. However, the main issue of government authorities remains achieving tax compliance among taxpayers. The question of noncompliance intersects different fields from public finance, law, ethics, and its complexity presents a challenge for the society in general. This study aims to examine the influence of chosen economic and psychological determinants on tax compliance. In order to identify the determinants of taxpayers’ behaviour, a total of 862 questionnaires were administered and collected directly from Croatian taxpayers. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyse the survey data. The results suggest that social norms and tax morale influence taxpayers’ compliance significantly. Overall, findings of this study contribute to the better understanding of tax compliance and its determinants in the context of a genuine paradigm shift in the field. This emphasizes the importance of including and exploring psychological determinants in tax compliance analysis.

Purpose: Using data from 49 USA energy and raw material companies listed in the S&P 500 in the period 2011–2021, this study aims to investigate the impact of the quality of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure on market and financial performance as measured by Tobin’s Q and return on assets, respectively.Design/methodology/approach: This study uses panel data regression analysis that accounts for firm- and time-fixed effects to examine the impact of ESG on market and financial performance in high-pollution industries.Findings: This study finds that the quality of ESG disclosure is positively related to stock market performance. Among the three components of ESG, the quality of corporate governance disclosure has the strongest impact on firm market performance.Practical implications: The results suggest that the quality of ESG disclosure has a heterogeneous impact on the market performance and profitability of USA energy and raw material firms. While a good ESG score can improve stock market performance, potentially attracting public investment and improving capital structure, this requires high levels of capital investment that might deprive other essential company operations of resources.Originality/value: This is the first study that examines the impact of ESG disclosure quality on market and financial performance in high-pollution industries. Moreover, this study enriches the existing knowledge by applying dynamic panel data regression analysis in the ESG disclosure–financial performance relationship.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine whether taxpayers’ age, gender, income, and education level impact their (non)compliance. It expands the analysis through the investigation of the moderating role of selected sociodemographic variables. This research was operated in Croatia and in total it comprised 862 fully completed questionnaires. Based on this sample of individual taxpayers (income tax), to interpret the obtained results, OLS regression analysis was employed. The moderation model has been used to explore the influence of sociodemographic variables on tax compliance. The study discloses several results. First, it demonstrates that taxpayers’ age, gender, and education level are significantly associated with their compliance behaviour. In addition to this, the results confirm moderating role of gender, education level, and income level on chosen tax compliance determinants. The findings of this research contribute to policy implications in understanding the groups that require additional attention to create adequate and efficient fiscal strategies.

The capital budgeting process is based on the technique of reducing future cash flows of the net present value which implies a process of discounting by using the discount rate. Usually, in capital budgeting process the discount rate is presented through the cost of capital. The determination of the cost of capital primarily depends on the capital structure, but since the process of capital budgeting implies a long time period, it also implies uncertainty and vagueness. Subjective perception, thinking, judgment and decision making, including a large number of predicted vague data is often expressed solely in linguistic variables by the management and this is the main characteristic of the capital budgeting process, especially in the determination of the cost of the capital through a long time period. The main intention of this paper is to present the use of fuzzy logic in the process of determining the cost of capital and providing an alternative approach in the appraisal of the cost of capital in the presence of fuzziness. The integration and implementation of linguistic variables i.e. qualitative information in the determination of the cost of capital using fuzzy numbers in the capital budgeting process will also be discussed. Through the formulation of a fuzzy system and the use of fuzzy numbers we will propose a process and methodology* for the use of fuzzy numbers in the process of the cost of capital determination. We examine the presented methods and suggest new ideas that could improve further research and implementation of fuzzy logic in the capital budgeting process