The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between stock market development, business cycle and risk of the banks. The statistical population of the study is all banks whose shares were accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2015. The study selects 10 banks, which were active throughout the entire research period on the stock market. The research data were extracted from the financial statements of the companies and analyzed using regression models based on panel data. The research findings show that there was a direct and significant relationship between stock market development and risk of banks. In addition, the effect of stock market development on risk of banks was different in the presence or absence of a crisis, and the financial crisis in banks reduced the impact of the financial development on the risk of banks. The results also show that during the periods of commercial boom, the effect of the financial market development on the risk of banks was more than the periods of the recession.

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a well-known method used to measure the efficiency of decision making units. In this paper, we study the impact of the financial crisis while integrating DEA efficiency measures with Support Vector Machines (SVM). Moreover, to account for the heterogeneity effect in the efficiency measures, the gap statistical method of Tibshirani, et al., (2001) [Tibshirani, R., Walther, G., & Hastie, T. (2001). Estimating the number of clusters in a data set via the gap statistic. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (Statistical Methodology), 63(2), 411-423.] is applied in order to achieve the optimal number of cluster. This study uses December quarterly panel data consisting of Farm Credit Agricultural Banks data from 2005 to 2016. We find strong evidence that the efficiency measures were stationary prior to the financial crisis (2005-2006), during the financial crisis (2007-2009) and post financial crisis (2010-2016). The results further show that the integrated DEA-SVM provide a lower performance during 2007-2009. Furthermore, the results show that the Agricultural banking sector was both efficient and stable over the period being analysed.

During the past three decades, data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been successfully used for measuring the relative efficiency of financial or non-financial firms. This paper presents an empirical investigation to measure the relative efficiency of five Canadian banks versus 6 US big banks using DEA method. The study considers the number of employees and total assets as input and net revenue is used as the output of the DEA model. The data are collected from the official statements of the banks for the fiscal year of 2017. The results indicate that 6 US banks maintained an average efficiency of 0.87 but the average efficiency of Canadian banks was 0.72. While two US banks maintained an efficiency of one, the other US banks demonstrate relatively well in terms of the performance. In Canada, while one bank performed relatively well, the performance of the other Canadian banks were not as good as the US banks.

This paper examines the impact of economic and financial factors on tax revenue of Bahrain and Oman from 1990 to 2010. For this purpose, panel regression analysis is performed by considering economic and financial factors including growth domestic product (GDP), Deposit Interest Rate, Lending Interest Rate, Interest Rate Spread, Real Interest Rate, Bank Capital to Asset Ratio, Bank nonperforming loans to total gross loans, Risk premium on lending, Foreign direct investment net inflow and Cash surplus deficit. A conceptual model is developed for this purpose and the key findings are explained. The outcomes of the study explain that there was a significant relationship between Tax revenue and both economic and financial factors i.e. GDP growth, Bank capital to asset ratio, the Risk premium on lending, Foreign direct investment net inflow and Cash surplus/deficit over the period of study. The findings of the study are very much useful for the policymakers to consider which factors are affecting the tax revenues and in which direction. However, the findings of the study can be more meaningful with the addition of more economic and financial factors as well. Besides, the consideration of other Asian states will provide more evidence for the generalization of the findings. Meanwhile, this study will be a policy note on on-going tax reforms in selected Middle East countries and will be helpful for policymakers and researchers in conceptualizing the tax revenue model for them.

The present study examined the effects of cashless policy on financial inclusion in the Nigerian emerging economy. The necessary data were collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria Economic Reports as well as Statistical Bulletin and the ordinary least squares method was applied to analyze the data. The findings reveal that the cashless policy maintained a non-significant relationship with financial inclusion both in urban and rural areas of Nigeria. The findings show that the cashless policy had a significant effect on increasing customers’ deposits in commercial banks of Nigeria. Volume of Automated Teller Machine (ATMVL) maintains a positive and significant effect on financial inclusion indicators in urban center compared with the rural areas. Volume of Point of Sales (POSVL) shows more significant and positive influence on financial inclusion in urban area than the rural area. However, Web Based Technique (WBTVL) reveals a non-significant effect on financial inclusion both in urban and rural centers. The study therefore recommends that more branches of commercial banks and ATM centers/outlets should be opened in rural urban centers with efficient network systems and security in order to enhance banking penetration and by extension effectiveness of the financial inclusion and poverty reductions.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the various factors influencing on people to invest in mutual funds and examine the mediating role of investor’s perception. By using quantitative research approach and cross-sectional research design, 300 questionnaires are distributed among the individual investors and Smart PLS 3 is used to analyze the data. The results reveal that risk and return, liquidity of assets, demographic factors (gender, age, and material status), convenience, reduction in transection cost, tax benefits and transparency were the key factors and maintained significant relationships with investment in mutual funds. Moreover, investor’s perception maintains mediating role between all these factors and investment in mutual funds. The study contributes in literature by investigating the various factors, which influence on investors to invest in mutual funds. Moreover, it also contributes by investigating the mediating role of investor’s perception.

Investors’ decision-making are influenced by certain biases as reported in literature. Fundamental analysis is based on the assumption that investors think rationally, but in practice, things may be different. This study captures the impact of herding behavior and overconfidence biases on the investors’ decision-making in Pakistan. The proposed study collects the necessary data through questionnaires distributed among 150 respondents who were active in stock market and manage to process 100 completed ones. The relationships between investors’ decision-making and herding behavior as well as overconfidence biases were empirically tested using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method. The results show that Pakistani investors’ decisions were significantly influenced by both herding behavior and overconfidence biases.

Cash flow ratios are generally prepared from cash flow statement as per AS-03. It is helpful for financial users including shareholders, management, accountants, auditors and investors to get the relevant information regarding its financial resources for a certain period. Currently cash flow ratios are randomly used instead of traditional ratios due to its wideness and acceptability. In credit rating and forecasting the failure of an organization, cash flow ratios are very much relevant. In this study, we considered different companies from different sectors. From the study, it is clear that the liquidity and solvency position of the companies are moderate whereas the companies maintained low profitability. The efficiency ratios and sufficiency ratios of the companies selected in this study provide us a new look of financial judgement. In our study, we selected three companies from FMCG and Pharmaceuticals sectors. We used the data for a period of 10 years from 2004 to 2013 financial years.

Preparing well educated accounting students for future, involve teaching using high techniques, will benefit all public and private organizations. Accounting educators and practitioners are pressured by the industries, globalization and the professions to generate graduates with accountancy skills that meet the changing needs. In this survey, a questionnaire was conducted and distributed randomly to ascertain the views of accounting academics and practitioners on the contents of governmental accounting courses and the personal skills and competencies of recent graduates. The results show that practitioners placed an emphasis on traditional accounting techniques, while academics placed an emphasis on contemporary techniques. Both groups were in agreement on some skills and characteristics required of recent graduates. The main finding is the existence of a real gap between education and practice of governmental accounting. The implications of the results are that academics cannot ignore the teaching of traditional governmental accounting techniques and may need to increase the coverage of the issues involved in implementing contemporary governmental accounting techniques.

This paper presents an overview on recent studies on the role of gender in corporate governance. We study the recent works on the relationship between gender and firms’ financial performance as well as the relationship between gender and firms’ interest in global warming. According to our survey, it appears that firms with the presence of females had more concerns on green gas effects than other male oriented corporations did. Moreover, according to our survey, when a female member joins the board of directors, most investors consider this as a positive signal for profitability. In other words, it appears that the presence of female contributes to firm’s financial performance.