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The scope of this research is to investigate performing loan efficiency for fifty European banks during the period 2008–2017.

The study is structured as a two-stage analysis of performing loan efficiency and its driving factors. In the first stage of the proposed methodology “Data Envelopment Analysis” is used to estimate performing loan efficiency for each bank included in the sample. A bootstrap statistical procedure enhances the findings. In the second stage, the impact of other factors on the efficiency scores of loan performance using tobit regression is investigated.

The results are consistent with the findings of the individual banks' financial analyses. According to the findings of DEA implementation, the evaluated banks may enhance their cost efficiency by 39% on average. In addition, the results indicate that loan efficiency performance improves after 2015, coinciding with the business cycle's upward trend. The tobit regression is employed in the second stage to examine the influence of bank-related and macroeconomic factors on banks' loan management efficiency. According to the findings of the tobit regression, three factors, namely the capital adequacy ratio, GDP per capita and managerial inefficiency, have a substantial influence on performing loan efficiency.

This research investigates the effectiveness of European economic policy in protecting the European banking system from the consequences of the sovereign debt crisis in several euro area members. The results highlight the distance of the Eurozone from the level of the ‘optimal currency area’.

This study focuses on the banking systems evaluation in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain (known as the PIIGS) during the financial and post-financial crisis period from 2009 to 2018.

A conditional robust nonparametric frontier analysis (order-m estimators) is used to measure banking efficiency combined with variables highlighting the effects of Non-Performing Loans. Next, a truncated regression is used to examine if institutional, macroeconomic, and financial variables affect bank performance differently. Unlike earlier studies, we use the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as an institutional variable that affects banking sector efficiency.

This research shows that the PIIGS crisis affects each bank/country differently due to their various efficiency levels. Most of the study variables — CPI, government debt to GDP ratio, inflation, bank size — significantly affect banking efficiency measures.

The contribution of this article to the relevant banking literature is two-fold. First, it analyses the efficiency of the PIIGS banking system from 2009 to 2018, focusing on NPLs. Second, this is the first empirical study to use probabilistic frontier analysis (order-m estimators) to evaluate PIIGS banking systems.

This paper attempts to investigate the effect of corruption on the real and accrual earnings management of target firms in the process of mergers and acquisitions.

The sample includes target firms from the European area that participate in mergers or acquisitions announced during 2010–2020. The preliminary empirical part estimates the level of earnings management during the period two years before the deal's announcement to identify whether the sample follows the manipulation behavior that the literature suggests for target firms. The primary empirical analysis focuses on the impact of corruption on real and accrual-based earnings management proxies, employing regression models and two alternative proxies for corruption. The existing literature points out that the combination of low levels of corruption and an integrated legal system reduces earnings manipulation.

The findings provide strong evidence for systematic downwards accounting manipulation practices, whereas the findings for real earnings management are not significant. The findings of the main empirical part show that corruption is positively associated with accrual-based manipulation and negatively related to real earnings management. In essence, in economies with a high level of transparency, managers adopt the manipulation of operating activities as a less detectable practice of earnings management instead of engaging in accounting procedures.

This study contributes to the literature highlighting the diversification of these firms' manipulation strategies according to the national level's corruption status.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, both theoretically and empirically, the relationship between optimism (pessimism) – as reflected by animal spirits – and money demand by taking into account transaction costs.

Inspired by the theoretical model of money demand by Teles et al. (2016) the authors incorporate the optimism (pessimism) effects in the money demand. Then, using the consumers’ confidence indicator as a proxy indicator of optimism/pessimism, they estimate the money demand in a panel data framework.

The theoretical framework suggests that the optimism (pessimism) effects on money demand are positive (negative). Empirical evidence for 11 Eurozone countries divided in two groups (i.e. core and periphery) confirms the theoretical considerations.

It appears that periphery countries with a higher sensitivity to the recent financial crisis present lower real money demand sensitivity to consumption expenditures and higher real money demand sensitivity to consumer confidence index. Moreover, in such countries, money demand changes present higher persistence over time. Thus, the authors observe differing attitudes concerning money demand across Eurozone citizens that should be taken into account by monetary policymakers (i.e. the ECB).

The authors introduce, in the vast literature on money demand, both theoretically and empirically the role of optimism (pessimism). Differences across core and periphery Eurozone countries identified.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, both theoretically and empirically, the institutional setting of monetary policy making that mitigates the effects of productive public investment on inflation persistence.

In the theoretical approach, the authors consider a simple monetary game model à la Barro-Gordon introducing, apart from stochastic output shocks, indexed wage contracts and public investment effects. Then, the authors empirically produce inflation persistence and public investment persistence by estimating a first-order autoregressive model in a fixed rolling window of 36 months for the UK and also use a dummy in order to incorporate the regime switch in monetary policy since 1997, giving a clear increase in the level of central bank independence.

The theoretical framework suggests that an independent central banker could better manage inflation expectations and therefore inflation persistence despite the occurrence of persistent public investment shocks. From the perspective of fiscal policy, the appointment of a conservative and independent central banker could absorb adverse effects on inflation dynamics resulting from persistent expansionary fiscal policies. Empirical evidence in the UK indicates that the creation of an independent monetary policy committee reduces the positive link between public investment and inflation persistence.

From a monetary policy perspective view, the best response to public investment policies is to increase the degree of independence to alleviate effects on inflation dynamics. From the perspective of fiscal policy, an independent central banker can provide the necessary conditions to undertake a long-run public investment plan, since long-run growth will not be undermined by adverse inflation inertia.

The authors introduce, in the debate of inflation persistence, both theoretically and empirically, the role of public investment and monetary policy design.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the response of investors to the announcements on the inclusion and exclusion of companies from the FTSE-ASE 20 index.

Data on the inclusion and exclusion of companies from the FTSE-ASE 20 index in the period 2000-2012 were used. The authors performed an event study analysis using a constant return model and a market model. Two different measures of aggregated abnormal returns, namely the cumulating abnormal returns and the buy-and-hold abnormal return, were used in this investigation.

The results suggest that the exclusion of a company from the index has a significant negative effect on stock returns. Specifically, such a stock takes more than 15 days to recover. However, for a company’s inclusion in the index, the authors observe short-lived positive reactions on stock returns.

Capital market regulators and investors should find the policy implications of this paper meaningful. Investment strategies can be implemented on the basis of the news of exclusion from the index, which can lead to higher performance for investors. As far as authorities are concerned, the decision of inclusion and exclusion to the most significant stock index in the Greek market should be carefully considered because it creates financial instability for a significant time period.

By using a battery of parametric and non-parametric econometric tests, the existence of abnormal returns of the FTSE-ASE 20 index is explored over a long time period, including the recent financial crisis.