G12 - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest RatesReturn

We analyse how cryptocurrency size and trading volume impact the momentum and reversal dynamics of their returns. We show that the previously reported weekly return reversal occurs for small and illiquid coins only (t-stat = -7.31), while the large and liquid coins exhibit weekly momentum effect instead (t-stat = 2.33). Long-term returns exhibit reversal effects, which are, however, insignificant for the large and liquid coins. We further analyse the impact of high momentum on future cryptocurrency returns, measured as the distance of previous-week closing price from the k-week high. High momentum has not been analysed on cryptocurrency markets before, and we show it to be a superior predictor of future returns when compared to regular momentum. The distance from the 1-week high predicts negatively future returns of small and illiquid coins (t-stat = -9.03) and positively future returns of large and liquid coins (t-stat = 4.93). The results are highly robust to different settings of the size and liquidity thresholds. We further show that the short-term reversal of small and illiquid coins is driven mostly by their low trading volumes, while the short-term momentum of large and liquid coins is driven mostly by high market capitalizations and to a lower degree by high trading volumes.

As facilitated by governmental authorities promising sustainable economic growth, green bonds have gained prominence in China’s capital market to scale up the transition to a climate-resilient economy. Although the issuance volume of the Chinese green bond market has been growing rapidly in recent years, the impact of green label on bond pricing is not adequately studied. Thus, this paper aims to investigate whether this newly developed financial instrument offers investors in China an attractive yield compared to other equivalent conventional bonds. By applying a matching method and subsequently a fixed-effects estimation, our empirical results reveal a significant negative yield premium of green bonds on average -1.8 bps lower than their conventional counterparts in the Chinese secondary market. In addition to that, the yield premium is found to vary across issuers’ business sectors mainly due to the public reputation of bond issuers. Moreover, our empirical results reveal an insignificant relationship between the green certification and the yield premium, reflecting an inconsistent green definition in the Chinese market. Our results point to some practical implications for policymakers and investors.

The aim of this paper is to examine whether banks engage in profit smoothing using loan loss provisions under the new provisioning rules according to IFRS 9. Due to relatively loose definitions of provisioning principles and use of macroeconomic predictions under IFRS 9, there is certain managerial discretion expected allowing banks to reduce the variability of profits over time using loan loss provisions. The hypothesis that banks use loan loss provisions to smooth their profits under IFRS 9 was tested with panel regression analysis on the panel of 27 EU member countries for period 1Q2015 – 2Q2021. The evidence of profit smoothing was not confirmed neither in IFRS 9, nor in IAS 39 period, therefore, the hypothesis was rejected on 1% significance level.