Iranian Journal of Finance

One of the main concepts in finance is portfolio diversification and optimization. Typically, investors use the risk and return approach to diversify their portfolios. However, risk spillovers and market connectivity should also be considered when making investment decisions, especially during times of crisis. The TVP-VAR approach is used in this study to analyze risk spillovers and connectivity between the S&P 500 index, green bond, real estate, oil market, and dollar index in the USA from 2016 to July 2022. The TVP-VAR model is a time-varying model that may consider current political and economic circumstances. As a result, investors can choose wisely when it comes to their portfolios. According to comparisons with other markets, the S&P 500 index and the real estate market are the two most significant sources of volatility in the system. In fact, they not only transmit greater volatility, but they also take it in more. After 2020, there will likely be a significant increase in the volatility of the real estate market and the S&P 500 index due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Additionally, as anticipated, other markets have an impact on the green bond market. It does not, however, transmit them.

The investment decisions of managers of investment funds (especially equity investment funds) have an impression on the returns of individuals who have deposited their capital in these funds. Therefore, the issue of evaluating the performance of investment funds and their managers is imperative for investors. The research aims to investigate the effect of cross-sectional alpha dispersion on investors' evaluation of the performance of investment funds. We extract data regarding 31 equity investment funds from 2012 till 2022 and calculate the interquartile ratio of Jensen's alpha called "IQR" and "Performance-Flow Sensitivity" along with control variables. Then, the hypothesis test model was fitted using the multivariate regression analysis using the Generalized Least Squares method. Empirical findings show a negative and significant connection between the alpha dispersion of investment funds and performance-flow sensitivity. Based on the results, one credit increase in the standard deviation of alpha dispersion leads to a decrease of about 0.4% in the ratio of performance-flow sensitivity. Environments with high alpha dispersion of investment funds will targeted by unskilled managers to introduce themselves as successful and skilled managers to investors and mislead them. Therefore, when the alpha of investment funds has a higher dispersion, the type I error possibility investors will face increases. Individuals may consider an inefficient manager to be competent and skilled. We will provide some suggestions in this regard.

One of the main demands of investors (depositors and shareholders) of banks is transparency. However, in addition to the requirements for meeting this demand, measuring how to meet it has become challenging. So far, researchers have proposed different qualitative criteria for transparency. In this study, while introducing the correlation coefficient between book and market value at risk (VaRs) as a criterion of transparency, we seek to examine the stability of this criterion in different economic conditions. For this purpose, first, by using the e-garch model, the value at risk was estimated based on the balance sheet (book) information and also the market information of the banks' shares, then by calculating the correlation coefficients between book and market VaR’s under normal conditions, we predict book and market VaR’s using vector auto-regressive (VAR) models, along with defining three stress scenarios (Mild - Severe - hyper stress). We examined the significance of the difference between the calculated correlation coefficients in the three stress test modes. We thus tested the stability of the correlation coefficient of the defined scenarios. The findings showed that except for the correlation caused by the unemployment rate factor in mild and hyper-stress scenarios, in other cases, no evidence of H0 rejection was found, indicating the stability of the correlation coefficient between book and market VaRs as a measure of transparency.

This study aims to explore the dynamics of financial contracting in Iranian startups and high-tech companies, with a particular focus on the challenges posed by information asymmetry between investors and entrepreneurs. We collected and analyzed data from 123 Iranian Shareholder Agreements (ShAs). We employed a range of descriptive statistics to provide a comprehensive summary of the data. Also, to explore the relationships between our variables, we utilized Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression. The terms and conditions of these contracts were examined to understand the diversity and influence of these terms and how they are applied in the real world in the context of Iran. We also investigated Iranian venture capitalists' behavior in obtaining cash flow rights and control rights, and a complete description is presented through various factors, including components of cash flow rights and control rights. Our analysis revealed a limited diversity in the terms and conditions of the contracts, suggesting a potential emulation of U.S. ShAs. We found that Iranian venture capitalists tend to secure maximum cash flow and control rights, exceeding their U.S. counterparts. Preferred stocks emerged as the primary choice for investing in startup companies. However, a detailed examination of the relationship between cash flow rights and control rights indicated a lack of a unified and coherent approach in contract design, reflecting a highly conservative stance among investors. This study contributes to understanding financial contracting dynamics in emerging markets like Iran. It highlights the gap between theoretical frameworks and real-world practices, shedding light on how these factors shape the relationships between investors and entrepreneurs.

The main objective of this article is to investigate the impact of various financial, economic, and political risks and economic complexity on the development of the Sukuk market in the Iranian economy. The data required to conduct this research based on the variables of the proposed model were used from the Capital Market Central Asset Management Company, the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) database, and the MIT University website. The data relating to 2010-2022 is seasonal, and REVIEWS 13 software was used. The model estimation results using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model Approach (NARDL) show that the negative shock of political risk reduces the development of the Sukuk market in the short and long term. The negative shock of financial risk in the long term has a negative impact on the development of the Sukuk market. The negative shock of economic complexity reduces the development of the Sukuk market in the short term. The positive shocks of political risk, financial risk, economic risk, and economic complexity in the short and long term led to the development of the Sukuk market. Among the three types of risk, political risk and financial risk have the most impact on sukuk market development. The error correction coefficient in this estimate is negative and statistically significant, which shows that 0.42% of the short-term imbalance is adjusted to reach the long-term balance every year.

In order to survive and compete with other financial institutions, banks, and financial institutions are required always to evaluate the efficiency of their branches. In this paper, we evaluate and analyze the efficiency of bank branches in the five last years (from 2018 to 2022). To calculate and present the branch efficiency score, we have considered an undesirable component called Nonperforming Loans (NPL) as an undesirable output in evaluating the efficiency of Tose'e Ta'avon Bank branches. Due to the high inflation in Iran, the increase in the NPL of loans causes a decrease in the banks' deposits and profitability, and ultimately, it causes a considerable decrease in inefficiency. In addition, in extreme cases, it may even cause the bank to go bankrupt. Therefore, to calculate the efficiency of the Tose'e Ta'avon Bank branches using the data envelopment analysis method, we have considered operating costs and non-operating costs as two inputs, total deposits, total loans, and also two categories of revenue (Revenue from Jointly Funded Assets and Fee-based incomes as four desirable outputs and based on Islamic banking methods with Nonperforming loans as an undesirable output. In this paper, to deal with undesirable output issues, we use a direct approach that is more suitable to deal with NPLs since it is more convenient and evident to incorporate undesirable outputs directly into the DEA model. We used the dynamic cross-efficiency technique of DEA with undesirable outputs (DEA-UO) to obtain the efficiency of the branches over five years.