The aim of the article is to examine structural differences in household saving behaviour across European countries, arguing that European integration has not led to convergence in saving patterns. Using data from 27 EU Member States (1996–2023), it compares the EU-15 with post-2004 members through Lasso variable selection and fixed-effects panel models. By combining machine learning-based variable selection with panel regression, the study offers a novel analytical perspective on the determinants of household savings. The findings reveal significant structural differences between the two groups: taxation and monetary freedom show stronger associations with household saving in post-2004 member states, whereas education-related factors are more prominent in the EU15. These results suggest that policies should strengthen precautionary saving mechanisms and promote financial education to encourage household saving.
This paper examines whether environmental narratives constitute an independent and state-dependent pricing channel in equity markets beyond conventional ESG scores and aggregate climate risk measures. Using more than 220 million US news articles, we construct indicators of environmental narrative sentiment and thematic intensity and analyse their effects on equal-weighted and value-weighted ESG portfolio premia. The empirical framework augments the Fama–French five-factor model with explicit climate risk and macroeconomic uncertainty controls and allows for delayed pricing effects. We find that environmental narratives, particularly attention-based measures, exert economically relevant effects on the equal-weighted sustainability premium, even after controlling for standard asset-pricing factors and climate-related risk indices, whereas the corresponding effects are substantially weaker in value-weighted portfolios. In contrast, aggregate ESG and climate risk measures display weak and unstable explanatory power once narratives are accounted for. The effects differ substantially across portfolio weighting schemes, while the lagged specifications provide more limited evidence of persistent delayed effects.
The complexity of asset return variability justifies supplementing the standard Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) formula with market risk measures based on firms’ fundamental analysis. Moreover, a key area of investigation involves the approach to downside pricing. The main objective of this study is to test non-standard CAPM extensions that incorporate accounting information. The results for the Frankfurt Stock Exchange indicate that profitability ratios constitute a significant source of systematic risk and generate a positive premium related to a company’s financial condition. Furthermore, in the case of large firms, sensitivity measures based on downside accounting betas demonstrate a clear advantage over their conventional counterparts.
Household indebtedness has been a major policy concern since the 2008 financial crisis. In the current context, understanding the drivers of household debt is a more pressing issue than ever, as they affect economic stability and resilience. The aim of the paper is to examine the determinants of household debt using a comprehensive dataset spanning 36 countries and the period from 2012 to 2022. We employ dynamic panel regression models to explore the drivers of household indebtedness. Our results indicate that the Consumer Confidence Index positively influences household debt across all samples, while the COVID-19 pandemic reduced debt levels. Similarly, bank policies that tighten lending standards reduce household debt, whereas greater credit availability encourages borrowing. On the other hand, a larger working-age population appears to reduce consumer indebtedness, while life expectancy contributes to its growth. This highlights the complex role of consumption-oriented explanations in shaping borrowing behaviour.
The main goal of the article is to propose a new definition of corporate welfare, a concept coined in the 1970s to describe the state’s support for entrepreneurs and counterbalance criticisms of the welfare state. Based on a critical review of the literature on historical origins and existing definitions, a new approach has been proposed, which offers objectivity, applicability, and integration with the concept of social welfare. Moreover, clearly embedding the concept of corporate welfare within the theory of market and state failures links the new definition with the existing theory of public economics and institutional economics. The discussion of corporate welfare is exemplified by two case studies to illustrate the boundaries of the proposed definition and demonstrate the adequacy of the theoretical framework (available in Appendix C).
