Banks’ return reaction to freedom, sentiment, and uncertainty

The paper aims to investigate the impact of freedom dimensions, investor sentiment, and uncertainty on bank stock returns. Additionally, this study examines the interaction between economic freedom dimensions and oil prices. To meet the study’s objectives, a two-step GMM estimator was applied to the...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market and Complexity
Main Authors: Syed Faisal Shah, Mohamed Albaity, Mahfuzur Rahman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-03-01
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2199853123001178
_version_ 1850122104004935680
author Syed Faisal Shah
Mohamed Albaity
Mahfuzur Rahman
author_facet Syed Faisal Shah
Mohamed Albaity
Mahfuzur Rahman
author_sort Syed Faisal Shah
collection DOAJ
container_title Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market and Complexity
description The paper aims to investigate the impact of freedom dimensions, investor sentiment, and uncertainty on bank stock returns. Additionally, this study examines the interaction between economic freedom dimensions and oil prices. To meet the study’s objectives, a two-step GMM estimator was applied to the data collected from 173 banks in 18 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries during 2010–2020. The findings revealed that the influence of economic, business, and labour freedoms on banks’ stock returns was negative and significant, but government spending was positive and significant. The results for the region’s monarchies indicated similar effects to those of the entire MENA region, except for lagged bank stock returns that were negative. Besides, both investor sentiment and uncertainty positively impact bank stock returns. In addition, it was found that the interaction between freedom and oil price significantly and positively impacted bank performance. The robustness testing results confirmed this finding. Moreover, this research stands out as one of the limited investigations that have scrutinized the 18 MENA countries, which are predominantly Islamic and characterized by their distinct social norms, geography, and cultural identities.
format Article
id doaj-art-2dca3560262b48e2bcaa441196faaff5
institution Directory of Open Access Journals
issn 2199-8531
language English
publishDate 2023-03-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
spelling doaj-art-2dca3560262b48e2bcaa441196faaff52025-08-19T23:55:53ZengElsevierJournal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market and Complexity2199-85312023-03-019110001510.1016/j.joitmc.2023.100015Banks’ return reaction to freedom, sentiment, and uncertaintySyed Faisal Shah0Mohamed Albaity1Mahfuzur Rahman2College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab EmiratesDepartment of Finance and Economics, College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Corresponding author.Department of Finance and Economics, College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab EmiratesThe paper aims to investigate the impact of freedom dimensions, investor sentiment, and uncertainty on bank stock returns. Additionally, this study examines the interaction between economic freedom dimensions and oil prices. To meet the study’s objectives, a two-step GMM estimator was applied to the data collected from 173 banks in 18 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries during 2010–2020. The findings revealed that the influence of economic, business, and labour freedoms on banks’ stock returns was negative and significant, but government spending was positive and significant. The results for the region’s monarchies indicated similar effects to those of the entire MENA region, except for lagged bank stock returns that were negative. Besides, both investor sentiment and uncertainty positively impact bank stock returns. In addition, it was found that the interaction between freedom and oil price significantly and positively impacted bank performance. The robustness testing results confirmed this finding. Moreover, this research stands out as one of the limited investigations that have scrutinized the 18 MENA countries, which are predominantly Islamic and characterized by their distinct social norms, geography, and cultural identities.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2199853123001178Economic freedomInvestor sentimentOil priceUncertaintyStock returnsMENA
spellingShingle Syed Faisal Shah
Mohamed Albaity
Mahfuzur Rahman
Banks’ return reaction to freedom, sentiment, and uncertainty
Economic freedom
Investor sentiment
Oil price
Uncertainty
Stock returns
MENA
title Banks’ return reaction to freedom, sentiment, and uncertainty
title_full Banks’ return reaction to freedom, sentiment, and uncertainty
title_fullStr Banks’ return reaction to freedom, sentiment, and uncertainty
title_full_unstemmed Banks’ return reaction to freedom, sentiment, and uncertainty
title_short Banks’ return reaction to freedom, sentiment, and uncertainty
title_sort banks return reaction to freedom sentiment and uncertainty
topic Economic freedom
Investor sentiment
Oil price
Uncertainty
Stock returns
MENA
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2199853123001178
work_keys_str_mv AT syedfaisalshah banksreturnreactiontofreedomsentimentanduncertainty
AT mohamedalbaity banksreturnreactiontofreedomsentimentanduncertainty
AT mahfuzurrahman banksreturnreactiontofreedomsentimentanduncertainty