Is stock market development sensitive to macroeconomic indicators? A fresh evidence using ARDL bounds testing approach.

Over the past decades, emerging stock markets have started to significantly contribute to economic growth through mobilizing long-term capital by pooling funds, facilitating savings and investments into profitable projects and improving corporate governance structure. A plethora of empirical studies is devoted to investigate the determinants of different capital markets but due to highly controversial and inconclusive findings about macroeconomic determinants, this study contributes to the body of existing literature by empirically investigating the macroeconomic forces that drive the stock market development of Pakistan from 1980 to 2019. By applying Ng-Perron and Zivot-Andrews unit root tests (to determine the integrating orders of variables) and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach, our results confirm cointegration among variables and exhibit the significant positive impact of economic growth and banking sector development on stock market development and negative affect of inflation, foreign direct investment and trade openness on it in long run. At the same time, the short run results show a significant relationship of economic growth, inflation and foreign direct investment with stock market development. Our study has some important policy implications.

The IFRS adoption, accounting quality, and banking performance: An evaluation of susceptibilities and financial stability in developing economies.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 's adoption increased attention to International Accounting Standard Regulations worldwide. It has opened the door for empirical analysis having different perceptions of mandatory IFRS adoption. This paper's main objective is to examine the impact of accounting quality and IFRS adoption on Pakistan's banking sector efficiency. We have employed the Malmquist productivity index, Roychowdhury's Earnings Management, and modified learner index to conduct the empirical analysis. The results mean how much banking sector efficiency is affected by accounting quality and IFRS adoption. The results demonstrate that the banking sector efficiency significantly increases through accounting quality and IFRS. Furthermore, it can be seen that the foreign banks' efficiency in Pakistan is less than other banks compared to public or private banks. Additionally, more earnings timeliness has been noted in large banks than medium and small banks in Pakistan. Preferably, the practice of quality accounting relies on disclosed information through financial statements. In contrast, the organizations may evade the losses once the information quality is precise and appropriate. The study provides valuable information to managers and other stakeholders.