Journal of Risk

This special supplement issue of The Journal of Risk consists of papers that were presented at the 8th International Finance Conference (IFC8), which was held in Paris, France, in March 2015. Their selection and review was handled entirely by the organizers of the conference and its scientific committee, with no input from the editorial board of The Journal of Risk. The topics covered herein have generally not been addressed in standard issues of our journal. In particular, this special issue offers a window into the financial sectors of emerging markets.

In “Time-varying beta and the global financial crisis: evidence from Chinese and Indian firms”, the first paper in this issue, Jihed Majdoub, Ines Ben Bouhouch and Salim Ben Sassi make the case that Chinese and Indian firms relate differently to the global financial market, thus providing support for diversification across these two countries.

Bachar Fakhry, Omar Masood and Mondher Bellalah are the authors of “Are the GIPS sovereign debt markets efficient during a crisis?”, our second paper. They illustrate empirically how volatility in the sovereign debt markets of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain is too excessive for them to be efficient.

In the issue’s third paper, “Basel III implementation outcome in Islamic banks”, Omar Masood, Mondher Bellalah and Shahid Mohammad Khan Ghauri consider the challenges faced by banks that follow Islamic principles; specifically, the notions that risk sharing and alternative accounting rules – relative to conventional banks – lead to different implementation procedures of the Basel Accords.

The fourth and final paper in the issue, “Liquidity risk management implementation for selected Islamic banks in Pakistan” by Omar Masood, Javaria Younas and Mondher Bellalah, focuses on liquidity risk for banks that subscribe to Islamic banking rules. In particular, the authors highlight the role of risk sharing and the requirement of real-asset backing for financial contracts in liquidity risk management.

Farid AitSahlia
Warrington College of Business Administration,
University of Florida