Master of Science in Finance Program at Chulalongkorn Business School combines theory and practice with the latest industry perspectives to deliver in-depth knowledge in extensive fields of finance. We prepare our graduates to be impactful leaders in financial industry worldwide.

Why
MSF Chula?

  • Classes are taught by world-renowned experts in financial field: A-list faculty, visiting professors from world class universities, and active professionals in finance and banking sector
  • Internationally recognized global learning
  • Breakthrough curriculum to accelerate career in finance
  • Opportunities to meet in persons with distinguished executives 
  • Flexible weekday or weekend schedules
  • Accredited by EPAS as well as Chulalongkorn Business School’s AACSB and EQUIS 
  • Broad portfolio of learning opportunities at partner universities around the world
“The program opens the door into the world of Finance, theoretically and practically. The funs and excitements will be waiting for you”
- Neramit Leewairoje (FX 1), Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Singapore
Application for Academic Year 2026.. 1 Dec 2025 - 27 Apr 2026.
Check out most of your questions in FAQ.

HIGHLIGHT

MSF Chula is the Master of Science in Finance program, operating under the umbrella of the Department of Banking and Finance, Chulalongkorn Business School, Chulalongkorn University.
Established in October 1996, we are the first master’s degree program in Thailand that focuses on financial discipline and still continues to be one of the nation’s finest programs.

MISSION
The mission of the program is to deliver frontier knowledge and skills through high quality academic and learning environment. We aim to encourage students to be innovative and take intellectual challenges in order to sharpen their understanding of financial issues. As well, we empower them to reach their true potential and excel as sustained leaders in the financial field.

Accreditations
In addition to AACSB and EQUIS accreditations granted to Chulalongkorn Business School that confirm our international-standard quality, Back in 2015, MSF Chula was the only master’s degree program in Thailand that has achieved the prestigious EPAS accreditation since February 17, 2015.

Together with EPAS, CBS has been accredited by EQUIS, which is an international program accreditation system developed by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). There are currently merely 100+ institutions worldwide that has been awarded EQUIS accreditation, a very few of which are finance program.

EQUIS accreditation process involves an in-depth assessment of the Program through international benchmarking, considering an extensive range of factors that include the Program’s strategy; academic rigor; international focus; quality of the student body, faculty, alumni, as well as their career progression.

Chulalongkorn Business School and the program’s achievement of obtaining EQUIS accreditation reflects our commitment to continuous improvement and dedication to excellence in financial education. For more details regarding the accreditation of Chulalongkorn Business School, please refer to https://intl-accredit.acc.chula.ac.th

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES

MSF Program executive committees, appointed by Chulalongkorn Business School, oversee the Program policies and its effective operation.
Narapong Srivisal, Ph.D.
MSF Director
Assistant Professor of Finance
Anirut Pisedtasalasai, Ph.D.
MSF Associate Director
Associate Professor of Finance
Pornpitchaya Kuwalairat, Ph.D.
MSF Associate Director
Assistant Professor of Finance
Boonlert Jitmaneeroj
MSF Associate Director
Associate Professor of Finance
Tanakorn Likitapiwat, Ph.D.
MSF Associate Director
Assistant Professor of Finance
Jananya Sthienchoak, Ph.D.
MSF Committee and Secretary
Assistant Professor of Finance

FACULTY MEMBERS

MSF boasts an excellent faculty of leading scholars who earned their doctorate degrees from world-renowned universities and have wide-ranging expertise spanning all major areas of finance. Often working closely with leading professionals in financial field, our faculty members have strong connections with leaders in banking and financial industries.
Narapong Srivisal, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Anirut Pisedtasalasai, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Pornpitchaya Kuwalairat, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Tanakorn Likitapiwat, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Tanawit Sae-Sue, Ph.D.
Doctor
Ruttachai Seelajaroen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Jananya Sthienchoak, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Prapaporn Kiattikulwattana, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Thanyaluk Vichitsarawong, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Boonlert Jitmaneeroj, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Kanis Saengchote, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Kanyarat Sanoran, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Manapol Ekkayokkaya, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Nathridee Suppakitjarak, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Pornanong Budsaratragoon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Roongkiat Ratanabanchuen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Sira Suchintabandid, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Suparatana Tanthanongsakkun, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Thaisiri Watewai, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Thitithep Sitthiyot, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Vimut Vanitcharearnthum, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Visarut Sribunnak, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Natchanont Komutputipong, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

SUPPORTING STAFF

Alisa Khuarunyasunthon
General Administrator
Chanthima Boonthueng
General Administrator

VISITING PROFESSORS

Jürgen Huber, Prof.
Head of the Department of Banking and Finance

University of Innsbruck Austria
Russell Wermers
Professor of Finance and Director of the Center for Financial Policy

Smith School of Business, University of Maryland 
Steen Thomsen, Prof.
Professor of Enterprise, Foundations at the Center for Corporate Governance (CCG)

Copenhagen Business Sochool, Denmark
Nuttawat Visaltanachoti, Prof.
Dean's Chair in Finance

School of Economics and Finance, Massey University, New Zealand

Bruno R. Gerard DNB Chair Professor in Asset Management, Norwegian School of Management, Norway | Christian C.P. Wolff Professor of Finance, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg | Deborah Lucas Director of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy, MIT Sloan School of Management, USA | Evangelos Vagenas-Nanos Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance, University of Glasgow, Scotland | Hendrik Bessembinder Professor of Finance, Arizona State University, USA | Keng Yu-Ho Professor of Finance, National Taiwan University, Taiwan | Marc Paolella Professor of Empirical Finance, University of Zurich, Switzerland | Meir Statman Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance, Santa Clara University, USA | Michael J. Aitken Professor of Finance, Macquarie University, Australia | Morten Bennedsen Professor of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark | Paul Embrechts Professor of Mathematics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland | Roger King Professor of Finance, Hong Kong University of Science and Techonology (HKUST) | Shawn Cole Professor of Finance, Harvard Business School, USA | Söhnke M. Bartram Professor of Finance, University of Warwick, England | Tony Kang Professor of Accounting, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA | Vidhan Goyal Chair Professor of Finance, Hong Kong University of Science and Techonology (HKUST) | Donald R. Chambers Professor of Finance, Lafayette College, USA

ADJUNCT and CORPORATE CONNECTIONS

Sunti Tirapat Associate Professor of Finance, National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) | Kridsda Nimmanunta Director of Professional MBA/MSc in Finanical Investment and Risk Management, National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) | Nattawut Jenwittayaroje Director of the MSc in Financial Investment and Risk Management (MSc in FIRM) program, National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) | Chonladet Khemarattana Chief Executive Officer, Fintech (Thailand) Co., Ltd. | Chatsularng Karnchanasai, The Bank of Thailand | Chattrin Laksanabunsong Head of 10X Project, Siam Commercial Bank | Kobsidthi Silpachai Head of Capital Markets Research, Kasikorn Bank | Kris Panijpan Managing Partner/Co-Founder, 9 Basil Co., Ltd. | Paritat Lerngutai Chief Financial Officer, Sri U-Thong Limited | Pasu Liptapanlop Director, Proud Real Estate Plc. | Pisit Jeungpraditphan Audit Committee Director & Independent Director, Mudman Public Company Limited | Ponladesh Poomimars, The Bank of Thailand | Sirinattha Techasiriwan | Somjin Sornpaisarn Chief Executive Officer, TMB Asset Management | Sopon Asawanuchit Managing Partner, Confidante Capital Co.,Ltd. | Sornchai Suneta First Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, Wealth Segment, Siam Commercial Bank | Waraporn Prapasirikul Partner, Ernst & Young Office Limited | Yunyong Thaicharoen First Executive Vice President, Economic Intelligence Center, Siam Commercial Bank | Yuttapon Wittayapanitchagorn Executive Vice President, Fixed Income Investment Group, Investment Division SCB Securities Company Limited

Alumni

2025
FX19
Areerat Abdulrahim
The Effect of ESG Performance on Cost of Debt : The Moderating Role of Financial Health and Audit Quality
This study examines the relationship between ESG performance, Cost of debt, Financial health and Audit quality among listed companies in Thailand during the period 2020–2024. It also investigates whether financial health which is proxied by the Altman Z-score, and audit quality which is proxied by Big 4 auditor engagement, moderates this relationship. The study consists of 824 firm-year observations and employs a fixed effect model with firm and year fixed effects. The result shows that no significant effect of ESG performance on the cost of debt. Financial health is found to moderate this relationship but in the opposite direction to the hypothesis. The result suggests that the negative effect of ESG performance on cost of debt is stronger in firms with weaker financial health. No moderating role of audit quality is observed in contemporaneous specification. Robustness tests using one-year lagged ESG provide stronger evidence of a negative relationship between ESG performance and borrowing costs. The pillar-level analysis further indicates that the Environment pillar appears to be more closely associated with borrowing costs than the Social and Governance pillar. In addition, the moderating effect of financial health is observed only for environmental performance, while audit quality moderates only the relationship between governance performance and the cost of debt.
Overall, the findings suggest that the relationship between ESG performance and the cost of debt varies across firm characteristics, ESG dimensions, and the timing of ESG information. This study provides evidence from the Thai market context and offers insights for corporate managers, creditors, and policymakers in evaluating the role of ESG performance in cost of debt.
2025
FX19
Arisa Chomsiree
Forward pricing, Cross-currency basis, and Covered Interest Parity Drivers in USD/THB
The covered interest rate parity (CIP) condition is a fundamental for the pricing of currency forwards. This paper aims to study the persistent deviations from CIP condition of THB against USD using daily data from January 2010 to December 2025. While the forward rate is theoretically interpreted as a predictor of future spot prices, modern findings suggest that market constraints and financial frictions distort the forward pricing. Hence, we further examine the magnitude of CIP deviations, identify and/or discuss the causes of deviations, and the implications of CIP for the Thai financial market.
2025
FX19
Atchariya Thanramluek
U.S. Federal Reserve Communications, Market-Wide Investor Attention, and Extreme Stock Market Movements in Thailand
This study investigates the relationship between U.S. Federal Reserve communications
and extreme movements in the Thai stock market, and examines whether market-wide investor
attention amplifies this relationship. Rather than focusing on average returns or volatility, the
study directly examines stock market tail risk.
Using daily data for the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index from 2016 to 2025,
extreme movements are defined as days on which the subsequent return falls within either the
upper or lower five percent tail of the return distribution. A series of Probit models is employed
to relate these events to Federal Reserve communication days, a Google-search-based measure
of investor attention, and their interaction, while controlling for global market uncertainty, trading
volume, and the Treasury yield spread.
The results indicate that Federal Reserve communications, on their own, are not
significantly associated with the probability of extreme market movements in Thailand. Their
association with tail risk emerges only when accompanied by heightened investor attention,
suggesting that investor attention serves as an important amplification mechanism through which
Fed-related information becomes relevant for market outcomes. Notably, this amplification
effect is asymmetric: it is strongest for positive extreme movements, weaker for overall extreme
movements, and absent for negative extreme movements. The attention channel therefore
operates on the upside and does not extend to downside tail events.
These findings have implications for retail investors and risk managers by highlighting
the importance of monitoring investor attention around scheduled Federal Reserve
communications. More broadly, the study contributes to the literature on monetary policy
spillovers and investor attention by showing that the relevance of U.S. monetary policy communications for an emerging equity market depends not only on the information released,
but also on the degree of attention that information attracts from investors.
2025
FT29
Aung Kyaw Kyaw
Moment of Adjustment: Does Aspiration Gap Drive Bank Risk-Taking, Efficiency, and Future Profitability
This study examines whether performance relative to aspiration levels shapes subsequent risk-taking, intermediation efficiency, and future profitability in emerging-market banking. Drawing on the Behavioral Theory of the Firm and Prospect Theory, it models a dynamic feedback loop in which a bank's return on assets (ROA) in year t-1, measured against historical and social aspiration reference points, shapes strategic adjustments in year t and profitability in year t+1. The analysis uses a purposive sample of 45 listed commercial banks in the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam over 2010–2024. Bank-level data are drawn from Refinitiv Workspace, macroeconomic indicators from the IMF World Economic Outlook, and global risk conditions from the CBOE Volatility Index. Six risk dimensions, an intermediation-efficiency measure estimated through a meta-frontier Slacks-Based Measure DEA model, and a forward profitability equation are estimated using two-step system GMM with Windmeijer-corrected standard errors. The results provide only partial support for the behavioral feedback loop. Banks performing below their historical aspiration take on greater capital risk in the following year, consistent with the Behavioral Theory of the Firm, whereas responses in other risk dimensions and in intermediation efficiency are weak or absent. Efficiency is instead strongly persistent. Strategic adjustments do not reliably translate into higher future profitability: higher capital risk predicts lower subsequent ROA, echoing the risk-return paradox, while efficiency shows no profitability benefit. Competition and macroeconomic conditions emerge as more consistent drivers of bank outcomes. Overall, past performance influences bank behavior selectively, conditionally, and incompletely.
2025
FX19
CHANON TUNGNGEON
THE IMPACT OF PRICE REVISIONS ON IPO FIRST-DAY RETURNS: MODERATING ROLES OF VC BACKED AND AUDITOR REPUTATION
This study examines how price revisions during the book-building process relate to IPO first-day returns, and whether venture capital backing and auditor reputation moderate that relationship. Using 2,642 U.S. IPOs issued between 2000 and 2024 and ordinary least squares regressions with industry and year fixed effects, it tests whether price revisions raise first-day returns, whether upward and downward revisions differ, and whether each intermediary strengthens or weakens the relationship.
Price revisions are strongly and positively related to first-day returns, supporting the partial adjustment phenomenon, and the relationship is asymmetric, with upward revisions mattering more than downward ones. Contrary to the certification hypothesis, venture capital backing strengthens rather than weakens this relationship, and this effect comes almost entirely from upward revisions, whereas Big Four auditor reputation shows no measurable moderating effect; both patterns hold when the two intermediaries are included together.
Overall, the partial adjustment relationship is not uniform but depends on which intermediary is involved a pattern hard to reconcile with the view that all reputable intermediaries reduce first-day returns through certification as they offer useful guidance for issuers forming pricing expectations, underwriters interpreting demand signals, and regulators deciding which intermediary characteristics merit disclosure.
2025
FT29
Chawit Khamprathet
When Raters Disagree: ESG Rating Uncertainty in Thailand Stock Market
This study investigates how ESG rating uncertainty impacts the cumulative abnormal returns and stock volatility of firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Using the constituents of the SET100 Index over the 2015–2024 period, ESG ratings from three major providers (LSEG, Bloomberg, and S&P Global) are combined into a normalized overall ESG score and three individual pillar scores. Rating uncertainty is measured as the cross-sectional disagreement among these raters, from which a Low ESG Uncertainty dummy variable is constructed, taking a value of 1 if a firm's rating disagreement falls within the bottom quintile (indicating high rater consensus), and 0 otherwise. Cumulative abnormal returns are estimated from the Carhart four-factor model and stock volatility from a joint Carhart–GARCH(1,1) model. The relationships are tested using firm- and year-fixed-effects panel regressions with industry-clustered standard errors. The results do not support the unconditional "greenium" prediction that higher ESG ratings lower abnormal returns; instead, the overall ESG score and, most notably, the Governance pillar are associated with higher abnormal returns. The more consistent finding concerns information quality: firms with low ESG rating uncertainty earn significantly lower abnormal returns, an effect that persists when macroeconomic factors are added. The interaction between the ESG score and low uncertainty, however, is statistically insignificant once the score, the dummy, and their product are estimated together, for the overall ESG score and for every pillar, so the return analysis does not support a conditional, interaction-based channel. For stock volatility, the ESG, Social, and Governance scores carry the predicted negative sign but are statistically insignificant, and the low-uncertainty dummies are likewise insignificant. The only exception is the Governance pillar, whose interaction with low governance uncertainty is negative and significant, offering limited and suggestive evidence that any conditional volatility-reduction channel is confined to governance. Macroeconomic variables generally have weak direct effects, as neither geopolitical risk nor corruption perceptions are consistently priced when introduced into the models.
2025
FX19
Chollakorn Leekatham
Can investors earn an excess risk-adjusted return on air pollution in the stock market: Evidence from Thailand
This study investigates the pricing of air pollution in the Thai equity market, using PM2.5 and the Air Quality Index (AQI) to determine if investors can earn excess risk-adjusted returns. Focusing on the SET100 index, the research employs long-short portfolio sorting strategies evaluated through CAPM and the Fama-French Three-Factor (FF3) model. Additionally, the study assesses 26 industry sectors to evaluate heterogeneous pricing impacts based on their operational characteristics.
Empirical results reveal no evidence of a systematic, year-round pollution premium, suggesting that large-cap equities are structurally insulated from general sentiment shocks. However, highly conditional anomalies emerge during peak environmental distress; a significant PM2.5 premium appears strictly during Thailand’s acute seasonal smog crisis (March–April) under the FF3 framework, whereas the composite AQI fails to capture this effect. Fundamental analysis further confirms asymmetric sector heterogeneity: industries facing operational or mobility constraints suffer negative pricing penalties, while those benefiting from defensive mitigation demands capture significant positive premiums. Ultimately, air pollution triggers concentrated market inefficiencies strictly during seasonal crises and within fundamentally exposed sectors rather than market-wide contagion.
2025
FX19
Chutirada Mamak
Drivers of Systemic Risk in Emerging Markets: Portfolio Quality and Risk Amplification in the Thai Banking and Insurance Sectors
This study examines the drivers of systemic risk in the Thai banking and insurance sectors using a panel of listed financial institutions on the Stock Exchange of Thailand from Q1 2014 to Q4 2024. Systemic risk is measured along two dimensions — a firm's contribution to system-wide distress (ΔCoVaR) and its exposure to systemic shocks (MES) — alongside conditional capital shortfall (SRISK). Panel fixed-effects regressions test four hypotheses linking structural, fundamental, and crisis-related factors to these measures.
For the banking sector, leverage emerges as the principal determinant of capital shortfall (SRISK), while market valuation is associated with greater market exposure (MES) and lower capital shortfall (SRISK). In contrast, a bank's contribution to systemic distress (ΔCoVaR) is driven primarily by the interaction between portfolio risk and the COVID-19 crisis — within R-squared rises sharply from about 1% to over 30% once this interaction is included — supporting the view that crisis amplification, rather than structural characteristics, dominates risk transmission for banks.
For the insurance sector, results point to a different pathway: systemic risk is driven by capital structure and fundamental solvency rather than crisis amplification. Leverage and the loss ratio are robust positive determinants of capital shortfall, consistent with Hypotheses 1 and 2. Contrary to expectation, insurers with stronger solvency (higher Z-scores) exhibit higher, not lower, capital shortfalls — likely because such insurers hold substantial policy reserves, whose debt-side weight in the SRISK formula can outweigh the benefit of improved solvency.
These findings suggest that capital adequacy regulation calibrated to leverage and solvency ratios may be more relevant to capital-shortfall risk than to market contagion risk, particularly for banks during crises — with potential relevance to macroprudential frameworks overseen by the Bank of Thailand and the Office of Insurance Commission.
2025
FT29
Gun Assavasopee
To Boost or Not To Boost? XGBoost and DCC-GARCH Integration for Mean-Variance Portfolio Optimization.
This study examines whether integrating machine learning-based return forecasting and
dynamic covariance estimation into a mean-variance portfolio framework produces measurable
improvements over a conventional benchmark. Three strategies are constructed and evaluated over
a five-year out-of-sample window from January 2021 to December 2025, applied to a universe of
ten global exchange-traded funds spanning US fixed income, developed equity markets, and
emerging equity markets. The benchmark strategy (BM) forms portfolios using historical sample
means and sample covariance. The HR+DCC strategy replaces the sample covariance with a DCCGARCH
covariance forecast while retaining historical return estimates. The XGB+DCC strategy
further replaces the return input with a 20-trading-day-ahead log return forecast from a
hyperparameter-tuned XGBoost model trained on technical and macroeconomic features, with
dimensionality reduced through principal component analysis. All three strategies maximize the
Sharpe ratio subject to long-only constraints with a 30% per-asset weight cap and are rebalanced
monthly using a rolling three-year estimation window.
Before transaction costs, XGB+DCC achieves the highest cumulative log return (38.14%)
and annualized Sharpe ratio (0.416), compared with 0.377 for BM and 0.353 for HR+DCC, indicating
that the XGBoost return forecast adds information value in gross terms. However, XGB+DCC
exhibits substantially higher monthly turnover (45.77% versus 10.07% for BM and 11.88% for
HR+DCC), and once a 0.1% proportional transaction cost is applied, its net Sharpe ratio (0.343)
converges toward that of BM (0.358), with a breakeven cost of only 0.077%. Jensen alpha estimates
for both model-based strategies are statistically insignificant relative to the benchmark. These
findings suggest that the practical value of machine learning-based return forecasting in this setting
depends critically on implementation costs, and that turnover-penalizing construction or lower frequency rebalancing may be necessary for gross gains to survive in net terms.
2025
FT29
Isara Khambut
Estimating SET100 Realized Beta with Long Short-term Memory Model
This study examines whether a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network, trained on
ten firm-level and macroeconomic predictors, can forecast the one-year-ahead realized beta of
SET100 stocks more accurately than the one-year daily and five-year monthly rolling regressions
that practitioners rely on, using monthly out-of-sample forecasts from 2015 to 2024 evaluated on a
value-weighted basis. The result suggests that the LSTM forecasts beta more accurately than the
five-year monthly regression in every size group and in both COVID-19 regimes. However, it does
not dominate the one-year daily regression. In fact, the two models are statistically equal on the
value-weighted aggregate, and this parity holds both before and after the COVID-19 break,
contradicting a common expectation that a flexible deep-learning model should beat simple
regressions across the board.
A possible explanation for this finding is that a one-year daily regression already estimates
the betas of large and liquid stocks with little bias, so little room is left for a richer model to add
value among the stocks that dominate the value-weighted measure. The network instead earns its
advantage among small and mid-sized stocks, significantly so in the mid group, and its forecasts
depend mainly on the recent historical betas rather than on the wider predictor set. Finally, these
gains are observed in some, but not all, segments of the market, as the advantage among smaller
stocks is clearest before the pandemic, so the additional cost of an LSTM is justified mainly for the
small and mid-cap segment.
2025
FX19
Jitpreeda Thangjitpreedanon
Does Fintech Development Improve Firm Performance in Emerging Markets?
This study examines the relationship between FinTech development and firm performance among listed firms in emerging market economies over the period 2014–2024. Firm performance is measured by firm growth, return on assets (ROA), and Tobin's Q. The study further investigates whether the effect of FinTech development is stronger for firms operating in industries with higher external financial dependence (EFD).
The findings indicate that FinTech development is positively associated with firms' market valuation, suggesting that financial markets recognize the long-term growth opportunities created by digital financial innovation. Furthermore, the effects of FinTech development vary across firm characteristics, regions, and levels of external financial dependence. The results remain consistent under the robustness tests using an alternative measure of FinTech development. Overall, the findings suggest that the benefits of FinTech development are reflected more strongly in market valuation than in short-term operating performance.
2025
FX19
Kan Dissorn
Institutional Trading Behavior and Stock Return Volatility during Global Geopolitical Crises: Evidence from the Stock Exchange of Thailand
The financial world has transformed greatly in the past few decades. In the
past, crises were mostly caused by internal economic variables such as fluctuations in
interest rates and inflation. Nowadays, markets have to deal with unexpected
geopolitical crises such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and tensions between
China and Japan. These events are not just horrific for individuals, but also cause
systemic shocks to the world economy, resulting in prices rise up and influences how
fundamental investors are in the market.
Geopolitical crises occur unexpectedly, unlike economic recessions, which
give early warning signs. They happen so suddenly, it’s challenging to predict and
even more difficult to measure these events. These shocks are especially strong for
Thailand, which is an emerging market that depends on foreign investment
2025
FX19
KANASORN KAEWMANEE
THE IMPACT OF CASH HOLDINGS ON FIRM FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE:THE MODERATING ROLE OF GOVERNANCE
This study analyses the impact of cash holdings on firm financial performance and the moderating role of corporate governance in the ASEAN-5 economies, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, over the period 2020 to 2024. The analytical sample comprises 13,434 firm-years across 3,091 firms for the cash–performance test, and 3,249 firm-years across 915 firms for the governance moderation test. The empirical specification is a panel regression with firm, year, and country fixed effects, with standard errors clustered at the firm level. The Cash Ratio coefficient is positive and statistically significant for all three performance measures: Tobin's Q, Return on Assets, and Net Profit Margin. The positive cash–performance relationship is robust to using the natural logarithm of one plus cash holdings as an alternative measure of cash.
The pooled interaction between cash holdings and governance quality is statistically insignificant across all three performance measures, reflecting the limited within-firm variation in the Governance Score over the five-year window. The by-country analysis, however, reveals a striking contrast: Indonesia displays a positive and significant interaction on Return on Assets, while Singapore displays a negative and significant interaction on the same measure. Because the pooled interaction is not statistically significant and the country-level effects appear only in Singapore and Indonesia, and in opposite directions, the trade-off framework is offered as one interpretation of the observed heterogeneity rather than a general result across the five ASEAN markets. The contrast is consistent with the trade-off framework, under which the marginal value of additional cash depends on the joint position of firms along the cash and governance distribution.
The findings carry practical implications for three stakeholder groups. For investors and asset managers in ASEAN-5 markets, the positive cash–performance relationship supports a precautionary view of cash in emerging markets and indicates that high-cash firms are not, on average, destroying shareholder value. For corporate managers, the contrasting Singapore and Indonesia results suggest that the marginal value of additional cash depends on the firm's joint position on the cash and governance distribution: well-governed firms with already-high cash balances may face diminishing returns to further accumulation, while weakly governed firms with low cash positions may still benefit from buffering. For policymakers and regulators in emerging ASEAN markets, the by-country contrast underscores the role of country-level institutional context in shaping the cash–governance interaction and supports continued investment in governance disclosure and enforcement. The study also contributes ASEAN-5 evidence on the cash–performance–governance relationship using the granular LSEG Governance Pillar Score and a recent panel that includes the COVID-19 period.
2025
FT29
Komkrit Orankitcharoen
Truly diversified portfolio via tail-loss expected shortfall in risk parity model
This study proposes the CVaR Tail-Loss Risk Parity model, or CVaR_TL_RP, to construct a more truly diversified portfolio by allocating risk based on realized tail-loss information. The model estimates Conditional Value-at-Risk, or Expected Shortfall, from realized losses beyond the VaR threshold instead of relying on a normal-distribution covariance-matrix assumption. CVaR_TL_RP is evaluated against Equal Weight, traditional Risk Parity, and normal-distribution CVaR-RP under domestic and multinational portfolio settings. The study also applies an XGBoost-based Tactical Direction overlay to examine whether machine-learning directional signals can improve portfolio performance through risk-budget adjustment.
The results show that CVaR_TL_RP partially achieves its objective. Although it does not consistently outperform all benchmarks, it improves downside-risk control in several settings and performs better when the lookback window provides sufficient tail-loss observations. The 6-month historical lookback records the strongest observed CVaR_TL_RP performance in both portfolios, suggesting a favorable balance between tail-risk estimation and responsiveness to recent market conditions. XGBoost adds value only in specific settings: it improves CVaR_TL_RP only under the 3-month lookback in the domestic portfolio, but improves the model across all tested lookback windows in the multinational portfolio, with the strongest return performance under the 3-month tactical setting. Overall, realized tail-loss risk parity is more effective with broader diversification opportunities, while XGBoost is useful as a supporting tactical signal rather than a consistently superior forecasting engine.
2025
FT28
Louis Marlio Marette
ECB Sustainability Regulatory Announcements: An Event Study of Eurozone Bank Reactions
In 2018, the European Central Bank expressed their concerns for the very first time on the matter of climate change and nature degradation. In 2021, the European Central Bank began shifting arguments from financial stability to price stability. Indeed, the newest justification implies that climate hazards are now capable of affecting inflation. For example, climate risk events can cause supply disruption, hence leading to shortage of goods followed by increase in prices. All goods are impacted by such environmental shock, hence affecting the whole economy. Furthermore, to address this problem, businesses must invest far more into sustainable business models which requires important transitioning costs. Since its core mandate is to ensure price stability, the ECB can use this argument to justify the implementation of stringent environmental policies. In other words, it gives the euro’s area central bank the legitimacy to intervene with stricter green monetary policies.
This study uses the event-study methodology to analyse Eurozone market reactions to seven of the European Central Banks’ regulatory measures announcements. The main purpose of this study is to address the different market reactions in the banking sector in order to better anticipate future sustainability regulations. Indeed, up to date, the ECB has not set any direct regulation in favour of fighting climate change. Instead, the ECB has announced several roadmap plans consisting of elaborating sets of sustainable regulations that are expected to be released in the near future. To the best of our knowledge, no empirical research has been conducted on recent ECB roadmap announcements and market reactions on Eurozone banks. The study aims to shed light on market behaviour following such announcements to help investors better predict market movements and regulators to elaborate such regulations.
2025
FT29
Nannutthee Boonsue
Do Pre-Sale Discounts Compensate for Risk? Evidence from Bangkok Condominium Market
This study examines the determinants of pre-sale discounts in Bangkok condominium projects launched between 2017 and 2023. Specifically, the study investigates whether project uncertainty, local market competition, and developer financial constraints influence the level of discounts offered during the pre-sale period. The analysis focuses on time-to-completion, market density, leverage, bond financing, and refinancing pressure, while controlling for project characteristics and developer-specific effects. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression with heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors is employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings suggest that project-specific uncertainty is the most important determinant of condominium pre-sale discounts than market competition or developer financing conditions.
2025
FX19
Napasorn Arunyasak
How Does Waste Recycling Influence Firm Financial Performance in Emerging Asian Countries? The Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility.
This study examines the relationship between corporate waste recycling practices and firm financial performance, with particular emphasis on the moderating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) sustainability reporting quality. Although environmental investment and circular economy initiatives have attracted increasing attention from academics, practitioners, and policymakers, empirical evidence regarding the financial implications of recycling activities in emerging Asian markets remains limited. Specifically, the mechanisms through which recycling initiatives contribute to firm value and the extent to which sustainability disclosure enhances such effects remain insufficiently understood. To address this gap, this study analyzes an unbalanced panel of 3,914 firm-year observations from 1,395 publicly listed firms across 18 Asian emerging economies classified by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the period 2021-2025.
Using firm-level fixed-effects panel regressions with cluster-robust standard errors, the study investigates whether waste recycling intensity contributes to superior financial performance and whether CSR sustainability reporting quality strengthens this relationship. Recycling activity is measured using two complementary proxies: the Waste Recycling Ratio (RWR), defined as recycled waste as a proportion of total waste generated, and the natural logarithm of recycled waste volume (LNRW), capturing both recycling efficiency and operational scale. Financial performance is assessed through Return on Assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q, representing accounting-based and market-based performance, respectively. CSR sustainability reporting quality, obtained from LSEG (Refinitiv), serves as the moderating variable. All models control for firm size, financial leverage, sales growth, operating cash flows, GDP growth, and inflation, while continuous variables are winsorized at the 5th and 95th percentiles to mitigate the influence of extreme observations.
The empirical findings yield four principal results. First, waste recycling intensity exhibits no statistically significant relationship with ROA across all model specifications, suggesting that recycling activities do not translate into immediate improvements in accounting profitability. Second, both recycling measures are negatively associated with Tobin’s Q, indicating that capital markets may perceive intensive recycling activities as reflecting the cost burden of waste-intensive operations rather than superior environmental efficiency. Third, CSR sustainability reporting quality demonstrates a positive and statistically significant association with firm value, particularly market valuation, supporting the view that transparent sustainability disclosure enhances corporate legitimacy and stakeholder confidence. Fourth, the moderating effect of CSR sustainability reporting is largely unsupported, as interaction terms between recycling measures and CSR scores are statistically insignificant across most specifications. The only exception is the interaction between LNRW and CSR reporting quality, which exhibits marginal significance but with a negative coefficient inconsistent with the hypothesized positive moderating effect.
Overall, the findings suggest that recycling activities and sustainability disclosure influence firm performance through distinct and independent channels. While high-quality CSR reporting contributes positively to firm valuation, recycling initiatives alone do not generate immediate financial benefits and may even be viewed unfavorably by investors in emerging Asian markets from investors may perceive intensive recycling activities as a cost burden rather than a value-enhancing environmental investment. This study contributes to the literature on environmental management, circular economy practices, and corporate sustainability by providing large-scale evidence from emerging economies and highlighting the importance of distinguishing between operational environmental performance and sustainability communication in shaping financial outcomes.
2025
FT29
Napat Sermhirunsakul
Does Ownership Concentration Matter? The Impact of Cash Holdings on Corporate Financial Performance
The analysis employs a panel regression model with firm fixed effects to test two main hypotheses.
First, I examine whether cash holdings demonstrate a positive relationship with corporate financial performance.
Second, I analyze how ownership concentration moderates this relationship, specifically investigating whether
higher ownership concentration weakens the impact of cash holdings on corporate financial performance.
The findings reveal a positive relationship between cash holdings and corporate financial
performance across various dimensions. Specifically, the level of cash holdings demonstrates a statistically
significant positive effect on overall financial performance, including Return on Assets, Return on Equity and
Net Profit Margin. These results provide support for the hypothesis that firms with higher levels of cash holdings
will have better corporate financial performance.
Consistent with expectations, the findings reveal that ownership concentration (measured by TOP5
and TOP10) negatively moderates the relationship between cash holdings and Net Profit Margin. While cash
holdings independently exert a positive effect on net profit margin, a higher level of ownership concentration
weakens this positive impact, suggesting that a highly concentrated ownership structure may diminish the
efficiency of cash holdings in generating profitability. However, this moderating effect was found to be nonsignificant
when evaluating corporate financial performance through Return on Assets and Return on Equity.
The findings provide suggestion for three main group of people. First, firms and management should
recognize that higher cash holdings will enhance corporate financial performance. However, this positive effect
is constrained when ownership concentration is high. Similarly, investors should evaluate cash holdings with
ownership concentration of the firm for investment decision. Finally, regulators and policymakers should
encourage high cash holdings to enhance corporate financial performance, while simultaneously implementing
stricter corporate governance and transparency mechanisms in firms with high ownership concentration to
mitigate entrenchment effect and ensures that the positive impact of cash holdings on net profit margin is not
weaken by ownership concentration.
2025
FT29
Naphat Kriengprasert
The Role of Valuation Multiples in Transmitting ESG Changes to Stock Returns
In this study, the main objective is to discuss the role of valuation multiples (P/E, P/B, and
EV/EBITDA) in transmitting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) score changes to stock
returns in the U.S. equity market. The major question is whether investors who do not monitor
ESG scores directly nonetheless receive ESG-related information indirectly, through movements
in these valuation multiples. The sample comprises of 130 S&P 500 firms (excluding the
Financials and Real Estate/REIT sectors) over the period 2005-2024, covering 2,388 firm-year
observations.
The empirical design proceeds in two stages. Stage 1 comprises two parts: Stage 1A uses pooled
OLS regression to test the effect of ESG score changes (ΔESG) on each valuation multiple (H1),
and Stage 1B uses firm-level time-series regressions to construct an "M-indicator" that classifies
firms as having ESG-sensitive (M = 1) or ESG-insensitive (M = 0) multiples. Stage 2 then uses
pooled OLS regression to test how ESG information is transmitted through these multiples to
the cumulative abnormal return (CAR[0, +5]), computed using the Carhart four-factor model (H2).
The findings offer some support for the hypotheses, with the main observation being an
asymmetry between updates in fundamental valuation and the transmission of prices. In Stage
1A, EV/EBITDA reacts most directly and positively to ESG enhancements, aligning with its
evaluation of the entire firm regardless of capital structure, whereas P/B reacts asymmetrically,
responding negatively to ESG declines. In Stage 2, P/E acts as the main channel conveying ESG
information to short-term returns for firms sensitive to ESG (M_PE= 1), while EV/EBITDA fails to
deliver a noteworthy short-term price signal.
These findings indicate that the ESG-pricing channel is firm-specific rather than market-wide: the
market updates fundamental value through EV/EBITDA, but the signal that reaches short-term
returns travels through P/E, arguably the most widely followed equity multiple. They suggest that, for firms already identified as ESG-sensitive, investors can monitor P/E movements as a sign
of ESG impact; that corporate issuers may influence the short-term market reaction more
effectively by aligning ESG communication with EPS guidance; and that one-size-fits-all ESG
disclosure policies may have limited impact through this channel, signaling more targeted
approaches.
2025
FX19
Narumon Thongbaiyai
The Signaling Value of Green Bond Issuance: Evidence from U.S. Stock Markets
Green bonds have become a prominent instrument for financing corporate
environmental commitments, yet evidence on how equity markets value their issuance remains
mixed, particularly in the United States. Using a sample of 187 green bond issuance
announcements by U.S. listed companies from 2016 to 2024, this study examines the short-term
stock market reaction with an event study methodology. Cumulative abnormal returns are
estimated using the market model across three event windows [−1, +1], [−5, +5], and [−20, +20]
and cross-sectional regressions test whether issuer characteristics shape the reaction.
The findings indicate that green bond announcements do not generate a positive market
reaction, the cumulative average abnormal returns are negative in all three windows, ranging
from −1.26% to −2.50%. A propensity-score-matched comparison against conventional bond
announcements confirms that this negative reaction is specific to the green attribute rather than
to general debt issuance announcements. In the cross-sectional analysis, the market response is
positively associated with the issuer’s pre-announcement ESG performance, with the effect
strengthening over longer windows, whereas first-time issuance status shows no significant
relationship with abnormal returns. These results suggest that U.S. investors value credible
environmental signals from issuers with stronger ESG performance even the overall market
reaction to green bond issuance is negative.
2025
FX19
NARUNCHAYA BURAPHACHEEP
Private Equity Backed and IPO Quality: Short Term and Long Term Dynamics in China
This study examines how the aggregate supply of private equity (PE) capital and firm-level PE backing affect the short-term and long-term performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) in China. Using a sample of 3,326 China A-share IPOs listed between 2005 and 2021, it tests whether abundant PE supply degrades IPO quality through an adverse-selection mechanism and whether firm-level PE backing certifies firm quality.
The findings imply that public-market investors should not interpret PE backing as a quality signal during periods of abundant PE fundraising, and that strengthening investor protection and corporate governance may be necessary before PE backing can deliver the certification benefits documented in developed markets.
2025
FT29
Natchanan Uerpairojkit
Optimal Peer Selection in Enterprise valuation: A Product Life Cycle Enhancement
This research investigates the optimal selection of comparable firms in enterprise
valuation, using U.S. firms from 1997 to 2021 grouped by two-digit SIC industry. I introduce a new
approach in which peers are matched not only on their forecasted growth but also on their
product life cycle stage, and I construct the enterprise value multiple from net operating assets
to keep the multiple consistent with operating fundamentals. The study proceeds in two stages.
First, I estimate annual cross-sectional regressions to identify the fundamental drivers of the
multiple, finding that profitability and long-term growth explain enterprise value and that the
product life cycle is clearly linked to relative valuation. Second, I compare growth rate matching
against product life cycle matching across peer group sizes ranging from two firms to the entire
industry cross-section, computing implied values from the harmonic mean of peers' multiples
and testing accuracy through one-sided bootstrap resampling with 10,000 iterations. The results
demonstrate that valuation accuracy improves sharply from two to five peers but deteriorates
as the pool expands further, and that a small set of closely matched peers minimizes the
systematic downward bias. The results also show that growth matching significantly outperforms
product life cycle matching in every period and at every peer group size, although both methods
share a common, state-dependent error pattern that points to market-wide mispricing rather
than to weaknesses specific to either method.
2025
FX19
Nattheera Thimphitthaya
Corporate Governance Performance and Corporate Dividend Policy: The Moderating Role of Environmental and Social Performance in Thailand
While prior studies suggest that dividend policy is primarily influenced by firm-specific financial characteristics and macroeconomic conditions, the role of ESG performance as a non-financial factor remains unclear, particularly in emerging markets. In this context, this study examines the relationship between corporate governance performance and dividend policy, as well as the moderating role of environmental and social performance, using a sample of Thai listed firms over the period 2010–2024.
Using panel data regression with industry fixed effects, the results show that corporate governance performance does not have a significant effect on dividend policy, as measured by dividend payout ratios and dividend yield. In addition, environmental and social performance do not have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between corporate governance and dividend policy.
In contrast, firm financial characteristics are found to be the main determinants of dividend policy. Profitability is positively related to dividend payments, while leverage is negatively related. Growth opportunities, firm size, and macroeconomic factors such as GDP growth and interest rates also affect dividend yield.
Overall, the findings suggest that, in an emerging market such as Thailand, dividend policy is mainly driven by financial and macroeconomic factors rather than non-financial factors such as corporate governance and ESG performance.
2025
FX19
Nawaphat Junkrajang
Carbon Emissions and the Cost of Equity Capital in Asia-Pacific Markets: The Roles of Institutional Ownership, Governance Quality, and Social Performance
This study examines whether corporate carbon emissions are associated with the implied cost of equity among listed firms in the Asia-Pacific region. The analysis focuses on lagged Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions for firms with available emissions data and analyst forecasts. Because realised stock returns are noisy measures of expected returns, the cost of equity is estimated from current share prices and analyst forecasts using the Claus–Thomas, Gebhardt–Lee–Swaminathan, Easton, and Ohlson–Juettner–Nauroth models. The capital asset pricing model serves as a backward-looking benchmark.
The empirical analysis uses an annual firm-level panel covering 15 Asia-Pacific economies. The baseline regressions include country-year and industry-year fixed effects, with standard errors clustered by firm. The results show that higher lagged Scope 1+2 emissions are associated with a higher composite implied cost of equity. The association is positive and statistically significant across all four implied cost-of-equity estimators but is not significant under the CAPM benchmark. From a valuation perspective, the result is consistent with higher-emitting firms facing a higher required return and, consequently, a lower equity valuation, holding expected earnings, growth, and other fundamentals constant.
The association is concentrated in Japan, South Korea, and China, which provide the largest usable emissions samples, and is weaker or absent in other markets. Adjusting for the probability that emissions data are available materially reduces the estimated association. Positive relationships are observed for absolute Scope 1, Scope 2, and combined Scope 1+2 emissions, but not for emissions intensity scaled by sales. Scope 3 disclosure is not significantly associated with the implied cost of equity. The emissions association is also stronger among firms with higher institutional ownership, indicating a moderating relationship rather than evidence of active institutional engagement. Governance and social performance do not significantly moderate the relationship.
Overall, the findings indicate that carbon emissions are reflected in forward-looking equity discount rates and are consistent with a carbon-related valuation discount. However, the evidence is primarily cross-sectional, subject to sample selection arising from data availability, and should be interpreted as associational rather than causal. The relationship is not supported by the CAPM benchmark or by specifications based on within-firm changes and first differences.
2025
FX19
Nonthapat Buranakittisopon
Relative Carbon Performance and Cost of Debt: Evidence from S&P500
This study examines the relationship between carbon intensity and cost of debt for S&P 500 non-financial firms over the period 2015-2024. Using a panel of 2,917 firm-year observations from 402 unique firms, the analysis employs panel fixed-effects regressions controlling for firm-level financial characteristics to assess whether carbon intensity is significantly associated with corporate borrowing costs, and whether lenders differentiate debt pricing based on firms' relative carbon performance within sector-year peer groups.
The results indicate that carbon intensity is negatively and significantly associated with the cost of debt, consistent with the lender myopia hypothesis whereby creditors prioritize short term financial metrics over long-term carbon transition risks. This negative relationship is concentrated among non-carbon-intensive firms and is absent in carbon-intensive sectors, where lenders appear to treat elevated emissions as an inherent industry characteristic rather than a firm-specific risk signal. No evidence is found that above-median polluters face a steeper marginal pricing penalty than lower-emitting peers within the same sector-year group, suggesting that U.S. large-capitalization lenders do not engage in within-sector carbon benchmarking. Firm characteristic analysis further reveals that carbon risk pricing is most pronounced among value firms and high-profit firms, identifying asset intensity and profitability as key firm characteristics associated with stronger carbon risk pricing. These findings contribute to the sustainable finance literature by documenting that U.S. large-capitalization debt markets do not yet systematically penalize carbon-intensive borrowers, and that mandatory carbon disclosure requirements may be necessary to enable more systematic carbon risk pricing in debt markets.
2025
FX19
Noppadon Thanawatphong
Market neutrality and beta crashes: Evidence from the Thai Equity Market
This study investigates the Betting-Against-Beta (BAB) strategy in the Thai equity market, focusing on its return premium, risk profile, and the role of volatility management. Specifically, it examines whether the low-beta anomaly exists in Thailand, whether BAB’s market exposure varies across market conditions, and whether volatility management can improve the strategy’s risk-adjusted and factor-adjusted performance.
Using common stocks listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) from January 2002 to December 2025, this study constructs monthly BAB portfolios following Frazzini and Pedersen (2014). The empirical results provide evidence of the low-beta anomaly, as the BAB strategy generates a positive and statistically significant abnormal return, with this evidence persisting across both large-cap and small-cap subsamples. However, the strategy also experiences large losses during several periods of strong market increases. The state-dependent analysis shows that BAB’s market exposure becomes substantially more negative when the market performs strongly, indicating negative market timing. In contrast, the optionality analysis does not provide strong evidence that the Thai BAB strategy behaves like a short-call-like option on the market. Finally, volatility management improves both risk-adjusted and factor-adjusted performance. Overall, the findings suggest that the BAB strategy delivers a significant return premium in Thailand, but this premium is accompanied by downside risk related to time-varying market exposure.
2025
FX19
Nopparat Sujarit
The Impact of ESG Performance on Firm Value in the Energy and Utilities Sectors: The Moderating Roles of Institutional Ownership and GHG Emissions
This study investigates the impact of ESG performance on firm value among listed energy and utilities firms in emerging Asian markets (excluding China) over 2015–2024. Firm value is proxied by Tobin’s Q and ESG performance by the LSEG overall ESG score (0–100). The study tests whether institutional ownership and GHG emissions intensity moderate the ESG–firm value relationship, drawing on stakeholder theory, agency theory, legitimacy theory, and signaling theory. Using a balanced panel of 588 firm-year observations and fixed-effects regression with firm, country, and year fixed effects, the empirical results do not support any of the three hypotheses. ESG performance is not positively associated with Tobin’s Q. Institutional ownership does not significantly strengthen the ESG–firm value relationship. GHG emissions intensity does not consistently weaken the ESG–firm value relationship through interaction effects. However, GHG emissions intensity — particularly Scope 1 and combined Scope 1+2+3 — exerts a significant negative direct effect on Tobin’s Q, indicating that capital markets price carbon-transition risk more directly through quantifiable emissions indicators than through aggregate ESG ratings. Return on assets is the most consistent positive determinant of firm value across all specifications. The findings carry important implications for multiple stakeholders. For corporate managers, the results suggest that credibly reducing direct carbon intensity — particularly Scope 1 emissions — generates more reliable valuation benefits than improving an aggregate ESG score alone. For investors, incorporating firm-level GHG emissions exposure alongside traditional financial fundamentals improves valuation accuracy more than relying primarily on broad ESG ratings. For policymakers in emerging Asia, the findings highlight the need for more standardized, granular, and verifiable ESG and emissions disclosure frameworks to strengthen the credibility and valuation relevance of sustainability information. Overall, the study supports a conditional interpretation of ESG value relevance: in carbon-intensive sectors of emerging Asia, quantifiable carbon-risk indicators are more reliably priced by markets than broad ESG scores or institutional ownership moderation mechanisms.
2025
FX19
Panarat Jitthanongsak
ESG Performance and Human Capital Complementarity Evidence from Asian Listed Firms
This study examines the effect of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance on firm performance and the moderating role of human capital in this relationship. The analysis is grounded in Signaling Theory, the Resource-Based View, and Complementary Assets Theory, which together suggest that ESG creates financial value only when a firm has the workforce capability needed to implement its ESG commitments. ESG performance is measured by the Refinitiv ESG combined score, human capital by per-employee compensation (staff costs divided by the number of employees), and firm performance by return on assets (ROA) as the main measure and Tobin's Q as a robustness measure. The sample comprises 3,180 Asian listed firms and 10,709 firm-year observations across 20 economies over the period 2021 to 2024, estimated using two-way (industry and year) fixed-effects panel regressions with standard errors clustered at the firm level.
The results show that ESG performance is positively and significantly associated with both ROA and Tobin's Q, supporting the view that ESG signals firm quality and reduces information asymmetry. Human capital, measured by per-employee compensation, is likewise positively and significantly associated with both performance measures, consistent with Human Capital Theory.
For the moderating role of human capital, which is the core hypothesis, the interaction between ESG and human capital is not statistically significant for ROA but is positive and significant for Tobin's Q. This horizon-dependent pattern indicates that equity markets price the ESG–human capital complementarity before it appears in accounting profitability. In the pillar decomposition, the interaction is significant for Tobin's Q across all three pillars, with the Social pillar showing the largest effect. In the sub-sample analysis by market development, the complementarity is concentrated in emerging markets and does not appear in developed markets. This is consistent with an institutional interpretation in which ESG disclosure in developed markets has become a regulated minimum standard, compressing cross-firm variation. The findings remain robust across several alternative measures of human capital.
Overall, the study indicates that ESG is not a uniform value creator across firms, but a capability-contingent resource whose value depends on internal firm capability, particularly the human capital needed to implement ESG in practice. The findings have practical implications for managers, investors, and policymakers. For managers, increasing ESG investment alone may not be sufficient; firms should also develop workforce quality to realise the complementarity. For investors, ESG scores should be read conditionally, taking human capital quality into account, because a firm with a high ESG score but low per-employee compensation may not convert that score into returns. For policymakers in emerging Asian markets, ESG disclosure requirements may be more effective when paired with policies that support human capital development.
2025
FX19
Panisara Topor
Stock Market Reactions to Monetary Policy Announcements: Evidence from Thailand
This study examines how the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) responds to Bank of Thailand (BoT) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announcements over the period 2007–2025, using an event study methodology applied to 684 SET-listed stocks across 141 policy meetings. The study addresses the “Thailand Puzzle” documented in earlier research the anomalous finding that expected, rather than unexpected, policy rate changes drove Thai stock prices, in apparent contradiction of the efficient market hypothesis and tests four hypotheses concerning the market impact of policy surprises, the relative importance of expected versus unexpected rate changes, asymmetry between tightening and easing surprises, and sectoral heterogeneity in policy transmission.
Policy rate changes are decomposed into expected and unexpected components using Bloomberg median analyst forecasts, and cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) are estimated using the market model over five event windows: pre-event [-2,-1] and [-1,0], the post-announcement window [0,+1] (the primary specification), and the combined windows [-1,+1] and [-2,+2]. All regressions use HC1 heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors and control for firm size, book-to-market, leverage, momentum, and crisis periods.
The results show that policy rate surprises generate significant, negative, and economically meaningful abnormal returns, with a standard 25-basis-point unexpected associated with an abnormal price decline of approximately 0.27 percentage points in the primary event window. The unexpected component of the policy change dominates the expected component by a factor of roughly five once the announcement window is correctly measured, resolving the Thailand Puzzle and indicating that Thai equity markets process monetary policy information efficiently. The market's reaction to tightening and easing surprises is statistically symmetric at the point of announcement, although asymmetric anticipatory trading is detected in the day preceding the meeting. A day-by-day decomposition of abnormal returns further reveals that the cumulative price impact peaks one trading day after the announcement before partially reversing, consistent with short-lived overreaction. Finally, the transmission of policy surprises varies significantly across industries, with Real Estate, Financials, and Healthcare exhibiting the greatest sensitivity, while the Energy sector shows no significant response, consistent with its role as a natural hedge against the commodity price conditions that typically accompany Thai monetary tightening.
These findings contribute to the literature on monetary policy transmission in emerging equity markets and offer practical implications for the Bank of Thailand's communication strategy and for investors seeking to manage monetary policy risk in the Thai equity market.
2025
FX19
Paniti Nimitpanya
Pre-privatization Capital Investment Trend of Public Firms Targeted for Leverage Buyouts
This research examines the capital allocation behavior of listed companies during the period before they become targets for public-to-private transactions. This study aims to fill an academic gap by focusing on pre-buyout behavior, specifically testing agency conflicts in the case of Management Buyouts (MBOs), which feature two conflicting theories: the hypothesis that managers might use capital excessively to expand the asset base (empire-building), and the theory that managers might intentionally reduce investment to depress the firm's valuation (undervaluation hypothesis). Furthermore, the study tests whether such investment behavior is driven by conditions under the Free Cash Flow theory or Financial Distress. The researcher utilizes firm-year panel data, excluding the financial and utilities industries due to capital structure constraints. The study employs Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to mitigate selection bias and uses the "Capital Expenditures to Depreciation ratio" as a proxy to measure organic capital replacement.
The regression analysis reveals three key findings. First, the models provide conditional evidence that target firms have an organic capital replacement rate approximately 0.19 units lower than that of their matched control group in the years preceding the buyout. Second, this severe underinvestment behavior is a unique characteristic of target firms and cannot be fully explained by operating cash flow factors or excessive debt conditions under normal market environments. Finally, the empirical evidence finds no statistically significant difference in capital allocation between the MBO and IBO groups, a result that contradicts the hypothesis of excessive managerial empire-building prior to MBOs.
Overall, rather than supporting intentional managerial undervaluation, these findings point toward a universal sponsor selection mechanism. They demonstrate that whether the acquirers are incumbent managers or external financial institutions, the transition to a private company frequently occurs after a period during which the target firm falls into a state of capital depletion and its physical assets are continuously allowed to deteriorate. These findings hold significant policy and practical implications for corporate boards and investors, highlighting the need to recognize that both internal and external sponsors systematically target firms with historically neglected asset bases, positioning them as prime candidates for privatization and subsequent operational restructuring.
2025
FT29
Passakorn Prawatlerdwattana
Be Confident:How Managerial Confidence in Oppday Presentation Affect Abnormal Returns
This study examines whether managerial confidence expressed during Opportunity Day (Oppday) presentations influences abnormal stock returns in the Thai stock market. While prior research primarily focuses on earnings calls and formal corporate disclosures, Oppday presentations provide a distinct post-earnings communication setting in which managers discuss corporate performance, strategy, and future outlook with investors. This study further investigates whether the relationship between managerial confidence and stock returns varies across different investment horizons and sentiment classification schemes.
Managerial confidence is extracted from Thai-language Oppday presentation transcripts using three language model (LLMs). The resulting evaluations are aggregated under both binary (Very Cautious and Overconfident) and three-class (Very Cautious, Confident and Overconfident) classification schemes. Using a sample of 2,461 Oppday presentations from 2022Q4 to 2025Q2, the study employs event study methodology to examine average abnormal returns (AAR) and cumulative average abnormal returns (CAAR) and cross-sectional regression analysis to assess the relationship between managerial confidence and firm-level cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) while controlling for earnings-related effects and form characteristics.
The results show that firms classified as Overconfident generally experience positive abnormal returns before and around Oppday presentations, but these gains weaken or reverse over the medium term. Firms classified as Confident exhibit similar but less pronounced patterns, whereas Very Cautious firms generally experience declining cumulative abnormal returns following the presentations. The findings also indicate that the choice of sentiment classification scheme affects the observed results, with the three-class scheme producing clearer behavioral distinctions but fewer statistically significant relationships.
This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence from Oppday presentations, a disclosure environment that differs from earnings calls, and demonstrate the applicability of LLM-based sentiment analysis for Thai-language corporate disclosures. The findings suggest that investors initially respond positively to managerial confidence, although these effects diminish over time, highlighting the importance of both disclosure context and sentiment measurement in understanding market reactions.
2025
FX19
Paweekorn Prayngam
Trading for Sustainability: How Active Mutual Funds Influence Corporate Social Responsibility in the Thai Stock Market
This study examines whether the CSR preferences of active mutual funds, as
expressed through portfolio holdings, influence the ESG performance of Thai-listed firms. Using a panel dataset of 178 Thai-listed firms over 2022–2024, this study constructs a holdings-based Fund CSR preference measure following Hwang et al. (2021) and employs panel regression models with firm and year fixed effects and two-way clustered standard errors to identify the holding-based channel, the moderating role of CSR-friendly ownership, the conditioning effect of stock liquidity, and the heterogeneous influence of fund activeness on corporate ESG outcomes.
The baseline results confirm that a one standard deviation increase in lagged Fund
CSR preference is associated with an approximately 1.96-point increase in firm ESG score in the subsequent year, statistically significant at the 5% level, establishing that the investor preference channel documented in developed markets is also operative in the Thai emerging market context. Conditioning Fund CSR preference on CSR-friendly ownership does not produce a detectable marginal effect, consistent with the absence of formal ESG mandate declarations among Thai mutual funds and the information asymmetry inherent in a less developed institutional engagement infrastructure. In contrast, the interaction between Fund CSR preference and Amihud illiquidity is negative and highly significant at the 1% level, confirming that the holding-based channel is substantially stronger in more liquid stocks, consistent with the exit threat mechanism. The sub-sample analysis by fund activeness reveals that Fund CSR preference is significant only in the Low Activeness group, a pattern better explained by a composition effect whereby passive funds systematically concentrate in larger, better-governed firms, rather than a genuine reversal of the disciplinary mechanism.
2025
FT29
Peerapon Jirasukanan
Industry Peer Effects in Dividend Policy: The Moderating Role of Cash Holdings and Corporate Governance in SET Listed Firms
This study investigates the influence of industry peer dividend policies on firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) from 2015 to 2024. While traditional theories focus on internal factors, this research explores "peer effects," where managers use competitors as benchmarks to signal financial stability. The empirical framework is estimated separately for each industry group rather than pooling all firms into one. The primary objective is to examine how industry peer dividend policies impact a firm’s own dividend policy and to investigate the moderating roles of cash holdings and corporate governance.
Using separate panel regressions across 7 Industries, the results show that peer influence does not affect all industries in the same way. The consumer products industry shows a significant negative peer effect suggesting that firms in highly competitive market reduce dividend to assets ratio and keep more cash for future growth instead of following peers. For the moderating effects, the interaction terms for cash holdings and corporate governance are significant only in the agro & food industry. This shows that firms with strong liquidity and governance have more flexibility to make independent dividend decisions rather than follow industry trends. Overall, the results show that the impact of peer effect depends strongly on the industry environment and the firm’s internal conditions.
The findings fill the research gap in emerging markets, providing implications for corporate managers, boards of directors and dividend-focused investors. It serves as a reminder that while firm and macro factors are the starting point, the industry peer effect should not be overlooked when assessing dividend policy.
2025
FX19
Pitipoom Rugchoocheep
Long-Run Dynamics between Bitcoin and Equity Markets: Evidence from Developed and Emerging Markets
This study examines the long-run equilibrium relationships between Bitcoin
prices, gold prices, and the stock market indices of developed and emerging
markets—the MSCI Developed and MSCI Emerging indices, with MSCI World used
as the developed-market proxy—using a Johansen cointegration and error-correction
framework. Specifically, the study compares the dynamics between Bitcoin prices and
stock market indices, and between gold prices and stock market indices, across
developed and emerging markets under identical econometric specifications. The
analysis further evaluates whether adjustment dynamics differ across market
structures and crisis regimes.
Using 2,348 daily observations from 2017 to 2025, the study analyzes four
bivariate systems: Bitcoin–MSCI Developed, Bitcoin–MSCI Emerging, gold–MSCI
Developed, and gold–MSCI Emerging. The sample is divided into three regimes: pre-
COVID, COVID, and post-COVID. Johansen cointegration tests are used as the
formal test of whether a long-run equilibrium relationship exists, while Vector Error
Correction Models are used to examine adjustment dynamics. Conditional on
cointegration, the VECM adjustment coefficients (α) identify which variable corrects
toward equilibrium, and the absolute magnitude of the significant adjustment
coefficients indicates which side adjusts faster.
The results indicate that Bitcoin prices exhibit stronger evidence of longrun
linkage with the MSCI Developed index than with the MSCI Emerging index.
Evidence of a long-run equilibrium relationship is concentrated primarily in the
Bitcoin–MSCI Developed pair, where both Bitcoin and the MSCI Developed index
respond to deviations from equilibrium, although Bitcoin bears the main adjustment
burden. In contrast, gold does not show persistent full-sample asset-side adjustment
toward a long-run equilibrium with either equity index, but it does exhibit asset-side
adjustment within the COVID-period cointegrated systems, indicating that gold’s
correction toward equilibrium appears mainly under crisis conditions.
This study contributes to the literature by providing a like-for-like
Johansen–VECM comparison of Bitcoin and gold against the same developed- and
emerging-market equity benchmarks across matched crisis regimes. By separating
the existence of cointegration from the direction and speed of error correction, the
study shows not only whether long-run equilibrium relationships exist, but also which
asset or index bears the adjustment when deviations occur. The findings have
practical implications for portfolio and risk management: Bitcoin’s diversification role
against developed-market equities may be horizon-dependent, while gold’s
adjustment behavior appears more crisis-specific. Overall, the results suggest that
Bitcoin and gold occupy different positions in the long-run cross-asset structure, and
that Bitcoin should not be treated as a direct substitute for gold in long-horizon
portfolio analysis.
2025
FT29
Puri Tantiyagul
Carbon intensity and cost of debt of Thai listed firms
This study examines whether carbon intensity affects the cost of debt using data from 326 non-financial firms in the Stock Exchange of Thailand from 2015 to 2024. Four hypotheses are tested and separated into three periods, including the pre-ESG period (2015–2020), the One Report period (2021–2022), and the BOT environmental risk integration period (2023–2024). Both asset-based and revenue-based carbon intensity measures are used. The hypotheses test whether carbon intensity affects cost of debt at the firm level, the industry level, compared to industry peers, and changes year-on-year. The results show no significant relationship between carbon intensity and cost of debt in Periods 1 and 2, with inconsistent signs across models. However, coefficients turn positive, with hypothesis 3 marginally and hypothesis 4 statistically significant in Period 3. These findings suggest that Thailand is at an early stage of incorporating carbon risk into the cost of debt. The BOT guidance on environmental risk played a crucial role in helping carbon information have an effect on the cost of debt.
2025
FT29
Pyae Yad ana Eain Soe
Beyond the Premium: The Impact of Target ESG Scores on Purchase Price Allocation (PPA) in the Technology and Healthcare Sectors
This study examines whether target Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
performance influences two critical stages of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A)
process: transaction completion and post-acquisition purchase price allocation.
Despite the growing importance of ESG considerations in corporate valuation and
investment decision-making, limited evidence exists regarding their impact on M&A
execution and accounting outcomes. To address this gap, this study develops a twostage
empirical framework using a sample of Healthcare and High Technology
acquisitions announced between 2019 and 2025.
In Stage 1, logistic regression models are employed to examine whether target ESG
performance aRects the likelihood of deal completion. ESG performance is measured
using both continuous ESG scores and threshold-based indicators. In Stage 2, ordinary
least squares (OLS) regression with robust standard errors is used to investigate
whether target ESG performance and acquisition rationale disclosures influence the
proportion of purchase price allocated to goodwill under ASC 805. Financial,
transaction-specific, and deal-structure controls are incorporated throughout the
analysis.
The results indicate that target ESG performance does not have a statistically
significant eRect on M&A deal completion. This finding remains robust across
alternative ESG specifications, including continuous ESG measures and industryadjusted
ESG thresholds. Instead, transaction characteristics such as cross-border
status and payment method are more strongly associated with deal completion
outcomes. Similarly, target ESG performance does not significantly influence goodwill
allocation in completed transactions. Acquisition rationale disclosures also fail to
demonstrate a significant relationship with the goodwill ratio. Rather, traditional
financial fundamentals, particularly target profitability and relative transaction size,
emerge as the primary determinants of purchase price allocation.
Overall, the findings suggest that while ESG considerations have become increasingly
prominent in corporate strategy and valuation discussions, they do not appear to
materially influence either transaction execution or post-acquisition accounting
recognition within the sample examined. The study contributes to the ESG and M&A
literature by providing evidence that traditional financial and transaction
characteristics continue to dominate both deal completion outcomes and purchase
price allocation decisions.
2025
FX19
Ranaporn Wongchaoum
How does Board Structure impact the Cost of Debt in Emerging Asia? The Moderating Roles of Corruption and Political Stability
This study examines the impact of board structure on firms’ cost of debt in Emerging Asia, focusing on the moderating roles of control of corruption and political stability. Board structure is measured by board size and board independence. Using 8,943 firm-year observations from listed firms in 7 Emerging Asian countries (China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand) from 2015 to 2024, the study employs ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models with country and year fixed effects to examine both the direct effects of board structure and the moderating effects of country-level institutional environments.
The results show that board size has a negative and statistically significant effect on firms’ cost of debt, suggesting that firms with larger boards tend to face lower borrowing costs. However, board independence does not have a significant direct effect on cost of debt. The findings also show that control of corruption and political stability have significant negative direct effects on cost of debt, indicating that firms operating in stronger institutional environments benefit from lower borrowing costs. However, the interaction terms between board structure and the institutional variables are positive and statistically significant, which is opposite to the predicted direction. This suggests that board structure does not become more effective in reducing the cost of debt when firms operate in stronger institutional environments.
This study provides practical implications for investors and lenders by showing that both board structure and country-level institutional quality matter in assessing firms’ cost of debt and credit risk. For firms and regulators, the results also suggest that board structure policies or regulations could be developed to support effective monitoring and governance quality, which may help reduce borrowing costs.
2025
FT29
Raul Restelli
Valuation-Based Dynamic Asset Allocation: Evidence from the U.S., U.K., and Japan
This study examines whether Benjamin Graham's valuation-based allocation framework can be converted into a systematic, rules-based strategy that produces superior risk-adjusted outcomes for investors. Graham's The Intelligent Investor, published in 1949, remains one of the most influential works in investment theory, particularly for its emphasis on valuation and discipline. Rather than treating investing as speculation or constant forecasting, Graham proposed a framework in which investors respond rationally to market conditions while maintaining clear limits on risk. His central prescription for the defensive investor was to hold both stocks and bonds, adjusting that balance when valuations become unusually high or low, yet it remains unclear whether such a principle can be operationalized as a mechanical, replicable strategy and still deliver a measurable advantage over static alternatives.
2025
FX19
Saranchana Srisawan
Tail Risk and the Cross-Section of Thai Mutual Fund Returns: Evidence from Non-tax saving and Tax-Saving Funds
With the primary objectives of quantifying the compensation for extreme downside exposure and evaluating the systemic impact of regulatory capital lock-ups, this study comprehensively examines the pricing and structural determinants of tail risk within the Thai mutual fund industry. By utilizing the cross-sectional Hill estimator and Fama-MacBeth regressions, the research adjudicates between competing theoretical frameworks regarding portfolio liquidity and managerial risk-taking.
The findings confirm the existence of a tail risk premium, high tail risk funds outperform low-risk funds by 1.92% per annum, though this compensation is less than half the size of what is observed in the U.S. market. Furthermore, this premium is entirely relative, as Thai funds generally underperform broader market benchmarks regardless of their risk level. The results also identify investor cash flows and active management deviations as the primary drivers of a fund's exposure to extreme risk. Crucially, by testing the impact of mandatory holding periods in tax-saving funds, the study reveals that capital lock-ups significantly reduce tail risk exposure. This strongly supports the Stability Hypothesis, demonstrating that locking in capital protects managers from fire-sale redemption pressure, and firmly rejects the notion that such safety nets encourage reckless risk-taking.
2025
FX19
Sarawut Prommala
The Relationship Between Stock and Housing Prices: Evidence from Emerging Asian Economies ( 2001–2024)
This study examines the bidirectional wealth transmission between housing and stock
markets in three Emerging Asian economies namely China, Thailand, and Indonesia over the
period 2001 to 2024. Drawing on the wealth effect hypothesis, the collateral channel, and the
participation wave framework, the study investigates whether housing price appreciation drives
stock market returns and whether stock market booms redirect capital into the housing sector.
The homeownership rate and stock ownership rate are introduced as country-level moderators
to capture how the breadth of market participation shapes the intensity of wealth spillovers.
The empirical analysis employs panel fixed effects estimation, pooled OLS, and seemingly
unrelated regression to exploit both cross-country and within-country variation.
The central finding is a null result. At the annual country-aggregate level, neither
housing returns nor stock returns are statistically detectable predictors of one another, and the
moderating roles of ownership rates in those transmissions are indistinguishable from zero. This
outcome does not contradict urban household-level evidence from China or long-run evidence
from advanced economies; rather, it suggests that classical wealth and collateral transmission
mechanisms do not aggregate cleanly to annual national signals in these settings, likely due to
limited mortgage infrastructure, high data aggregation, and short panel length.
A secondary, tentative pattern emerges in which broader stock market participation is
negatively associated with subsequent housing returns, broadly consistent with portfolio asset
substitution. This finding is marginal in statistical significance and rests on partly-interpolated
ownership data, and is therefore flagged as a hypothesis for future research rather than an
established channel. Across multiple specifications, the interest rate emerges as the most reliably
significant determinant of both asset markets, affirming monetary policy as a meaningful lever
for cross-market stability in the region.
2025
FX19
Sirapat Powchai
THE IMPACT OF FOREIGN FUNDING EXPOSURE ON BANK LENDING AND RISK RECOGNITION
This study examines how bank reliance on foreign currency deposits, a funding source sensitive
to global financial conditions, affects lending behavior and forward-looking loan loss provisioning
across ASEAN banking systems, and whether this relationship varies with a country's level of
financial development. Using a quarterly panel of 22–23 commercial banks across six ASEAN
economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) from 2020 to
2025, the study applies a two-way fixed effects model with bank-level clustered standard errors.
The results show no significant relationship between the foreign currency deposit ratio
and aggregate lending, though domestic deposit reliance significantly boosts corporate lending. For
risk recognition, the aggregate provisioning result is insignificant, but a subsample of eight banks
with full IFRS 9 stage-level disclosure shows a significant positive relationship. Financial
development moderates the foreign funding lending relationship. Below a threshold index of 0.70,
foreign currency deposits reduce lending, while above it, the effect turns positive, though only at
the 90 percent confidence level.
2025
FX19
Sirasin Tangsumpanta
The Effects of FOMC Policy Surprises and Statement Language on Bitcoin: High-Frequency Evidence (2018–2025)
This study examines how Bitcoin responds to scheduled monetary policy announcements by the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), separating the response into two related but distinct channels: the actions channel, which reflects the unexpected component of the policy decision, and the words channel, which reflects the informational content of the written statement.
Using high-frequency Bitcoin price data around 65 scheduled FOMC announcements from 2018 to 2025, the main event window used as a robustness check. Continuous volatility is measured using jump-robust realized measure methods, the policy-action surprise is measured through a WIRP-based Target Surprise, and statement language is scored on Tone and Uncertainty dimensions using a fixed rubric. Because the event sample is small and high-frequency outcomes are skewed, the study relies on transparent group comparisons and permutation inference rather than high-parameter regression.
The results that FOMC event windows differ significantly from matched non-event windows, particularly in continuous volatility and jump-like diagnostic activity; this is the strongest evidence in the study, while signed-return predictability remains weak. The action channel, measured through Target Surprise, is mixed across the full sample but becomes more visible after late-2020. The words channel, measured through Tone and Uncertainty, provides weaker evidence, consistent with the central-bank-communication literature's view that language effects require more nuanced interpretation than the policy decision itself.
These findings support the view that Bitcoin has become more sensitive to macro-financial information around central bank communication, but this sensitivity is expressed mainly through elevated volatility and trading activity rather than predictable directional returns. The study contributes to the literature by separating the actions and words channel in a digital-asset setting and highlighting FOMC announcements as high-frequency events for Bitcoin market.
2025
FX19
Sitapha Simakorn
The Impact of Investment Style Consistency on Risk-Adjusted Performance: Evidence from Thai Fixed Income Mutual Funds
This study examines whether investment style consistency is positively associated with
risk-adjusted performance among Thai fixed income mutual funds. Using a sample of 89 openended
domestic fixed income mutual funds across six AIMC categories over the period January
2021 to December 2025, the study employs a three-stage analytical framework comprising Returns-
Based Style Analysis (RBSA), a multi-factor performance model, and Pearson Correlation Analysis.
The results indicate that funds with higher style consistency, as measured by the R² from
RBSA, tend to generate superior risk-adjusted returns compared to their lower-consistency
counterparts. This finding holds consistently across all six AIMC categories and is robust to an
alternative peer-relative return measure. The evidence provides empirical support for the Agency
Theory framework, suggesting that mandate adherence serves as a mechanism to mitigate agency
costs and is positively associated with superior fund performance in the Thai fixed income mutual
fund market. These findings suggest that R² can serve as a reliable fund screening tool for investors,
complementing traditional performance metrics.
2025
FT29
Sorn Setthaphanich
Impact of Monetary Policy Surprises on Corporate Debt Composition: Evidence from SET100 & MAI
This study examines the impact of monetary policy surprises (MPS) on
corporate debt composition in Thailand using a Panel Vector Autoregression (PVAR)
framework. The analysis covers 204 listed firms from the SET100 and MAI, excluding
the financial sector, from 2007 Q1 to 2024 Q4. Monetary policy surprises are
measured as deviations of Bank of Thailand policy rate decisions from Bloomberg
consensus forecasts. The results support the bank lending channel: an unexpected
monetary tightening lead to a significant and persistent increase in bank borrowing,
consistent with a precautionary credit line drawdown mechanism. In contrast, bond
issuance shows no significant response to monetary policy shocks, suggesting
structural insulation of the Thai corporate bond market. Bond market access does
not reduce the bank borrowing response, contradicting the substitution hypothesis.
Crisis-period analysis reveals that the precautionary drawdown mechanism intensifies
during periods of uncertainty, particularly during the COVID-19 era. Overall, monetary
policy transmission in Thailand operates primarily through committed bank credit
facilities rather than shifts in debt composition.
2025
FT29
Supawit Ketsripong
Have a good day: The Intraday Effect of FOMC Announcements on the SET100
This study investigates the intraday effects of U.S. Federal Open Market Committee
(FOMC) announcements on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), specifically focusing on the
SET100, SET50, and SETEX50 indices. FOMC policy statements are released while the Thai market
is closed, local investors face a unique time-zone mismatch that results in an overnight
information shock, forcing the market to digest and price accumulated expectations at the
following morning's opening bell. Using 30-minute high-frequency intraday data from January
2018 to June 2022, this research utilizes an event study framework, panel regression, and a
GARCH(1,1) model to analyze market reactions across normal, Pre-FOMC, and FOMC
announcement days. The study isolates these effects by conducting cross-sectional analyses
across investor types (institutional versus retail), industry sectors (Financial, Real, Service), and
distinct monetary policy actions (rate hikes, cuts, and holds).
The empirical findings reveal that while the FOMC announcement window generally
depresses overall baseline returns, it does not exert a predictable or systematic directional effect
on intraday abnormal returns. Instead, the market's reaction is prominently captured through
conditional volatility, which significantly increases and clusters during both the Pre-FOMC and
actual announcement days. The study uncovers behavioral differences among market
participants, retail-dominated stocks exhibit structurally higher conditional volatility throughout
the entire event timeline, aligning with noise trading behaviors. In contrast, institutional-dominated
stocks experience a distinct volatility surge during the Pre-FOMC window,
demonstrating that informed traders engage in strategic pre-positioning and hedging before the
news is officially released. The Financial sector exhibits the highest early baseline of abnormal
volatility. Ultimately, these findings expose the information asymmetry within the Thai equity
market and provide a deeper understanding of how emerging markets absorb major
macroeconomic news on a high-frequency basis
2025
FX19
Suphakorn Tanaroj
Does Board Gender Diversity Matter? The Impact of Working Capital Management on Profitability
This study examines the effect of working capital management on firm profitability and investigates whether board gender diversity moderates this relationship. Working capital management is disaggregated into Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO), Days Payable Outstanding (DPO), and Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). Profitability is measured by return on assets (ROA), while board gender diversity is measured by the proportion of female directors on the board. The sample consists of 863 U.S. non-financial firms from six economic sectors during 2014–2025, representing 5,618 firm-year observations. The empirical analysis applies firm fixed-effects regressions with firm-clustered standard errors.
The direct results show that DIO, DPO, and DSO have negative and statistically significant effects on ROA, indicating that firms with longer inventory holding periods, payable periods, and receivable collection periods tend to experience lower profitability. The negative effects of DIO and DSO are consistent with the hypotheses. However, the negative effect of DPO contradicts the hypothesis and the traditional view that longer payable periods improve profitability. This finding suggests that extended supplier payment periods may be associated with lower profitability rather than improved profitability.
The moderating results indicate that board gender diversity does not influence all working capital components in the same way. Female board representation weakens the negative relationship between DSO and ROA, supporting the hypothesis that board gender diversity helps mitigate the adverse profitability effects of longer receivable collection periods. In contrast, female board representation strengthens the negative relationship between DPO and ROA, which contradicts the hypothesis that female board representation would weaken the positive relationship between DPO and ROA. Meanwhile, the estimated moderating effect of female board representation on the DIO–ROA relationship is negative but statistically insignificant, providing no evidence that board gender diversity moderates the relationship between DIO and ROA. Industry-specific regressions further show that the moderating role of board gender diversity differs across sectors. Overall, the findings suggest that board gender diversity does not moderate all working capital components uniformly, but its role is more evident in receivables and payables.
This study provides practical implications for managers, boards, and external stakeholders. For managers, the findings highlight the importance of managing inventory, payables, and receivables separately rather than relying solely on aggregate working capital measures. In particular, firms should closely monitor excessive inventory holding, delayed customer collections, and extended supplier payment periods, as each may reduce profitability through different operational channels. For boards and governance committees, the results suggest that board gender diversity can strengthen oversight of working capital decisions, especially in relation to receivables and payables. For investors, creditors, analysts, and lenders, the findings offer useful signals for evaluating whether firm profitability is supported by efficient working capital management or weakened by inefficiencies in individual working capital management components.
2025
FX19
Taechatat Taechopun
The Impact of Geopolitical Risk on Firm Financial Performance: The Moderating Roles
of Leverage and Cash Holdings in Thailand
This study examines how geopolitical risk affects the financial performance of Thai firms, with particular focus on the moderating roles of leverage and cash holdings. Using a panel of nonfinancial firms in the SET100 index from 2010 to 2024, this research investigates whether rising geopolitical risk weakens firm performance and how firms’ capital structure and liquidity shape this relationship. Firm performance is measured by two complementary indicators: Tobin’s Q, which reflects market-based valuation, and return on assets (ROA), which reflects accounting profitability.
The analysis employs a panel regression model with firm fixed effects to test three main hypotheses. First, I examine whether geopolitical risk negatively affects firm performance. Second, I investigate whether higher leverage strengthens this negative effect, based on the expectation that more financially constrained firms are more exposed to external shocks. Third, I analyze whether larger cash holdings buffer firms against the adverse effect of geopolitical risk.
The findings reveal a relationship that differs across the two performance measures. Geopolitical risk has a negative and statistically significant effect on Tobin’s Q in the complete model, while its effect on ROA is weaker and not statistically significant. This provides partial support for the first hypothesis and indicates that geopolitical risk is reflected more clearly in market-based valuation than in current accounting profitability. Since the complete model includes interaction terms, the direct coefficient on geopolitical risk should be interpreted together with the moderating effects of leverage and cash holdings.
The moderating results are mixed. The interaction between geopolitical risk and leverage is not statistically significant, and its sign is unstable across specifications; therefore, the second hypothesis is not supported. In contrast, the interaction between geopolitical risk and cash holdings is positive and significant for Tobin’s Q in the main specification, while a directionally similar but weaker pattern is observed under alternative proxy definitions. This supports the third hypothesis in the market-valuation dimension and indicates that cash holdings help reduce the negative valuation effect of geopolitical risk.
These findings contribute to the understanding of how geopolitical risk influences firm performance in an emerging market and highlight cash holdings, rather than leverage, as the more reliable buffer against this form of uncertainty. The results have practical implications for corporate managers who manage liquidity under external uncertainty, for investors who assess firm exposure to geopolitical risk, and for policymakers concerned with firm resilience in the Thai market.
2025
FX19
Thammasorn Harnpadungkij
The Impact of AI Adoption on Firm Performance: The Moderating Effect of Institutional Ownership in Thailand
Since Large-Language-Model technology such as ChatGPT was released in late 2022,
artificial intelligence came to be one of the key focuses of many organizations around the world.
The literature in developed markets, such as the U.S. market, revealed that the AI adoption
positively affects the firm value, sales, and innovation. (Babina et al., 2024; Soto, 2025). Regarding
Thailand context, although some literature studies the impact of digital technology and digital
transformation on firm performance such as Return-On-Asset (ROA) and the firm value such as
Tobin’s Q and show that the digital technology have the positive effect on those two outcomes
(Moolkham, 2025;Jungprasert, 2024), there is no study that specifically focuses on the impact of AI
on firm performance. Hence, this study aims to be the first study investigating the effectiveness of
AI on firm efficiency (e.g. ROA) and firm value (Tobin’s Q). To make the AI usage measurement
more rigorous and less prone to “AI-Washing”, our study also is the first study in Thailand which
measure the digital or AI usage by using context-based textual analysis approach proposed by
Yang et al. (2024) which does not focus only on the frequency of AI related keyword but also the
action vocabulary around them. Moreover, this study also explores the role of institutional investors
on monitoring and encouraging the real AI usage in the firm rather than just superficial mentions in
the report. In other words, we test whether institutional ownership can enhance the AI effectiveness
in the firm or not. The result from our study shows that disclosure of AI usage in firms can
significantly improve the firm value in subsequent years. But, AI adoption may not suddenly improve
the firm efficiency in a short time period as we cannot detect the significant effect in our study.
Regarding the institutional investor, the institutional investors have a positive effect to improve the
AI effectiveness, specifically to improve the margin of the firm.
2025
FX19
Thanaphat Arnat
ESG PERFORMANCE AND DIVIDEND PAYOUT RATIO: THE MODERATING ROLE OF DEBT-TO-EQUITY RATIO IN S&P 500
This study examines the relationship between ESG performance and dividend payout ratios among S&P 500 and investigates the moderating role of the debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio on that relationship. Using a panel of 5,708 firm-year observations drawn from 483 S&P 500 firms over the period 2010–2024, sourced from the LSEG Refinitiv Workspace database, and employing OLS panel regressions with industry and year fixed effects, three main hypotheses are tested. The results show that higher ESG performance is positively associated with dividend payout ratios, with this effect confirmed for the full sample and NYSE-listed firms, and emerging through a free cash flow channel for NASDAQ-listed firms. The moderating role of leverage differs markedly by exchange: higher debt is associated with lower dividend payouts among NYSE firms, consistent with financial constraints theory, while among NASDAQ firms leverage is positively associated with dividends, reflecting a selection effect among financially mature issuers. The ESG–leverage interaction does not weaken the ESG-dividend relationship at the aggregate level, but amplifies it among NASDAQ firms, suggesting a dual credibility signaling mechanism for leveraged firms with strong ESG profiles. Extended pillar-level analysis finds that Environmental and Social scores are positive and significant drivers of dividends, while the Governance pillar is insignificant, attributable to endogeneity between governance quality and the dividend decision itself. These findings contribute new evidence on ESG-dividend dynamics in the U.S. market and offer practical implications for investors, corporate managers, and policymakers.
2025
FT29
Thanawat Thaneeyatammakun
Speculative Efficiency and News-Driven Short-Run Price Adjustment between Bitcoin Futures and Spot Markets
This study examines speculative efficiency and news-driven price adjustment between
cryptocurrency futures and spot markets before and after Bitcoin Spot ETF approval in January
2024. Using four datasets covering Bitcoin and Ethereum, we estimate Error Correction Models with
five news sentiment categories across two market periods. Results confirm long-run cointegration
throughout all datasets. After ETF approval, the short-run price correction mechanism becomes less
effective, Bitcoin's news sensitivity shifts from geopolitical to monetary policy signals, and news
categories are found to influence the speed of price adjustment. Pre-ETF, futures adjust significantly
faster than spot. Overall, ETF approval altered both how price gaps are corrected and which news
matters in cryptocurrency markets.
2025
FX19
Thayakorn Jindawech
The Determinants of Private Equity Exit Choice: Secondary Buyouts versus Third-Party Exits
This study examines the factors that influence private equity firms’ choice
of exit route at the end of the investment lifecycle. Specifically, it investigates
whether a portfolio company is exited through a secondary buyout or through an
alternative route, including trade sales and initial public offerings (IPOs). The
analysis focuses on how market conditions, sponsor capabilities, and inter-sponsor
relationships shape exit decisions within the private equity industry.
The empirical analysis is based on a sample of 225 exits originating from
U.S. public-to-private leveraged buyouts entered between 2000 and 2015 and
tracked through 2025. Logistic regression models are employed to evaluate the
likelihood of a secondary buyout exit. The explanatory variables include industry
dry powder, credit market conditions, sponsor track record, network embeddedness,
holding period, and transaction size. To reduce potential endogeneity concerns, all
explanatory variables are measured using information available before the focal exit
year.
The findings reveal that sponsor track record is the strongest predictor of
exit route selection. Sponsors with more extensive prior exit experience are
significantly less likely to complete a secondary buyout, suggesting that
experienced firms may possess greater access to alternative exit opportunities.
Industry dry powder is also negatively associated with the probability of a
secondary buyout, while credit market conditions exhibit the expected directional
effect but are not statistically significant. In contrast, network embeddedness does
not demonstrate a significant relationship with exit choice in either the baseline
model or a series of robustness tests.
The results point to sponsor-specific capabilities as more important than
financing conditions or network position in explaining secondary buyout activity.
The study contributes to the private equity literature by providing evidence that exit
route selection is influenced primarily by differences in sponsor experience and
capabilities rather than by embeddedness within co-investment networks. The
evidence sheds light on the strategic considerations underlying private equity exit
decisions and on the evolving role of secondary buyouts within the broader exit
market.
2025
FX19
Theerathun Jongsakul
Audit Quality, Risk Recognition Discipline, and Provisioning Behavior: Evidence from Listed Financial Institutions in Thailand
This study examines whether audit quality shapes loan-loss provisioning behavior
among financial institutions listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand following the 2020
adoption of TFRS 9 and its expected-credit-loss framework. Using a panel of 432 firmyears
from 43 institutions (12 commercial banks and 31 non-bank financial institutions,
NBFIs) over 2014-2025, the study tests whether two observable dimensions of audit
quality, audit fees and auditor tenure, strengthen the responsiveness of provisions to
credit-risk deterioration (recognition responsiveness) and weaken their association with
pre-provision earnings (earnings neutrality), whether any such effects intensified after
TFRS 9, and whether they differ between banks and NBFIs. Each model is estimated by
two-way fixed-effects panel regression separately for banks and NBFIs, with the crossequation
difference tested by a Wald test and directional hypotheses evaluated one-sided.
The evidence provides little support for an audit-quality disciplining role: none of
the directional hypotheses is supported, two interactions are significant in the direction
opposite to prediction (longer NBFI tenure is associated with less responsive
provisioning, and higher NBFI fees with a stronger provisions-earnings link), and no
bank-NBFI heterogeneity is detected. The negative tenure result is consistent with the
familiarity-threat rationale for auditor rotation, while the positive fee result most
plausibly reflects the confounding of audit fees with institution size and complexity. The
findings constitute an informative null: in an emerging-market, bank-oriented setting
with near-universal Big-4 coverage, observable audit quality does not measurably
discipline provisioning under the expected-credit-loss regime.
2025
FX19
Treetraporn Ketsomboon
The Impact of ESG Disclosure on Valuation and Risk: Evidence from Thai Property Funds and REITs
This study examines whether Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure
adoption by property funds and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) listed on the Stock
Exchange of Thailand is associated with fund valuation, stock price volatility, and investors’
required return, and how this relationship evolves over time following adoption.
Using a fixed-effects panel regression model with fund and year fixed effects and
clustered standard errors, based on an unbalanced panel of 341 fund-year observations covering
51 Thai property funds and REITs from 2016 to 2025, the study tests four hypotheses grounded
in disclosure theory, ESG literature, and asset pricing frameworks. Fund valuation is measured
using the price-to-net asset value (P/NAV) ratio, stock price risk is measured using annualized
return volatility, and dividend yield is used as a proxy for investors’ required return.
Contrary to the predictions of disclosure theory, the findings show that ESG disclosure
adoption is associated with a statistically significant decline in fund valuation (coefficient = -0.104,
significant at the 1% level), a result that remains robust after controlling for macroeconomic
conditions. The study finds no evidence that ESG disclosure adoption reduces stock price
volatility, as the coefficient on the lagged ESG disclosure indicator is statistically insignificant
across specifications. The evidence on dividend yield is mixed: ESG disclosure adoption shows
no significant effect under the baseline specification, while the dynamic analysis reveals that
dividend yield increases significantly with the number of years since adoption, contrary to the
expectation of a declining risk premium over time.
Taken together, these findings suggest that ESG disclosure adoption alone does not yet
function as an effective valuation-enhancing or risk-reducing mechanism among Thai property
funds and REITs during the sample period. Investor decisions continue to be driven more strongly
by traditional financial fundamentals, such as leverage, income expectations, and macroeconomic
conditions, than by ESG disclosure status. The results contribute to the ESG and real estate
finance literature by offering evidence from an emerging market setting where ESG disclosure remains voluntary, and carry practical implications for fund managers, investors, and regulators
seeking to strengthen the effectiveness of sustainability reporting in the Thai REIT market.
2025
FX19
Urairath Aimeurai
Monetary Policy Uncertainty and Corporate Financial Policies: Evidence from U.S.
Public Firms
This study examines how monetary policy uncertainty (MPU) affects corporate cash
holdings, short-term credit financing, and dividend payout ratios using a quarterly panel of S&P 500
firms from 2008 to 2023. Four MPU measures are employed — market- based, news- based,
orthogonalized monetary policy surprises, and FOMC Dissent estimated via firm fixed-effects panel
regressions with firm- clustered standard errors and firm- size heterogeneity tests. Contrary to the
precautionary savings prediction, higher MPU is associated with lower cash holdings, consistent
with a cash depletion mechanism whereby firms draw on internal liquidity rather than building
reserves. For credit financing, continuous MPU measures produce negative or insignificant effects,
while FOMC Dissent generates a positive and significant response, reflecting pre-emptive borrowing
before anticipated rate increases. Dividend payout ratios increase significantly under three of four
measures, consistent with the agency motive that firms distribute more cash to reduce managerial
discretion under uncertainty. Heterogeneity analysis shows that cash depletion is uniform across
firm sizes, the negative credit effect concentrates among large, capital-market- exposed firms, and
dividend responses vary by firm size and the nature of the MPU signal.
2025
FT29
Vorapart Kongsompee
Market Reactions to Changes in Earnings Manipulation Risk: Evidence from the Stock Exchange of Thailand
This study investigates on change in earning manipulation (Beneish M-score) quarter on
quarter whether it reflected in stock returns on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). This work
done by using Carhart four-factor model on 398 non-financial firms over 2006Q2-2024Q4 (~7,300
firm-quarter observations), four hypotheses are tested on this work- which is direction, asymmetry,
event-period moderation, and firm size moderation of the market reaction. The results show a
significant on asymmetric hypothesis, which state that increases in earning manipulation risk
generate negative abnormal returns, while decreases do not show significance sign. Then the event
based and firm size hypothesis are not supported. This finding suggests Thai investor respond to
earning manipulation signals only on the downside, consistent with loss-aversion, and highlight the
M-score as a useful downside screening tool alongside a need for improved disclosure practices.
2025
FX19
Warin Itthiwanthayakul
Investor Demand and Performance of Lottery-Like Stocks: Evidence from the Thai Stock Market
This study examines the relationship between stocks with lottery-like
characteristics and trading activity and returns in the Thai stock market (SET and
MAI, 2002–2025). Thailand is well-suited for this study, given its strong lottery
culture and retail investors' 35–50% share of trading volume. Using the Lottery-
Like Index (LLI) framework of Gould et al. (2023), based on idiosyncratic
volatility, idiosyncratic skewness, inverse price, maximum daily return, and
negative past return, this study assesses lottery-likeness for 948 stocks across
122,196 stock-month observations, applying two-way fixed-effects panel
regressions with trading turnover (H1) and FFC4-adjusted abnormal returns (H2) as
dependent variables.
The results show that stocks with higher LLI scores are associated with
significantly higher trading turnover, though this relationship weakens over time,
consistent with increasing market efficiency. For H2, the results confirm a lottery
tax of approximately -0.41% per year, which intensifies in the post-COVID period
even as trading activity has moderated. The lottery tax is most pronounced among
retail-dominated and SET-listed stocks. Daily mood seasonality analysis shows that
trading activity declines while the lottery tax intensifies around holidays, contrary
to Gould et al. (2023), suggesting liquidity and substitution effects characteristic of
emerging markets.
This study extends the LLI framework to an emerging market context,
highlighting how lottery-like characteristics are associated with market
inefficiencies and a return penalty of approximately -0.41% per year for stocks with
high LLI scores.
2025
FX19
Watcharita Dankul
ESG Rating Disagreement and Corporate Risk-Taking: The Moderating Roles of Analyst Coverage and Governance Quality
This study examines whether ESG rating disagreement is associated with corporate risk-taking, and whether analyst coverage and governance quality moderate this relationship. ESG rating disagreement arises when different rating agencies assess the same firm's ESG performance differently. Using panel data from Russell 1000 firms during 2020-2024, ESG rating disagreement is calculated by taking the average absolute difference, in pairs, across the ESG scores assigned by Bloomberg, MSCI, and Refinitiv. To capture corporate risk-taking, the study relied on three measures: the negative Altman Z-score, cash flow volatility, and profit volatility.
The finding shows a positive association between ESG rating disagreement and financial distress risk, while no significant relationship show up for cash flow volatility or profit volatility. Contrary to expectations, analyst coverage does not weaken this positive association; instead, it appears stronger among firms with higher analyst coverage. Governance quality, on the other hand, does weaken positive association between ESG rating disagreement and financial distress risk. Together, these results suggest that analyst coverage and governance quality play different roles in how ESG rating disagreement relates to financial distress risk within a developed market context. The findings also provide useful insights for managers, investors, and policymakers in understanding the relationship between ESG rating disagreement and firm's financial distress risk
2025
FX19
Yuwadee Charoenkangpriew
Information Quality and the Divergence of IPO Returns: Evidence from Thailand.
This paper examines whether prospectus information quality is associated with IPO underpricing and long-run stock performance among 325 Thai IPOs listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand and the Market for Alternative Investment from 2012 to 2022. Information quality is measured using LLM-assisted scores for use-of-proceeds specificity and risk-factor disclosure specificity, together with a financial reporting quality proxy based on discretionary accruals, and the tests use OLS regressions with control variables, industry fixed effects, and year fixed effects. For underpricing, the evidence is narrow: Legal Risk Number is associated with a 9.87 percentage-point lower first-day return at the 1 percent level, while other risk categories, use-of-proceeds measures, and financial reporting quality do not provide broad support for H1 at the 1 percent or 5 percent levels. For long-run performance, firms above the idiosyncratic-risk specificity threshold exhibit three-year abnormal returns 25.89 percentage points higher than firms below the threshold at the 1 percent level, and Idiosyncratic Risk Percentage is also positive and significant at the 5 percent level. H2 is therefore only partially supported, mainly through idiosyncratic risk disclosure at the three-year horizon, while tax risk is negative and significant at BHAR36 and financial reporting quality is not significant across the BHAR models. The moderation hypotheses H3a, H3b, and H3c are not supported as broad
2025
FX18
Ith Mutita
Market Reactions to Ticker Symbol Changes: Does Company Performance Moderate Investor Response? Evidence from Thailand.
The study examines how the market responds to announcements of ticker symbol changes while assessing whether previous company performance affects investor behavior during these corporate events in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) from the period of 2000-2025. The event study method calculates cumulative abnormal returns (CAR), which measure market responses to ticker symbol change. Regression analysis were used to study how different investor responses emerged from various stock performance patterns observed before the event, which divided companies into different groups based on their stock performance. The empirical results show that ticker symbol changes lead to a small negative abnormal return which indicates that these changes do not create significant positive market reactions. Companies that achieved better results before their announcements demonstrate higher abnormal returns during the announcement period, although their trading volume shows no meaningful statistical impact. The research demonstrates that ticker symbol changes do not significantly impact investor views, but previous company performance affects how investors process and respond to these announcements. The study provides evidence from the Thai stock market to show how specific firm characteristics shape investor behavior, which advances knowledge about how markets react to corporate announcements.
2025
FT27
Justin Wongwaiwit
Asymmetric correlation in S&P500 relationship with stock’s characteristics
This research investigates the dynamics of asymmetric conditional correlation between individual equities and the broader market of S&P500 during periods of financial distress. Utilizing a bivariate ARMA(1,1)-aDCC-GARCH econometric framework over a comprehensive 4,000-day sample, we extract standardized innovations to model time-varying correlations and isolate the asymmetry parameter g triggered by joint negative market shocks. The time-series results confirm the presence of highly significant asymmetric correlation, demonstrating that equities like many stocks experience severe correlation spikes with the S&P 500 during market downturns, thereby deteriorating theoretical diversification benefits precisely when investors need them most.
Furthermore, a cross-sectional Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis is conducted across multiple sectors including Financials and a targeted high-asymmetry cohort to determine if firm-specific fundamentals (Market Capitalization, Book-to-Market ratio, and Debt-to-Equity leverage) explain the magnitude of the panic response g. The empirical cross-sectional findings reveal a lack of statistical significance and low explanatory power across these variables, indicating that internal balance sheet metrics do not reliably predict a firm's correlation breakdown. We conclude that asymmetric correlation is primarily driven by exogenous macroeconomic shocks and systemic investor behavior, highlighting the critical need for dynamic risk management strategies beyond traditional static portfolio diversification.
2025
FT28
Naphat Suwansatid
Overnight–Daytime Return Reversals and Future Return: Evidence from the Thai Stock Market
This thesis examines the relationship between overnight–daytime return reversals and future stock returns in the Thai stock market. Motivated by the tug-of-war hypothesis, which emphasizes the interaction between overnight price pressure and daytime correction, the study investigates whether such reversals contain predictive information in an emerging market context. Using stocks listed in Thailand over the period 2014–2024, daily returns are decomposed into overnight (close-to-open) and daytime (open-to-close) components. The intensity of return reversals is measured using the frequency of negative and positive reversals and their abnormal components. Empirical analyses are conducted using portfolio-sorting and regression-based methods across equal-weighted and value-weighted portfolios, as well as subsamples based on firm size and book-to-market characteristics.
The empirical results indicate that, in contrast to evidence from developed markets, overnight–daytime return reversals in Thailand exhibit limited predictive power for future returns at the aggregate level. Although economically meaningful patterns emerge when overnight and daytime returns are examined separately, their effects largely offset each other, resulting in weak overall return predictability. This cancellation effect suggests that overnight information is incorporated into prices relatively quickly and that daytime trading does not systematically overcorrect overnight price movements. The findings are consistent with features of the Thai market, including its auction-based trading structure and the prominent role of retail investors, which may compress price discovery into narrow trading windows. Overall, this study contributes to the literature by providing out-of-sample evidence on the tug-of-war mechanism in an emerging market and highlights the importance of market structure and investor composition in shaping the predictive content of overnight–daytime return dynamics.
2025
FT28
Chittakrij Peungsugk
The Determinants of Short-term and Long-term Performance of Initial Public Offering: Evidence from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and Market for Alternative Investment (mai)
This study examines the determinants of short and long-term IPO performance in the SET and mai market. Using samples of SET and mai IPOs from 2014-2021, the research investigates how underwriter reputation, institutional investor ownership, and big-4 auditor influence cumulative abnormal returns across time horizons. From information asymmetry, certification, and signaling theories, the study uses multiple linear regression with OLS to analyze IPO performance. Results are different between the two markets. In SET, underwriter reputation shows no certification effect across all time horizons for all reputation measures. Institutional investor ownership demonstrates no short-term impact but exhibits negative impacts with long-term 2-3 years post-IPO cumulative abnormal returns, contradicting performance certification hypotheses. In contrast, big-4 auditor has positive effects from day 1-21 and from year 1 to 3. Control variables, including offering size and market condition, have effects to the short-term investment, while first-day traded value also demonstrates strong positive short-term effects. In mai market, only underwriter reputation based on past total IPO clients’ offering size demonstrates certification effects, reducing short-term cumulative abnormal return and information asymmetry. Institutional investor ownership is insignificant across all horizons, possibly reflecting minimal institutional participation. Big-4 auditor shows no short-term effects but has a positive impact in the long-term at the 2-year horizon. Offering size is the strongest information asymmetry-reducing signal in the short-term. Price-to-book value is also positively significant in the short-term. SET's institutional environment renders underwriter reputation redundant. Mai's retail-dominated structure requires a more tangible certification signal, such as underwriter deal-scale reputation. Lastly, the study provides practical implications from the findings for issuers, investors, and regulators in both markets.
2025
FT28
Panatakorn Piyawannasuth
The Information Spillover Effects of Earnings Announcements: Evidence from Thailand
This research investigates spillover effects during announcement days in the Thai stock market, covering the period from 2015 to 2024, covering all publicly traded companies on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The paper aims to determine whether limited spillover effects in developed markets persist in emerging markets whose institutional features are quite different.
The empirical evidence strongly confirms that Thai earnings announcements are made up predominantly of firm-specific information, as compared with industry-level information, consistent with developed-market profiles. The conditional spillover study, however, reveals characteristic Thai capital market characteristics. Firms reporting significant earnings surprises demonstrate no systematic evidence in precipitating larger peer reaction, and leaders within industries demonstrate no identifiable information transfers, as hypothesized, despite their leadership status in markets. The evidence suggests that the characteristic institutional conditions in Thailand lead to information dynamics different from theoretical expectations. The paper provides support for the argument that investors and financial regulators in emerging markets, on average, should focus primarily on firm-specific information rather than industry-level information in making investment decisions or crafting disclosure standards.
2025
FT27
Pawat Dumrongkiate
Governance Rating Disagreement and Earnings Management in ASEAN Listed Firms
This study investigates the relationship between corporate governance ratings and earnings management among publicly listed firms across six ASEAN countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—during the period 2015–2023. It examines whether the coverage, level, and disagreement of governance ratings influence the degree of discretionary accruals, which are used as a proxy for earnings management. The Modified Jones Model and Kothari’s performance-matched approach were employed to estimate discretionary accruals, with firm, country, industry, and year fixed effects applied to control for unobserved heterogeneity.
The results reveal that governance rating coverage and overall rating levels do not significantly affect earnings management, indicating that being rated by governance agencies does not necessarily constrain opportunistic reporting behavior. Furthermore, discrepancies among rating providers show no significant relationship with earnings manipulation, suggesting that rating disagreement does not materially weaken governance monitoring. Collectively, these findings imply that while governance ratings capture some aspects of transparency, their practical influence on managerial behavior remains limited in the ASEAN context. The study highlights the need for more consistent governance rating methodologies and stronger enforcement mechanisms to enhance the credibility and effectiveness of corporate governance evaluations in emerging markets.
2025
FT28
Ploypailin Rattanaphongchirakun
Disaggregating Foreign investor Influence: Direct Holdings, NVDRs, and Stock Price Crash Risk in the Thai Equity Market
This thesis investigates the relationship between foreign ownership and stock price crash risk in the Stock Exchange of Thailand during the period 2005 to 2024. It focuses on differentiating between direct foreign investors who hold voting shares and Non-Voting Depository Receipts (NVDRs), which provide economic benefits similar to regular shares but do not confer voting rights at shareholder meetings. Additionally, this study examines whether information asymmetry and stock liquidity moderate the relationship between foreign ownership and stock price crash risk. The analysis utilizes panel data from the top 100 companies by market capitalization listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Using pooled OLS regression, the results indicate a positive association between the proportion of shares held by NVDR investors and stock price crash risk. However, when controlling for firm-specific effects with firm fixed effects regression, neither direct foreign ownership nor NVDR ownership shows a statistically significant relationship with crash risk. Moreover, the moderating effects of information asymmetry and stock liquidity are found to be insignificant, which contrasts with findings from other emerging markets. These findings suggest that voting rights associated with foreign ownership may play a more critical role than foreign ownership per se in relation to market stability. This has important implications for policymakers designing measures to attract foreign capital and for investors assessing risk differentials across investment channels in emerging markets
2025
FT28
Sasipim Sinithanon
Flight from Liquidity and Bond Yields: Evidence from Thai Market
This study investigates how liquidity risk influences mutual fund selling behavior and bond
pricing in the Thai bond market during periods of distress. Using quarterly mutual fund holdings
from Morningstar and transaction-level data from the Thai Bond Market Association (ThaiBMA)
between 2015 and 2024, the analysis examines whether mutual funds exhibit “Flight from Liquidity”
behavior—selling their most liquid assets under stress—and how such behavior affects bond yield
spreads.
Three hypotheses are tested. First, whether mutual funds are more likely to sell
government bonds than corporate bonds during distress periods. Second, whether funds exhibit
flight-from-liquidity behavior within each bond segment by selling the more liquid bonds of the same
issuer. Third, whether government bond liquidity affects the corporate–government yield spread,
particularly whether the liquidity premium in government bonds declines during distress periods.
The results show that mutual funds are significantly more likely to sell government bonds
than corporate bonds during distress, indicating that government bonds serve as the main source
of liquidity when funds need to rebalance their portfolios. Within each bond segment, both
government and corporate bonds display clear flight-from-liquidity patterns, as more liquid bonds
are more likely to be sold during distress. On the pricing side, the liquidity premium embedded in
government bonds is positive in normal periods but diminishes during distress, leading to a
narrowing of the corporate–government yield spread.
Overall, the findings confirm that liquidity risk affects both selling behavior and pricing in
the Thai bond market and provide new evidence on liquidity dynamics in emerging markets.
2025
FX18
Shiva Sachaphimukh
The Moderating Role of Investor Sentiment Regimes on the Impact of Flow types on Capital Structure Decisions (Evidence from Thailand)
This study analyzes how foreign and domestic capital flows influence the leverage of SET100 Thai non-financial firms, considering investor sentiment regimes and firm cyclicality (2013–2023). It contrasts fundamental foreign portfolio flows with speculative domestic trading turnover.
Sentiment regimes powerfully amplify flow effects. Bullish domestic sentiment and high domestic turnover significantly increase leverage (sentiment-exploitation). Conversely, deteriorating sentiment and foreign outflows intensify debt reliance (stress-compensation). Domestic flows have stronger, more immediate leverage effects than foreign flows, revealing a behavioral asymmetry. Cyclical firms respond aggressively to domestic factors and sentiment, while non-cyclical firms prioritize foreign capital stability.
The findings highlight the critical role of investor composition and sentiment dynamics in shaping leverage adjustments in Thailand.
2025
FT28
Siwaphat Prommana
The Effect of Economic and Climate Policy Uncertainties on Momentum Strategies Across Different ESG Levels
This thesis investigates the impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) and Climate Policy Uncertainty (CPU) on ESG momentum strategies in U.S. equity markets from 2011 to 2023. Momentum portfolios are constructed within high- and low-rated ESG pillar groups to assess how policy uncertainty influences their performance across different firm characteristics, including sectoral classification and geographic operations.
Empirical analysis reveals that policy uncertainty, particularly through Forecast and News channels, significantly affects momentum returns, with the strongest effects concentrated among low ESG-rated and domestically focused firms. Cyclical sectors display heightened sensitivity to both EPU and CPU, while international firms show weaker or isolated effects, indicating a buffering role of geographic diversification. Importantly, momentum alpha that is initially significant in low ESG portfolios becomes insignificant once uncertainty variables are introduced, suggesting that policy uncertainty is a key driver of momentum profits. These findings highlight how macroeconomic and climate policy dynamics shape the performance of sustainable investment strategies and provide insights for investors and policymakers on managing ESG momentum exposures under uncertainty.
2025
FT28
Suparkit Assavanig
The Effect of Trading Volume from Different Investor Types on Trading Friction Anomaly Returns in Thailand: Evidence from Market Microstructure Data of The Stock Exchange of Thailand
This study introduces a novel approach to understanding how trading volumes from individual, institutional, and foreign investors influence anomaly returns in Thailand's stock market. I integrate comprehensive analysis of seven trading friction anomalies with unique market microstructure data from the Stock Exchange of Thailand's database. This approach enables construction of long-short portfolio strategies, while accounting for the distinct trading behaviors of different investor groups during the period from 2011 to 2021.
Remarkably, I discovered asymmetric effects where retail trading amplifies certain anomalies while reducing others, contradicting traditional noise trader theories. Furthermore, the integration of investor-type volume indicators with long-short anomaly strategies revealed that institutional investors in Thailand do not uniformly enhance market efficiency as observed in developed markets. Surprisingly, foreign investors exhibited patterns similar to individual investors in certain anomalies. Unfortunately, volume-weighted portfolio constructions showed only selective improvements over traditional-weighted portfolio constructions, indicating that optimal weighting strategies for long-short portfolios depend on the specific anomaly being exploited.
2025
FX18
Thamon Chongkwanyuen
High-Yield or Nothing? Investor Preferences for Riskier Bonds in Thailand
This study investigates the determinants of investor demand for high-yield corporate bonds in Thailand's primary market between 2014 and 2024, focusing on whether investors exhibit reach-for-yield behavior and how they respond to past issuance patterns. Utilizing panel regression, with the Take-Up Ratio serving as the key measure of investor participation, the findings reveal that investor behavior is highly conditional. In normal or tightening monetary periods, high nominal yields and credit spreads are generally associated with lower subscription rates, suggesting investors interpret elevated returns as a signal of greater credit risk. However, this risk aversion is reversed during accommodative monetary conditions (low policy rates), where investors become significantly more willing to purchase higher-yielding bonds, consistent with a conditional "reach-for-yield" mechanism. Furthermore, the analysis confirms strong behavioral effects: past subscription success generates significant persistence (higher subsequent demand), while overly frequent issuance triggers investor fatigue (declining demand). These results underscore that in a retail-driven emerging bond market, trust and timing are as critical as price. The findings have practical implications for issuers seeking optimal fundraising cycles, investors needing enhanced risk awareness, and policymakers regulating the domestic debt market.
2025
FT28
Tonnsaai Anantrechai
SALIENCE, TRADING VOLUME AND 52-WEEK HIGH EFFECTS ON STOCK RETURNS: EVIDENCE FROM THAI STOCK MARKET
This study examines the interaction between salience effects and the 52-week high phenomenon in the Thai stock market, with particular attention to the mediating role of trading volume. Using data from SET100 constituents spanning May 2005 to December 2024, we employ the salience measure developed by Bordalo et al. (2012) and Cosemans and Frehen (2021) to investigate whether stocks with salient payoffs exhibit different return patterns when approaching their 52-week highs. Following Lin (2024), we test whether abnormal trading volume amplifies these behavioral effects. Our findings reveal a notable discrepancy: while historical portfolio sorts show extreme return differentials between salience quintiles, cross-sectional regressions fail to find significant predictive power for future returns, suggesting that salience effects in the Thai market may be observable ex-post but not exploitable ex-ante. While the 52-week high momentum strategy shows some persistence, the hypothesized interaction between salience and psychological anchoring yields largely insignificant results. The study contributes to the growing literature on behavioral finance in emerging markets and suggests that behavioral phenomena documented in developed markets may not directly translate to markets with different institutional characteristics and investor compositions. These findings highlight the importance of market-specific factors when examining behavioral biases in emerging economies.
2024
FT 27
Akesuwat Sanjaingamworapat
The Effect of Financial Flexibility on the Leverage-Performance Relationship in the SET Market for the pre-to-post COVID-19 Situation
This study investigates the effect of financial flexibility on the relationship between leverage and firm performance across three distinct economic phases—pre-COVID-19, pandemic, and post-pandemic recovery—in the Thai stock market (SET). Using panel data from SET-listed firms between Q1’2018 and Q4’2023, The analysis employs the fixed-effects and random-effects regression models with interaction terms to capture the dynamic role of financial flexibility and economic context. The findings confirm that leverage exerts a significantly negative effect on firm performance, particularly during the pandemic period, as measured by return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). However, this adverse impact is found to diminish and become statistically indistinguishable from pre-pandemic levels in the recovery period. Importantly, financial flexibility—proxied by cash-based reserves—plays a crucial moderating role, especially in enhancing ROE. Sectoral analysis further reveals that capital-intensive industries such as industrials and resources suffer more from leverage under crisis conditions, while financially flexible sectors like service and consumer show resilience and even benefit from leverage when supported by liquidity buffers. These results support trade-off and dynamic capital structure theories while highlighting the strategic value of financial flexibility during periods of economic disruption and recovery. The study offers theoretical insights and practical implications for corporate financial management, emphasizing the need for tailored capital structure strategies across sectors and macroeconomic cycles.
2024
FT 27
Anupong Guersanor
Performance Comparison of Modern and Traditional Machine Learning Approaches for Unsecured Retail Credit Risk Prediction
This study investigates performance comparison between modern and traditional machine learning approaches for unsecured retail credit risk prediction. Performance is compared by assessing the ability of a model to rank probability of default of modern approaches which are random forest and gradient boosting, versus traditional approach which is logistic regression.

The findings indicate that modern machine learning models significantly outperform the traditional logistic regression model in both the overall unsecured retail market and the subprime market. This superior performance is likely due to modern models' ability to capture various customer profile, non-linear relationships and interactions among variables, which are more prevalent in riskier subprime borrowers.

However, in the prime market segment, where borrowers tend to have more stable behaviors, modern models do not show a significant advantage over logistic regression. This is because the prime segment generally exhibits simpler, more linear patterns in the data, which logistic regression can model effectively without the need for more complex algorithms.
2024
FT 27
Arthinsha Shinvoranont
The Magnet Effect Of Circuit Breakers And Its Interaction With Price Limit On Thai Stock Market
This study investigates the magnet effect of circuit breakers and their interaction with daily price limits in the Thai stock market during the COVID-19 crisis. Using high-frequency intraday data from March 2020 and an AR(2)-GARCH(1,1) framework, the analysis examines whether returns and trading activity accelerate near circuit breaker thresholds and how firm characteristics influence this effect. Results reveal significant magnet effects at the individual stock level, especially among smaller firms, while evidence at the index level is weak. The study also finds that circuit breakers and price limits reinforce each other, amplifying price movements when both thresholds are approached. These findings offer empirical insights from an emerging market and inform the design of effective market stabilization policies.
2024
FT 27
Attani Tuwatchai
Are Healthcare Stocks a Safe Haven During COVID-19? An Analysis of Stock Return and Sector Segmentation Across Developed and Emerging Markets
This study examines whether the healthcare sector functioned as a safe haven during the COVID-19 pandemic by analyzing its time-varying correlation with major market indices across developed and emerging economies. Utilizing a multi-method approach—centered on the DCC-GARCH model and supported by OLS regression—the research investigates how health crises and public policy responses influenced sector-level market dynamics. The analysis focuses on three main areas: the evolution of correlation structures before and during the pandemic, the influence of pandemic-related factors on correlation strength, and differences between developed and emerging markets.

Although a Probit model was initially applied to estimate the likelihood of safe haven behavior, it was not pursued further due to a lack of variation in the dependent variable; most healthcare sectors did not exhibit safe haven characteristics, making the model statistically unviable. Accordingly, this study does not conclude that the healthcare sector served as a safe haven during COVID-19. However, the OLS regression suggests that certain pandemic-related factors—particularly strong government responses and lower death rates—may have contributed to a reduction in correlation between healthcare and market indices, especially in countries with effective public health infrastructure.
2024
FT 28
Aung Khant Myat
Narrative Economics as the Origins of Momentum
This study investigates the role of economic narratives in shaping momentum effects in U.S. equity markets from 1984 to 2017. Utilizing narrative attention measures developed by Bybee et al. (2024), we examine how narrative attention and narrative innovation influence both time-series and cross-sectional momentum returns, after adjusting for Fama-French factors. LARS is employed for variable selection, and rolling-window regressions are used to capture time-varying factor loadings. Through a combination of time-series and panel data analysis, we test hypotheses related to static, persistent, and asymmetric narrative effects, along with firm- and market-level moderators. While the results are mixed across subsamples and specifications, they suggest that narrative impacts are dynamic and context-dependent, offering new insights for behavioral asset pricing and the integration of narrative economics into financial modeling.
2024
FT 27
Chanakan Mungkarak
Comparative Effects of ESG Disclosure and Performance on Corporate Debt Financing Costs: Evidence from the Asia-Pacific Region
This paper examines the comparative effects of ESG disclosure
and ESG performance on corporate debt financing costs of the firms in Asia-Pacific countries during the year 2014 to 2023. Grounded in signaling and stakeholder theories, the analysis assesses whether lenders respond more to transparency or actual ESG implementation.
The findings show that ESG performance consistently has a stronger and more significant impact on reducing borrowing costs than ESG disclosure. In models including both variables, only ESG performance remains significant. Robustness checks using an ESG gap score reveal that in developed economies, firms with misaligned disclosure and performance are penalized, while in emerging economies,
visibility through disclosure is more favorably received.
Overall, the results emphasize that ESG performance plays a more critical role than disclosure in shaping debt financing outcomes, though its influence varies by institutional context.
2024
FT 27
Jaruwan Wankeaw
Impact of Diversity, Inclusion, and People development (DIP) to firm’s value: Moderating role of institutional ownership and governance in Emerging Asia
This study investigates the impact of Diversity, Inclusion, and People development (DIP) on firm value (Tobin’s Q) in Emerging Asia by utilizing DIP index during 2016-2023 and explore the moderating roles of institutional ownership and corporate governance. This study employs OLS regression models with fixed effect controls. The results reveal that the composite DIP score is positively and significantly associated with firm value, indicating that firms investing in people-centered practices benefit from enhanced market valuation. This study suggests that institutional ownership significantly moderates the effect of people development, they enhance the effectiveness of firm-level investments in employees. However, it does not significantly moderate the effects of diversity, inclusion and overall DIP combination suggesting that institutional ownership prioritizes the importance of each dimension differently. Corporate governance positively moderates the impact of diversity, implying that the value-enhancing effect of diversity becomes stronger in firms with better governance.
These findings reveal the importance of Diversity, Inclusion, and People development (DIP) that enhances a firm’s value, both the combination and each dimension, even in the diverse economy context like Emerging Asia. Corporate governance and ownership structures matter, but their influence is not a universal amplifier of DIP initiatives. Instead, its moderating effect is different on each DIP dimension.
2024
FT 27
Kanathip Bumroongchai
Investors' response on movie distributors' achievements
This research examines the impact of movie-related factors on the abnormal returns of movie distributor stocks in the United States, focusing specifically on gross opening revenues and industry awards. The study analyzes nine firms using monthly data from 1995 to 2024 and applies the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model to test the hypotheses.
The findings reveal that only awards received by competitors significantly reduce a firm’s abnormal returns, supporting both the Asymmetric Information Theory and Social Comparison Theory. In contrast, the gross opening revenues of a firm’s own movies do not lead to abnormal returns, aligning with the Efficient Market Hypothesis, which suggests that investor expectations are already priced into the market.
2024
FT 27
Khin Sandy Kyaw
Does ESG Performance Influence Cash Holding Behavior? Evidence from Asia-Pacific Firms
This study explores the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance
(ESG) performance and corporate cash holdings among publicly listed firms in the Asia-Pacific region from 2010 to 2023. Grounded in stakeholder theory and the precautionary motive for cash, the analysis examines whether firms with higher ESG performance hold less cash and whether this relationship is moderated by financial constraints and financial distress. Employing panel fixed-effects regression, two-stage least squares (2SLS), and system GMM methods, the results consistently indicate that ESG performance is negatively associated with cash holdings. The moderating analyses reveal that financially constrained or distressed firms with high ESG
performance tend to retain more cash, highlighting the interplay between ESG and liquidity strategies. The study also shows that institutional quality strengthens the ESG–cash holding relationship. These findings contribute to the ESG-finance literature by offering region-specific insights from the Asia-Pacific, an underexplored and institutionally diverse region and provide practical implications for corporate financial policy and sustainability integration.
2024
FT 28
Kittiphat Petchpradub
The Impact of Corporate Strategic Aggression on ESG Scores: The Moderating Role of Institutional Investors
This study examines the relationship between corporate strategic aggression and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores, with particular focus on the moderating role of institutional investors. Using a comprehensive dataset of NASDAQ-listed companies from 2018 to 2023, this research investigates whether firms pursuing more aggressive strategies demonstrate superior ESG outcomes and how institutional ownership influences this relationship.

The analysis employs a panel regression model with firm and year fixed effects to test three main hypotheses. First, I examine whether corporate strategic aggression positively affects ESG scores. Second, I investigate potential non-linear relationships where excessive strategic aggression may lead to diminishing returns in ESG scores. Third, I analyze how institutional investor ownership moderates the strategic aggression-ESG relationship.

The findings reveal nuanced relationships between strategic aggression and ESG scores across different dimensions. Corporate strategic aggression demonstrates positive but statistically non-significant effect on overall ESG scores, positive and statistically significant effects on Environmental and Governance scores, while showing limited impact on Social performance. This provides partial support for the hypothesis that strategically aggressive firms achieve better ESG outcomes, particularly in environmental innovations and governance structures that align with their competitive strategies.

The study confirms a non-linear, inverted U-shaped relationship between strategic aggression and overall ESG scores, supporting the diminishing returns hypothesis. This indicates that while moderate levels of strategic aggression enhance ESG score, excessive aggression becomes counterproductive, particularly in social and governance dimensions.

Contrary to expectations, institutional ownership negatively moderates the relationship between strategic aggression and ESG performance. While both strategic aggression and institutional ownership independently contribute to better ESG scores, higher institutional ownership weakens rather than strengthens the positive impact of strategic aggression on ESG scores. This suggests that institutional investors serve as a restraining force on aggressive strategies, prioritizing long-term sustainable value creation over short-term competitive gains.

These findings contribute to the understanding of how corporate strategic choices influence sustainability performance and highlight the complex role of institutional investors in shaping ESG outcomes. The results have important implications for corporate managers seeking to balance aggressive growth strategies with ESG responsibilities, institutional investors considering their governance role, and regulators interested in enhancing corporate sustainability frameworks.
2024
FT 27
Kittiporn Sansanavanee
Is selling USD/THB straddle options strategy profitable in the long run?
The price of an option reflects an implied level of volatility, which is often
seen as the option market's prediction of how much the returns of the underlying asset will fluctuate in the future, over the remaining duration of the option.
If option markets operate efficiently, this implied volatility should serve as an
accurate and comprehensive forecast of future volatility. This means that implied
volatility should already incorporate all the relevant information available in the
market that could help predict future volatility; no other market variables should add
any further predictive power. This interpretation of implied volatility as an efficient
predictor of future volatility is widely used in various financial analyses.
Although the Black-Scholes implied volatility can be seen as a prediction of
future volatility, it can also be understood as a way to measure an option's price,
taking into account specific factors like how far the option is in or out of the money
and the time remaining until it expires. All existing option pricing theories agree that
option prices should rise and fall along with the volatility of the underlying asset. as
confirmed in Theorem 6 of Bergman et al. (1996).
Beside what has been studied in academic areas, It's widely observed in
options markets that implied volatility (IV) often surpasses realized volatility (RV).
This difference is usually explained by a few key factors.
Firstly, imbalances in the demand for and supply of options can play a
significant role. A strong demand for options from those looking to hedge against
risk, especially businesses and real money investors managing foreign exchange
exposure, can push option prices higher. On the other hand, the capacity of market
makers and financial institutions to sell options can be limited by regulations and risk
management rules.
Secondly, the risk aversion of market participants contributes to this
phenomenon. Essentially, people are willing to pay a premium to protect themselves
against extreme market events. This leads to a "volatility risk premium" built into
option prices, which is particularly noticeable in options with longer time horizons
and with deep out-of-money strikes.
The predictability of implied volatility and market efficiency remains an
ongoing area of research, raising questions about the potential for exploiting the
relationship between implied and realized volatility to generate consistent returns
through options trading strategies. To address this, we investigate whether mispricing
between implied volatility and realized volatility can be capitalized upon using an "at-the-money" (ATM) straddle strategy in the USD/THB currency options market. This
strategy, which involves simultaneously selling a call and a put option with the same strike price and expiration date, offers immediate premium income but carries the risk
of potential losses if the underlying asset's price experiences significant fluctuations.
The rationale behind can be simplified as higher Implied than realized volatility will
cause the options price to be overstated compared to its potential loss which can occur due to future movement of underlying asset. Hence, we will be selling overpriced options in our strategies.
Our study focuses on the USD/THB currency pair due to its importance in the
Thai economy and the prevalent use of USD/THB options for hedging purposes. We
hypothesize that implied volatility typically exceeds realized volatility in the
USD/THB options market, leading to inflated option premiums relative to the
potential payoffs from underlying asset price movements, and thus creating
opportunities for profitability.
In addition to the basic implied and realized volatility relationship, we
examine the profitability of other aspects of implied volatility, specifically the term
structure and volatility smile. Both of these phenomena are likely to incorporate
higher volatility risk premiums and irrational mispricing by the market, potentially
offering enhanced profitability compared to our base hypothesis.
Recognizing that selling and holding options until expiration without hedging
does not constitute a pure volatility play and can be influenced by scenarios of high
volatility with minimal price movement or low volatility with significant directional
price moves, we refine our analysis to include delta hedging. This involves daily
adjustments to the portfolio through the buying or selling of USD/THB forwards to
neutralize the delta exposure arising from the option positions, effectively isolating
the impact of volatility from underlying price movements.
By gaining a comprehensive understanding of the profitability of these
strategies, we aim to determine whether the observed returns are primarily driven by
mispricing between implied and realized volatility, as suspected. This will be
achieved through OLS regression analysis, examining the relationship between
strategy returns and explanatory factors. This analysis will include further
investigation of non-base strategies to define the drivers of each strategy's additional
return.
This paper will contribute to the deeper understanding of FX options trading
profitability, an area where existing research remains relatively underdeveloped,
particularly regarding the specific characteristics of options and the USD/THB
currency pair. The focus on USD/THB options is important given the growing FX
options market in Thailand. As Thai clients increasingly embrace complex financial
products for both hedging and investment purposes, this market offers significant
potential. Furthermore, FX options related products can offer more business opportunities compared to more established instruments like FX forwards and
traditional savings accounts. This research will enable service providers, such as
commercial banks, to better understand the profitability of their FX options offerings,
leading to optimized product design that benefits both the institutions and their
clients.
2024
FT 27
Kunlaphat Trongpanich
ESG Performance and its impact on Systematic risk and Idiosyncratic risk: Evidence from Emerging Asia
This study examines the relationship between ESG performance and corporate risk, focusing on systematic and idiosyncratic components. Using panel data from 264 listed companies in six Emerging Asian markets between 2014 and 2023, the analysis employs fixed-effects regression models. The results indicate that ESG performance significantly reduces idiosyncratic risk but has no clear effect on systematic risk.
Among ESG pillars, the Social Score shows the strongest risk reducing effect. Additionally, ESG proves more effective in mitigating firm-specific risk during periods of economic crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, China stock market crash and
the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Firms involved in ESG controversies tend to experience higher idiosyncratic risk, reinforcing the importance of transparency and stakeholder
trust. These findings highlight the financial value of ESG as a risk management tool in volatile, high-growth markets and offer practical implications for investors, firms, and policymakers across Emerging Asia.
2024
FT 27
Lapat Nangsue
Mispricing of SET50 Index Futures Calendar Spreads: Evidence from the Thailand Futures Exchange
This study investigates the mispricing of SET50 Index Futures calendar spreads on the Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX), focusing on deviations from the cost-of-carry model. Using end-of-day data from 2019 to 2024, the study analyzes how mispricing evolves as contracts approach expiration. The findings reveal that mispricing intensifies during the rollover period—particularly within 10 trading days before maturity—suggesting increased cost and risk for investors. Open interest in deferred contracts is found to be significantly correlated with mispricing, while net positions by investor types do not show statistical significance. The study also examines the 6-month calendar spread, which demonstrates more pricing stability than the commonly used 3-month spread. These insights provide practical implications for rollover strategies and contribute to the literature on futures pricing efficiency in emerging markets.
2024
FT 27
Luxamee Choktarm
Impact of the Gold-to-Platinum Price Ratio on Mutual Fund Flows in Thailand
This study explores whether the gold-to-platinum price ratio can explain mutual fund flows in Thailand by focusing on two key indicators: the abnormal GP ratio (AGP) and the fund sensitivity to monthly changes in GP (βΔGP). These measures are used to assess whether investors perceive the GP ratio as a proxy for economic uncertainty.

The analysis uses monthly data from January 2017 to December 2023, covering both active equity funds and corporate bond funds. The models include fund level characteristics such as size, expense ratio, age, past flows, and return volatility, along with macroeconomic variables including inflation, exchange rates, interest rates, and industry sentiment.

The first result shows that AGP has a negative but statistically insignificant effect on fund flows for both active equity and corporate bond funds, although the direction is consistent with prior research only for equity funds. The second result reveals that fund’s βΔGP has a significant negative impact on future fund flows in active equity funds, implying that investors reduce capital allocation to funds that are more sensitive to economic risk, highlighting investor aversion to macro-sensitive strategies. In contrast, the relationship between fund’s βΔGP and fund flows is not statistically significant for corporate bond funds. Lastly, no significant interaction is found between βΔGP and periods of extreme market stress. Overall, while the influence of GP ratio is unobserved on corporate bond fund flows, its influence is notable in the case of equity funds with high βΔGP.
2024
FT 28
Lynn Ko Maung
The Evolution of Monetary Policy Transmission in DeFi Market
This study investigates how U.S. monetary policy affects decentralized finance (DeFi), focusing on capital flows and interest rate sensitivity across over 500 DeFi pools from 2022 to 2024. Using three models: (1) static TVL regression, (2) rolling DeFi deposit beta, and (3) rolling DeFi interest beta, the analysis captures both cross-sectional and time-varying monetary transmission effects. Model 1 shows that DeFi deposits decline in response to rising interest rates. Model 2 confirms that DeFi deposit betas are weakly negative overall, with stablecoin pools exhibiting stronger sensitivity. Model 3 finds limited responsiveness in DeFi lending rates, suggesting that APYs are primarily driven by internal protocol mechanisms rather than macroeconomic rates. The study further analyzes these effects across pool types and over time to capture heterogeneity in monetary policy transmission. The results indicate that DeFi is partially responsive to monetary policy, mainly through capital reallocation rather than interest rate pass-through. This research extends traditional monetary transmission frameworks to decentralized markets and provides new insights into DeFi’s evolving role in the financial system.
2024
FT 27
Manapat Laucha
The-Turn-of-the Month (TOM) Effect and Trading volume of Investors in Thailand
This study examines the Turn-of-the-Month (TOM) effect in the Thai stock market between 2014 and 2023, focusing on stock returns and trading volume segmented by investor type retail, institutional, and foreign. Using daily data from approximately 434 common stocks, the analysis employs paired t-tests and panel regressions across both equal-weighted and value-weighted portfolios.

While average returns during the TOM period are consistently higher than those during the Rest-of-the-Month (ROM), none of the differences are statistically significant, suggesting a weak and inconsistent TOM effect. Further calendar-based tests during the Turn-of-the-Year (TOY), Turn-of-the-Quarter (TOQ), and Index Rebalancing (IR) windows also show no robust amplification of the TOM anomaly. Regression results on trading activity similarly reveal no statistically significant increase in volume during TOM periods, though trading by institutional and foreign investors appears directionally elevated in large-cap stocks.

These findings challenge prior evidence from developed markets and imply that the TOM effect in Thailand has weakened or become conditional on firm size and market structure. By integrating investor-type trading volume analysis, this study provides novel evidence that the TOM anomaly is not a persistent feature in Thailand’s increasingly efficient and institutionally influenced equity market.
2024
FT 27
Maytakorn Lumyongsathien
Determinants of M&A in Japan and Effect of Governance Reform
This study examines the evolving role of private equity (PE) in Japan’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) landscape, with particular attention to three critical stages: target selection, deal completion, and the influence of board independence. Analyzing M&A transactions across the pre- and post-2015 period, we find that PE acquirors consistently target firms characterized by low profitability, high leverage, and high asset tangibility suggesting an emphasis on unlocking value through operational turnaround and debt-financed restructuring. The probability of deal completion increases when targets exhibit weaker financial performance but stronger collateral, consistent with the use of leveraged buyout strategies. Importantly, the implementation of Japan’s Corporate Governance Code in 2015 is associated with a significant rise in successful deal closures, underscoring the role of regulatory reform in reducing transaction uncertainty and enhancing market transparency. In contrast, board independence measured as the proportion of independent directors does not significantly affect either target selection or deal outcomes, even in the post-reform period. These findings highlight the limited effectiveness of structural governance indicators in isolation and emphasize the greater impact of systemic, enforceable reforms on M&A efficiency. The results have broader implications for policymakers in coordinated market economies, suggesting that robust legal frameworks and investor protections may be more consequential than formal governance structures
2024
FT 27
Maythavee Leeruangsakul
The Impact of Morningstar Rating on Mutual Fund Performance, Risk, and Flows
Evidence in Thailand Equity Mutual Funds.
This study investigates the role of Morningstar ratings in predicting mutual fund
performance, persistence, and fund flows in the Thai mutual fund market. The
research focuses on three main objectives. First, it examines the relationship
between Morningstar ratings and performance metrics including net return, 1-factor
alpha, 4-factor alpha, Sharpe ratio, and Sortino ratio and risk metrics, including
maximum drawdown, standard deviation, and Value-at-Risk, using both matchedpair
analysis and regression methods. Second, it explores the persistence of fund
performance through quintile transition matrices, regression analysis of lagged 4-
factor alpha, and the cross-product ratio. Third, it analyzes the relationship between
Morningstar ratings and mutual fund flows by regressing fund flows on lagged
flows, ratings, performance, and ESG investment.

This paper finds that higher Morningstar ratings (3 to 5 stars) are
significantly associated with better fund performance. Highly rated funds tend to
deliver higher net returns, stronger alpha, and better risk-adjusted performance, while
also exhibiting lower risk. Based on this, one might expect consistent performance
over time, making investment decisions easier. However, the results in this paper also
show that during crisis the performance and rating persistence are exists but it is not
consistent in the long term. This implies that strong past performance does not
guarantee strong future performance. These findings are consistent with Carhart
(1997), who suggests that persistence is short-lived and tends to disappear over time.
Similarly, Elton, Gruber, and Blake (1996) find evidence of short-term persistence,
but not strong enough to indicate long-term outperformance. Regarding fund flows,
the results suggest that Morningstar ratings alone do not have a significant impact on
investor flows. Instead, fund flows are more strongly influenced by lagged flows,
past performance, fund characteristics (such as size, age, and expense ratio), and ESG
investment. This indicates that investors respond more to actual performance and
qualitative signals than to the rating label itself.
2024
FT 27
Mingyue Fang
THE INFLUENCE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS ON LONG- TERM FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: INSIGHTS FROM CHINESE COMPANIES
การศึกษานี้ตรวจสอบผลกระทบทางการเงินในระยะยาวของการควบรวมและซื้อ กิจการที่เกี่ยวข้องกับทรัพย์สินทางปัญญา (IP M&A) ในประเทศจีน โดยใช้ ROIC เป็นตัวชี้วัดประสิทธิภาพหลัก โดยอิงจากคณะกรรมการของบริษัทจดทะเบียนในช่วงปี 2000–2020 โดยขั้นแรกจะใช้แบบจาลอง DID เพื่อเปรียบเทียบการควบรวมและซื้อ กิจการที่เกี่ยวข้องกับทรัพย์สินทางปัญญากับข้อตกลงปกติ จากนั้นจึงขยายไปสู่กรอบงาน DDD เพื่อประเมินความแตกต่างในทิศทาง (จากเหนือไปใต้ จากใต้ไปเหนือ ภายในภูมิภาค) ผลลัพธ์แสดงให้เห็นว่าการควบรวมและซื้อกิจการที่เกี่ยวข้องกับทรัพย์สินทางปัญญาช่วยเพิ่ม ROIC โดยเฉพาะในธุรกรรมจากเหนือไปใต้ การศึกษานี้เน้นย้าถึงคุณค่าเชิงกลยุทธ์ของการควบรวมและซื้อกิจการที่เกี่ยวข้องกับทรัพย์สินทางปัญญาและความสาคัญของบริบทในภูมิภาคในประสิทธิภาพหลังการทาข้อตกลง
2024
FT 24
Napassorn Tinnakorn
ESG Materiality Issues on Stock Returns: Stock Exchange of Thailand
This study investigates the impact of Environmental, Social, and
Governance (ESG) materiality issues on stock returns in the Stock Exchange of
Thailand (SET). Leveraging data from 90 listed companies between 2018 and 2021,
the research examines whether firms focusing on material ESG issues demonstrate
superior performance. Using an innovative SASB, MSCI, and MSCI-SASB ESG
materiality framework, the study differentiates between material and immaterial ESG
issues. By constructing portfolios based on ESG materiality scores and evaluating
their performance through a comprehensive five-factor model, the research provides
nuanced insights into ESG investing in an emerging market context. The study
addresses a critical gap in the existing literature by exploring ESG materiality's
impact in the Thai market, where unique market characteristics may influence the
relationship between sustainability factors and financial performance. Additionally,
the research analyses potential differences in stock returns between firms listed on
the Refinitiv ESG rating and those not included in the rating. The findings of this
study exhibit that different ESG materiality frameworks as well as portfolio
weighting methodologies provide different results on the relationship between ESG
materiality and stock returns in Thailand. As the equal-weighted portfolio exhibits
consistently higher volatility than the value-weighted portfolio. This research
contributes to the understanding of ESG materiality in emerging markets and offers
valuable implications for investors seeking to integrate ESG considerations into their
investment strategies.
2024
FT 27
Natchakan Kanjanaphan
Share pledging and Firm Performance: Evidence from Thailand
This study examines the relationship between share pledging intensity in credit balance accounts and firm performance and risk among publicly listed companies in Thailand. Using a balanced panel dataset of all common stocks listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the Market for Alternative Investment (mai) from December 2015 to December 2024, the analysis explores how pledging activity relates to firm outcomes across different firm sizes. Firm performance is measured using Return on Assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q, while firm risk is assessed through cash flow volatility, stock return volatility, and idiosyncratic volatility. Employing fixed effects panel regression with firm-clustered standard errors, the findings reveal that share pledging intensity in credit balance accounts does not have a significant impact on ROA, Tobin’s Q, or cash flow volatility across any firm size group. However, higher pledging intensity is significantly associated with increased stock return volatility and idiosyncratic volatility in large-sized firms, suggesting that pledging may amplify market-driven and firm-specific risks in this group, possibly due to forced selling pressure. These results indicate that while share pledging intensity in credit balance accounts does not signal changes in firms’ core operations or strategic direction, it can influence market volatility, particularly among larger firms.
2024
FT 28
Nattapong S hutimayotingul
Can Thai mutual fund investors benefit from volatility managed? Evident from Thailand
This paper examines whether Thai mutual fund investors can benefit from
volatility-managed strategies using Thai open-ended domestic equity funds from
January 2005 to December 2024. The study investigates whether volatility-managed
strategies improve risk-adjusted returns across both active and passive funds,
examines the performance drivers through volatility timing and return timing
analysis, and analyzes whether investors implement these strategies in practice
through fund flow behavior.

The results show that volatility-managed strategies improve risk-adjusted
performance and survive transaction costs but only work effectively during specific
market conditions. Thai mutual fund investors demonstrate awareness of volatility
timing benefits, as evidenced by reducing fund positions when volatility is high
across all volatility measures.
2024
FT 27
Nitinat Vienthong
The effect of REIT characteristics and regulations on dividend payment: Evidence from Thailand
This study aims to examine the effects of various characteristics of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) on dividend payouts among Thai REITs listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) from 2018 to 2024. Specifically, it investigates how dividend smoothing, asset ownership structure, managerial gender, and regulatory policies influence dividend distributions. The analysis is conducted using a Fixed Effects panel regression model. The purpose of this study is to provide empirical insights to better understand the key drivers of dividend payment behavior among Thai REITs.

The result of this study finds that. First, it investigates the extent to which Thai REITs engage in dividend smoothing, finding that REITs in Thailand adjust dividends rapidly to align with their target dividend payout. Second, the results show that regulatory mandates by SEC—particularly the 2021 policy requiring REITs to distribute at least 90% of net income—positively influence dividend payouts, underscoring the importance of policy enforcement in promoting dividend discipline.
2024
FT 28
Nontapat Poonsinwiwat
THE IMPACT OF UNDERWRITERS ON IPO UNDERPRICING: THE MODERATING ROLE OF AUDITOR
This study examines the impact of underwriter reputation on IPO underpricing and the moderating role of Big-4 auditors in Thailand's capital markets. Using a comprehensive dataset of IPO firms listed on both the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the Market for Alternative Investment (mai) from 2018 to 2024, this research investigates whether certification mechanisms operate differently across market segments with varying information asymmetry levels. The analysis employs multiple linear regression with robust standard errors and fixed effects models to test two main hypotheses examining underwriter reputation effects and Big-4 auditor moderation. The findings reveal dramatically different certification dynamics across Thailand's two-tier capital market system. In the SET market, underwriter reputation demonstrates a statistically significant positive effect on IPO underpricing, contradicting traditional certification hypothesis but supporting reputation premium theory where prestigious underwriters command higher underpricing through valuable services. Conversely, the mai market shows negative but statistically insignificant effects, aligning with traditional certification theory direction but lacking statistical power due to high market volatility. The study confirms significant moderation effects in SET, where Big-4 auditors substantially reduce underwriter reputation premiums, supporting certification substitution theory. However, no significant moderation effects emerge in mai, suggesting a "certification vacuum" where traditional quality signals fail to operate effectively. These findings contribute to the understanding of how certification mechanisms operate in emerging market contexts and highlight the importance of market segmentation in IPO analysis. The results have important implications for issuing firms seeking to optimize certification strategies, investors developing screening approaches, and regulators interested in enhancing market efficiency across different market segments.
2024
FT 27
Parima Limwong
Corporate Climate Risk and Cash Holdings
This paper studies how companies manage their cash when they face different types of climate risks. It uses data from public companies in the United States from 2002 to 2023. The study measures climate risks such as transition risk, physical risks, and regulatory risk by looking at climate related words in companies’ earnings calls and reports. It also uses a special index that shows how uncertain climate policy is, based on news articles.

The results show that companies with high regulatory risk usually keep more cash because they expect extra costs from new rules. However, risks from natural disasters or moving to a low-carbon economy have less direct effect, because companies often use other ways like insurance or long-term plans to deal with them. The study also finds that when climate policy is more uncertain, companies save more cash to be safe. This was clear after big policy events, such as when the United States left the Paris Agreement.

Finally, the study shows that companies with financial problems have less ability to change how much cash they hold when they face climate risks. This means that strong financial health and clear government policies help companies get ready for climate challenges. This paper gives useful ideas for investors and policymakers and shows why stable and clear climate policies are important for business planning.
2024
FT 27
Phanjarat Daengnimvikul
Tax-Incentivized ESG Funds and ESG Bond Yields: Evidence from an Emerging Market
This study investigates the presence of an ESG yield spread in Thailand’s bond market and evaluates the impact of the Thai ESG Fund policy launched in Q4 2023. Using a matched sample of ESG and conventional bonds issued from 2018–2024, we apply Exact Matching, Propensity Score Matching (PSM), and Difference-in-Differences (DiD) techniques to examine whether ESG bonds offer lower yields and whether the introduction of tax-incentivized ESG funds has influenced bond pricing.

Results indicate a significant ESG yield spread in both corporate and government segments prior to the policy. However, while the spread remained unchanged for government bonds, it narrowed for corporate bonds after the policy launch, suggesting a potential shift in market dynamics. The findings highlight the importance of investor demand and policy design in shaping ESG bond pricing and offer practical insights for policymakers, issuers, and investors in promoting sustainable finance in emerging markets like Thailand.
2024
FT 27
Phanuwat Jianwattananukul
The Impact of Board Gender Diversity on Corporate Financial Performance in Southeast Asia: The Moderating Role of Internationalization
This study examines the impact of board gender diversity on corporate financial performance and investigates the moderating role of internationalization in the context of Southeast Asia. Using a panel dataset of publicly listed firms from five Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) over the period 2014–2023, the analysis employs fixed effects regression models incorporating country, industry, and year fixed effects.

The results show that board gender diversity is negatively and significantly associated with Tobin’s Q, indicating that increased female representation on boards is linked to lower market valuation. However, no significant effect is found on accounting-based performance measures, including ROA, ROE, and NPM. Additionally, internationalization is found to moderate the relationship between board gender diversity and profitability, with a significant interaction effect observed only for Net Profit Margin.

These findings suggest that while gender diversity may not enhance short-term financial performance or market perception in this context, it becomes more valuable in internationally engaged firms. The study contributes to the understanding of how board composition and strategic orientation interact to shape
2024
FX 16
Pornnap Kuleung
Do Regulatory Announcements Still Cause Price Volatility? A Pre- and Post-MSR Analysis of the EU ETS
This study examines whether the introduction of the Market Stability Reserve (MSR)
has changed how the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) responds to regulatory policy announcements affecting EUA supply and demand. Using event study and volatility analysis, it compares 81 events across Pre-MSR (before 2019) and Post-MSR (after 2019) periods.
Cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) are estimated via a mean-adjusted model and
tested using Welch’s t-test. Volatility is assessed through a GARCH(1,1) model, with structural differences evaluated using a Likelihood Ratio Test and a bootstrap test.
Findings show that the MSR has reduced overreaction and volatility in specific
contexts—particularly during recurring supply-related events like Auctions and MSR updates. CARs for MSR-related events improved significantly, and volatility persistence declined post-MSR.
While variance drops in individual categories were not statistically significant, patterns suggest improved market stability.
Overall, the MSR acts not only as a supply tool but also as a behavioral anchor,
strengthening market resilience where predictability and transparency are highest.
2024
FT 27
Pornpitak Jomsubjaroen
The Impact of Carbon Emissions on Corporate Financial Performance: The Moderating Role of Corporate Governance
This study examines the relationship between corporate carbon emissions and financial performance, focusing on the moderating role of corporate governance. Using panel data from 1,368 firms across 22 countries in high-carbon-emitting industries between 2015 and 2024, the analysis incorporates Scope 1, Scope 2, Scope 3, and total emissions as independent variables. Financial performance is measured using both Return on Assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q, while corporate governance is evaluated through ESG governance pillar scores.

The findings reveal that Scope 1 emissions are positively and significantly associated with ROA, indicating that emission-intensive firms—especially in production-driven industries—may achieve higher profitability. Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions do not exhibit significant effects on accounting-based performance, and corporate governance does not play a clear moderating role in this context.

However, in market-based performance analysis using Tobin’s Q, the winsorized results show that all emission scopes have a negative and statistically significant impact. Moreover, corporate governance is found to intensify this negative effect, suggesting that investors expect more from well-governed firms and may penalize them more severely for higher emissions.
2024
FT 27
Rujirat Tangjitsamarnmitr
The Impact of Maturity Mismatch on Default Risk: Evidence from Thailand
This study examines the impact of maturity mismatch on default risk among listed companies in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the Market for Alternative Investment (mai) from 2011 to 2023. It also investigates the moderating roles of external and internal factors that affect the relationship between maturity mismatch and default risk. The study employs a naïve probability approach, a simplified version of the Merton model, to estimate default probability. The results show that maturity mismatch significantly increases the probability of default, meaning that firms that rely on short-term financing to fund long-term investments face a higher likelihood of default. Moreover, the analysis reveals that during periods of tight monetary policy, the effect of maturity mismatch on default risk becomes more pronounced. Lastly good corporate governance reduces overall default risk and significantly mitigates the effect of maturity mismatch on default risk.

This research offers valuable insights for regulators, policymakers, financial institutions, firms, and investors by highlighting the critical role of maturity mismatch. The findings may support to improved financial regulations and institutional frameworks, and enhanced corporate transparency, and greater investment awareness in the Thai capital market.
2024
FT 27
Sarocha Limchaisiri
How Integrity Culture Affects Trade Credit Availability
This study examines whether corporate integrity culture plays a role in shaping firms’ access to trade credit. Focusing on a panel of U.S. publicly listed firms from 2002 to 2021, it employs a text-based proxy for integrity constructed from annual reports and uses pooled OLS regression with industry and year fixed effects. The goal is to understand how ethical culture, as a non-financial factor, influences trade credit availability beyond traditional financial metrics. While the measure used—accounts payable to COGS ratio—is commonly applied in the literature, it reflects both the willingness of suppliers to extend credit and the firm’s decision to utilize it, making it difficult to isolate supply-side effects.

The findings reveal a U-shaped relationship between integrity and trade credit: only firms with exceptionally high integrity receive significantly more trade credit, while those with moderate levels do not experience a meaningful advantage. This positive effect disappears during periods of financial crisis but becomes more pronounced among firms with low market power. These results suggest that integrity may function as a strategic intangible asset—helping less powerful firms gain supplier trust in normal times, though its influence weakens when systemic risks dominate decision-making.
2024
FT 28
Siriphum Bunnamma
Abnormal Stock Return Predictability: Evidence from Excess Trading Volume in The Stock Exchange of Thailand
This study investigates the predictive power of excess trading volume on abnormal stock returns in the Stock Exchange of Thailand, examining 11,575 stock-month observations from SET100 constituents over 2014-2023. Drawing on behavioral finance theories including attention effect, disposition effect, and investor overconfidence, the research develops a novel technical indicator called "Excess Trading Volume" (ExV), defined as the deviation between short-term (21-day) and long-term (200-day) moving averages of trading volume.

Using cross-sectional regression analysis with CAPM-adjusted abnormal returns, the study tests two hypotheses: (1) high excess volume during positive return months predicts negative future abnormal returns, and (2) high excess volume during negative return months predicts positive future abnormal returns. The empirical results provide statistically significant support for the second hypothesis (β = 0.613, p < 0.05), indicating that each unit increase in excess volume during market declines predicts a 61.3 basis point increase in next month's abnormal returns. However, the first hypothesis lacks statistical significance.

Portfolio analysis reveals that a trading strategy based on these findings generates positive raw returns (0.103% monthly) but exhibits high market exposure (beta = 1.018) with minimal risk-adjusted abnormal returns (Jensen's alpha = 0.064%). The strategy's adjusted R-squared of 0.653 indicates that portfolio performance is primarily driven by systematic market movements rather than superior stock selection.

The study documents pronounced seasonal effects, particularly significant underperformance in March (-105.3 basis points) followed by recovery in April (+96.8 basis points). These findings contribute to the literature by demonstrating that volume-based technical indicators can identify behavioral patterns in emerging markets, though practical implementation faces challenges from transaction costs and modest economic magnitude. The research provides empirical support for behavioral finance theories in a non-Western context while highlighting the asymmetric nature of volume-based signals in identifying oversold versus overbought conditions.
2024
FT 27
Supakrit Nititsopon
Arbitrage Opportunity on SET Index Futures with Multi-Regime Machine Learning Approaches
This study investigates mispricing between SET50 Index Futures and the spot market through a multi-regime framework that integrates traditional asset pricing theory with machine learning. Using data from 2010-2023, K-means clustering identifies distinct market regimes, while XGBoost models regime behavior based on micro- and macroeconomic features. OLS regression shows that mispricing is primarily driven by microstructural factors, with macroeconomic variables contributing marginally in specific regimes.

A regime-specific pairs trading strategy between SET50 futures and the TDEX ETF reveals persistent, regime-dependent arbitrage opportunities. Notably, one regime generates consistent net returns after transaction costs, although limited trade frequency raises robustness concerns.

The findings highlight the limitations of static models and underscore the value of adaptive, regime-aware strategies for exploiting arbitrage in futures markets for both regulatory policy designers and investors.
2024
FT 28
Suparerk Saardeiam
Performance of Lottery Stocks Held by Thai Mutual Funds
This paper evaluates the performance of lottery stocks held by Thai mutual funds using stock price data of all stocks (both SET and MAI) and actively managed Thai open-ended domestic equity fund holdings from 2014 to 2023. The first objective is to examine whether any Thai mutual funds hold lottery stocks, and if such holdings generate positive raw returns or alphas based on the Fama-French 4-factor model. The second objective is to test the predictive power of lottery stocks held by Thai mutual funds using simplified version of cross-sectional Fama-Macbeth regression. The last objective is to examine whether long-short portfolios—long on lottery stocks held by funds and short on those avoided—can generate positive returns and positive alphas based on 2-factor and 4-factor models.

The results show that lottery stocks underperform other categories. Fama-Macbeth result supports that stocks classified as lottery exhibit lower returns in the subsequent month. The pair of lottery stocks held and not held by Thai mutual funds can generate positive alphas under both models on value-weighted basis, but the significances disappear under equal-weighted scheme suggesting exposure to size effects.
2024
FT 28
Teerapat Thuwanuti
The Impact of Environmental Performance on the Green Bond Premium in U.S.: Moderating Roles of Social and Governance Performance
This study examines the existence of the Green Bond Premium in the U.S. secondary corporate bond market and investigates the impact of a firm’s environmental performance on the green premium. It further analyzes the moderating effects of social and governance performance on the relationship between environmental performance and the green bond premium.

The analysis uses a sample of 66 matched pairs of green and conventional corporate bonds, matched through Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to ensure comparability across key bond characteristics. Key variables are obtained from Bloomberg for the period 2019 to 2024.

The results confirm the existence of a modest green bond premium, with green bonds trading at slightly lower yields than comparable conventional bonds, after controlling for liquidity differences. However, firm-level environmental performance does not have a statistically significant effect on the green premium. In addition, there is no evidence that social or governance performance moderates the relationship between environmental performance and green premium.
2024
FT 27
Visut Poochum
The Impact of ESG Performance on Equity Mispricing: Evidence from Asia-Pacific Markets
This study examines the relationship between ESG performance and equity mispricing in Asia-Pacific markets from 2010 to 2023, using the Rhodes-Kropf et al. (2005) decomposition method. The results show that stronger ESG performance is significantly associated with lower mispricing, particularly among undervalued firms, suggesting that ESG improves pricing efficiency by reducing information asymmetry. ESG performance has limited influence on overvalued firms, indicating its impact is more pronounced when valuations are suppressed.

Further analysis reveals that the environmental, social, and governance pillars each independently contribute to mitigating mispricing, highlighting their distinct roles in enhancing pricing accuracy. ESG controversy does not significantly moderate the ESG - mispricing relationship. However, the interaction between ESG performance and analyst coverage is significant, implying that analyst coverage strengthens ESG’s effect on reducing mispricing. Analyst coverage alone also shows a strong negative association with mispricing, underscoring its role in enhancing market efficiency.

GLOBAL LEARNING

Student Exchange and Collaboration Courses are extraordinary opportunities for students to enrich and diversify their academic experience overseas. Each year MSF students take part in these activities to get a chance to work with renowned professors and vibrant students at our partner universities around the world. In addition to our students going outbound, there are international students from various universities exploring unique learning opportunity in our Program creating such an interesting diversity to MSF Program.
“Getting my Master’s degree from MSF Chula was a rewarding experience for me. As an international student, I felt cared for by the professors and staff. The program provides a lot of opportunities to expand my mind and enhance my experiences in the field of finance. Excellent educational resources and infrastructures lead to an overall enjoyable educational experience.”
Zahin M. Chowdhury (FX12) Managing Director, MNC Packages Ltd., Bangladesh
“The MSF program does contribute to the progress in my career at EGAT. Through the theoretical and practical knowledge in finance, I have been equipped with capabilities and confidences to cope with investment development challenges in the period of technology disruption and transition in energy industry.”
HARID KHAOLUANG (FX10) Chief, Investment Analysis and Development Department, Business Development Division of EGAT
MSF Chula offers a broad slate of academic courses for both freshly graduated and experienced professionals. The program requires 36 credit hours to graduate. In addition to the core course requirements, students must select one of these two options:
Plan A
THESIS OPTION
Students with less than 1 year work experience are required to take this option which is only offered full-time. Out of the required 36 units, students will take 24 credit units of course work and 12 credit units of thesis research project over 2-term period.
LESS THAN
1 year work experience

Plan A Diagram

Plan B
SPECIAL PROJECT OPTION
Students with at least 1 year of work experience are eligible to pursue this option on either a full-time or flexible schedule basis. This plan consists of 3 components: 30 credit units of course work, 6 credit units over 2 term period of research project, and a comprehensive examination which is to be taken the following term upon completion of all course works.
MORE THAN
1 year work experience

Plan B Diagram

FULL-TIME
PROGRAM
Our full-time classes meet on Monday – Friday from 9:00 – 16:00 hr. Upon availability of each individual lecturer, some classes may meet off-office hour.
Fill time Program Curriculum Overview
Term 1
(August-November)
Term 2
(December-March)
Term 3
(April-July)
Plan A
(Thesis)
5 Core Courses 1 Core Courses +3 Elective Courses +Proposal 1 Elective Course +Thesis
Plan B
(Special Project)
5 Core Courses 1 Core Courses +3 Elective Courses+SP(l) 4 Elective Courses + SP(ll) + Comprehensive Exam
*Plan A: Students with less than 1 year work experience
Plan B: Students with at least 1 year work experience
FLEXIBLE
PROGRAM
We offer flexible program during weekends and after regular office hours to suit students who have full-time career and yet still want to pursue academic advancement. Flexible program classes meet on Saturday-Sunday from 9:00 – 17:00 hr. Subject to each lecturer’s schedule, some classes may also meet on weekdays from 18:00 – 21:00 hr. Applicants in this flexible program must have more than 1 year work experience and choose Plan B (Special Project).
Flexible Program Curriculum Overview
Term 1
(August-November)
Term 2
(December-March)
Term 3
(April-July)
YEAR 1 3 Core Courses 2 Core Courses 1 Core Course +
 2 Electives Courses
Term 4
(August-November)
Term 5
(December-March)
Term 6
(April-July)
YEAR 2 2 Electives Courses+ Comprehensive Exam 2 Elective Courses +SP(l) 1 Elective Course +SP(ll)

Course List

Code
Course Title
Credtis
2604639
Finance Theory
3
Financial theories related to investment and consumption decisions under certainty and uncertainty; risk preferences; application of expected utility theory in investment analysis; perfect asset markets; complete asset markets; portfolio theories; asset pricing theories; analysis of key corporate finance issues; capital structure; dividend policy; ownership structure; asymmetric information
2604643
Derivatives and Risk Management
3
Derivative markets; options and trading strategies; option pricing models; option price sensitivities; futures and trading strategies; swaps; forward rate agreements; interest rate options; value at risk (VaR) approaches; real options.
2604647
Financial Statement Analysis
3
Techniques for financial statement analysis and their interpretation for decision making; uses of financial statement information in practices; demand and supply of financial statement information; quality of financial statement information; credit analysis; security analysis; risk analysis; corporate valuation.
2604674
Financial Econometrics
3
Statistical techniques and econometrics for financial research; linear regression analysis; hypothesis testing; large sample statistical theory; relaxing assumptions of classical linear regression models; univariate time series analysis
2604680
Ethics in Finance
1
Code of ethics; standards of professional conduct; ethics in the investment profession.
2604697
Financial Markets, Institutions, and Instruments
3
Roles of financial markets; structure of financial markets: money and capital markets; primary and secondary markets;
types and roles of various financial institutions in intermediation process; determination of interest rates; roles of regulators;
central banks; commercial banks; money supply process; debt markets; equity markets; foreign exchange markets;
financial instruments; efficient market hypothesis; financial markets in international context.
2604663
Corporate Finance
2
"Initial public offerings; seasoned equity offerings; rights offerings; private placement of equity; debt offerings; convertible debt; venture capital financing; mergers and acquisitions; corporate diversification; securities market regulations and corporate governance; event-study methodology.

Condition: Prerequisite 2604631 and 2604632"
2604668
Corporate Governance and Compliance
2
Corporate governance; compliance and other related issues; strategic compliance management; integration of corporate governance, risk management and compliance.
2604696
Practical Corporate Financial Modeling
2
"Condition: Prerequisite (2604631 and 2604632) or 2604639
Financial planning and assessment of financing needs; cost of capital estimation and capital budgeting; discounted cash flow valuation model; weighted average cost of capital; adjusted present value model; corporate financial decisions and their impact on firm valuation"
2604664
Strategic Portfolio Management
2
Concepts, process and construction of investment portfolios; portfolio management strategies and diversification; portfolio performance evaluation; portfolio management for individual and institutional investors; asset allocation.
2604665
Portfolio Performance Evaluation and Attribution
2
Basic and advanced portfolio performance evaluation models; applications of performance evaluation and attribution techniques; measuring portfolio performance without knowledge of the proper model; measuring market timing; measuring hedge fund performance.
2604670
Equity Analysis and Valuation
2
Market efficiency and valuation; discounted cash flow valuation; relative valuation; residual income valuation and economic value added; option application for stock valuation; technical analysis.
2604669
Selected Topics in Risk Management
2
"Advanced tools of financial risk management; credit derivatives; credit risk modeling; credit scoring; option-based models; credit migration models; reduced form models; applications of risk management for financial institutions; developments and current issues in risk management.

Condition: Prerequisite 2604643"
2604698
Programming and Data Analytics for Finance
2
Introduction to programming; data analytical techniques; modeling techniques; algorithmic trading; programming applications for finance.
2604695
Financial Risk Management for Pension Plans
2
"Condition: Prerequisite 2604631 or 2604639
Fundamentals of pension plans; pension plan valuation concepts; pension funding concepts; solvency concepts; asset and liabilities management of pension funds; optimal asset allocation and risk management for pension plans; capital requirements and economic capital."
2604662
Alternatives and Innovations in Investment
2
Alternative investment strategies: hedge funds, real estate, and private equity; risk-return characteristics of various alternative investments; use of alternative investments to enhance portfolio risk-return trade offs.
2604666
Foundation of Behavioral Finance
2
Theoretical foundations of behavioral finance; overconfidence; representative heuristic; attribution theory; anchoring; prospect theory; limits to arbitrage; market anomalies; corporate behavior.
2604667
Market Microstructure
2
Market microstructure models; order types; order submission strategies; trader types; behavior of informed traders; probability of informed trading; price discovery; origins of liquidity and volatility; transaction cost measurement.
2604678
Macro Issues in Finance
2
Financial system and institutions; aggregate demand and supply; money creation; roles of expectation on markets and policy; monetary and fiscal policies; economic indicators.
2604688
Financial Engineering
2
Financial modeling; portfolio optimization; exotic derivatives; structured products; simulation and numerical methods for derivative valuation; financial innovation; cases in financial engineering.
2604690
Fixed Income Securities
2
Fixed income securities and markets; bond valuation; risk measurement of bonds; term structure of interest rate; yield curve fitting; bond portfolio management; interest rate derivatives.
2604692
Special Topics in Finance
2
"Financial planning and assessment of financing needs; cost of capital estimation and capital budgeting; weighted average cost of capital model; adjusted present value model; corporate financial decisions and their impact on firm valuation"
2604694
Emerging Capital Markets
2
"Development of emerging capital markets; cross-border capital flows; governance and regulations; valuation challenge in emerging markets; risk analysis and assessment; issues in emerging equity and bond markets."
2604700
Fintech
2
Overview of FinTech business; WealthTech; robo advisory; algorithmic trading, blockchain technology; digital asset and cryptocurrency; decentralized finance (DeFi), crowdfunding; virtual banking; FinTech fundraising
2604699
Sustainable Finance and Governance
2
Sustainable finance concept; corporate governance; corporate social responsibility; environmental finance; ESG compliance; sustainability reporting; ESG integration; ESG risk management
"MSF is one of the top of mind for financial school in Thailand. Not only the theories I learned, but also practical cases which is very useful.
With proficient professors and interesting curriculum, a year spent in this program was a great opportunity for accelerating my career path in finance."
Chuleephan Patiyatyothin (FT19) Financial Consultant (Assistant Vice President), KKP Private Wealth Management

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As a world-class institution, Chulalongkorn Business School offers top-ranked Master of Science in Finance program. Our graduates are fully prepared to meet the challenges of rapidly changing financial markets. Thank you for your interest in joining our MSF Chula family!

OPEN FOR APPLICATION 2025 - Admission

Deadline for application submission of batch#1
28 January 2026
Interview of batch#1
10 February 2026
Deadline for application submission of batch#2
27 April 2026
Interview of batch#2
12 May 2026 (Approx 17:00 - 20:00) (Full-Time)
13 May 2026 (Approx 17:00 - 20:00) (Flexible)
Admission decision notification
26 May 2026
"The MSF program provided me with a strong theoretical foundation to better understand and analyze financial markets, products, and risks. It also sparked my desire to become a more well-rounded and proactive financial regulator, equipping me with the skillsets to pursue a second Master’s degree at Harvard University, work with FinTech startups, and think critically when balancing financial innovation with financial stability and consumer protection.”
Tunyathon Koonprasert (FX9) Senior Analyst, Bank of Thailand, and Project Manager, Alliance for Financial Inclusion