This paper re‐examines the financial ratio adjustment model by (1) respecifying the model such that the speed of adjustment coefficient follows a dynamic adjustment process in response to some kind of economic shocks, and (2) proposing a joint estimation of firms within the same industry to capture unobservable industry effects. Examining six financial ratios within seven industries that contain 85 firms, our results reveal that a joint estimation method substantially improves the traditional model based upon an OLS method and that economic shocks, measured by changes in interest rate expectations, affect the speed of adjustment coefficients for over one‐third of the sampling firms.

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are large, growing, and concentrated investment vehicles, with a current estimated value of U.S. $3 trillion. The combination of low transparency and government ownership has raised questions about political agendas, national security, and transfers of technology. In this article the authors report on the current status of SWFs in terms of investments, regulation, governance, and transparency of activities. They also review some recent studies on SWF investments and their impact on financial markets.

ABSTRACT