This study examines the impacts of democracy and political risk on stock market. Using annualized panel data for 49 emerging markets for 2000-2012 we find evidence that democracy and political risk do have impact on stock market returns and the relationship between democracy and political risk is parabolic i.e., there is a threshold level of democracy after which political risk begins to decline. Our also results suggest that decreases in political risk lead to higher returns.JEL classification: G15, G12, F52

We study the dynamics of stock market integration and its consequences during the recent financial crisis for 23 developed and 60 emerging markets. We find that integration increased slightly for emerging markets but decreased for developed countries during the crisis.Moreover, we argue that the high degree of integration propagated the crisis across the global financial markets at the beginning of the crisis, but it had little effect during the crisis. We also find that integration is mostly affected by financial openness, the institutional environment and global financial uncertainty but that these determinants vary slightly between emerging and developed markets.JEL classification: F15, F36, F65, G15, G01

Electric utilities are under pressure to increase clean energy production. Although the adoption of renewable energy can improve the utilities' environmental performance, a fundamental question is if it also pays in economic terms. Building on the natural-resource-based view of the firm, we answer this question using two data analysis methods. First, we carry out a regression analysis of panel data from 66 large electric utilities covering the period 2005-2014, applying both a fixed and random effects estimator. Subsequently, we use the Granger causality test to explore possible causality links. Our results show a negative correlation at the firm level between renewable energy increase and short-term as well as long-term financial performance. More specifically, we find that an increase in renewable energy penetration Granger-causes a reduction of long-term performance. However, the results also show that a firm's carbon intensity moderates the relationship. When the focus is on the country level, we find that an increase in renewable power penetration is also negatively correlated to long-term firm performance, which might be explained by the combined effect of low power demand and overcapacity in developed economies. We conclude that the concept of organizational ambidexterity may supplement the natural-resource-based view of the firm for a better understanding of the relationship between an increase in renewable power and a firm's profitability.

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