This paper proposes a new test for simultaneous intraday jumps (cojumps) in a panel of high frequency financial data. We utilize intraday first-high-low-last values of asset prices to construct estimates for the cross-variation of returns in a large panel of high frequency financial data, which we then use to form a test statistic that can detect cojumps. Simulations show that a bias corrected version of the test performs well when microstructure noise is present. Applied to a panel of high frequency Chinese equity data, our test identifies cojumps that coincide with announcements relating to monetary policy and stock market regulations.

This study investigates how the political connections of government bank CEOs affected their banks’ performance during the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Examination of global data shows that government banks with politically connected CEOs experienced significantly higher loan default rates and worse operating performance during the crisis than those without politically connected CEOs. However, these politically connected CEOs were less likely than others to be penalized for the poor performance of their banks. Our evidence suggests that politically connected CEOs of government banks can influence a bank’s lending decisions by using their political power and influence to relax lending standards and to reap private benefits that thus raise their banks’ sensitivity to a crisis.

We report the results of a longitudinal intervention with students across 5 universities in China designed to reduce online consumer debt. We allocate participants to either a financial literacy treatment group, a self-control treatment group, or a zero-touch control group. Our self-control training intervention features detailed tracking of spending and borrowing, budgeting, and introspection about consumption choices. This intervention reduces online borrowing and delinquency charges, mainly driven by a reduction in entertainment-related spending and borrowing. In contrast, financial literacy interventions improve test scores but only marginally affect borrowing. Our results suggest that cultivating self-regulation and budgeting skills can improve borrowing behavior on e-commerce platforms.