The rapid expansion of digital financial infrastructures has substantially increased formal financial inclusion across low- and middle-income economies. However, greater access to financial services does not necessarily translate into active participation within digital financial systems. This paper investigates the distinction between formal financial inclusion and operational digital financial participation by examining whether financial stress, formal saving behavior and persistent cash preference are associated with digital merchant payment usage across emerging economies. Using cross-country data from the Global Findex Database (2024), the study employs a cross-sectional Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) framework. The analysis focuses on digital merchant payment usage as an indicator of functional digital financial integration, moving beyond conventional measures centered exclusively on account ownership. The results indicate that formal saving behavior is strongly and positively associated with digital merchant payment usage, suggesting that repeated interaction with formal financial institutions contributes to deeper operational integration into digital financial ecosystems. Persistent cash preference is negatively associated with digital payment usage, supporting the argument that behavioral persistence and transactional habits may limit the transition toward digital financial participation even when formal financial access exists. Financial stress also displays a negative relationship with digital payment usage, although the statistical evidence is comparatively weaker. Empirically, formal saving emerges as the dominant correlate of digital merchant payment usage, and the specified model accounts for roughly three quarters of the cross-country variation in functional digital financial participation.
The paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it develops the distinction between institutional financial access and functional digital financial integration. Second, it introduces persistent cash preference as a behavioral friction affecting digital financial transition. Third, it provides comparative cross-country evidence regarding the interaction between financial engagement, financial vulnerability and transactional persistence in shaping operational digital financial participation across emerging economies.The findings suggest that the effectiveness of financial inclusion policies should be evaluated not only through the expansion of formal access but also through the extent to which households become behaviorally integrated into routine digital financial activity.

This paper analyzes the relationship between economic decision-making rationality, behavioral biases, and the role of financial literacy in mitigating decision-making distortions. The research is grounded in the premise that a higher level of financial literacy contributes to improving the quality of economic decisions, although it does not eliminate the influence of automatic cognitive mechanisms. The study applies a mixed-methods approach, combining a critical review of the specialized literature with the analysis of secondary data from OECD/INFE reports on financial literacy and PISA findings on young people’s financial behavior. The methods used include comparative analysis, interpretation of financial literacy indicators and conceptual correlation between the level of financial competence and the manifestation of cognitive biases.
The results show that individuals with higher levels of financial literacy tend to display more prudent economic behaviors, such as saving, price comparison and long-term financial planning. However, the analysis confirms that biases such as loss aversion, overconfidence, anchoring and herd behavior persist even when financial knowledge is relatively high. The original contribution of the article lies in developing an integrated analytical framework that explains financial education not as a definitive solution, but as a mechanism for reducing behavioral vulnerabilities in economic decision-making.

This paper investigates the dynamic relationships between financial intermediation, monetary policy and Romania’s macroeconomic performance in the context of convergence towards the standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The study estimates a Bayesian Vector Autoregressive model on quarterly data covering the period 2007Q4–2025Q4, using real GDP growth, inflation, the monetary policy rate and the credit-to-GDP ratio as core macro-financial variables. The methodological contribution of the paper consists in applying a compact Bayesian dynamic framework to the Romanian case, combining stationarity testing, lag-structure diagnostics, recursive shock identification, impulse response functions, forecast error variance decomposition and robustness checks. The results indicate that monetary policy shocks generate a modest negative response of real GDP growth and a more visible negative response of inflation, although the credible intervals suggest that the magnitude of these effects should be interpreted cautiously. Credit-related shocks have a weak and short-lived effect on output growth, while forecast error variance decomposition shows that real GDP growth is explained predominantly by its own innovations. Robustness checks based on alternative lag structures and an alternative Cholesky ordering confirm that the main qualitative conclusions remain broadly unchanged. Overall, the findings suggest that Romania’s macro-financial transmission mechanism is present but uneven, with the monetary policy channel appearing more identifiable than the credit-intermediation channel.

The contemporary economic and financial ecosystem is undergoing a structural realignment, heavily driven by accelerating technological transformation, macroeconomic volatility, and an unprecedented emphasis on sustainability. In this dynamic environment, corporate governance, digital innovation, financial reporting, and ESG criteria are no longer independent operational. Instead, they function as interconnected variables that redefine how organizations mitigate risks, ensure financial stability, and build long-term corporate value.

This new issue of The Financial Studies Journal brings together rigorous academic and empirical research aimed at narrowing the information asymmetry in our field. The contributors in this volume link theoretical models with operational practice, addressing the precise friction points where digitalization meets professional and structural responsibility.

A significant part of this issue assesses how digital ecosystems disrupt traditional accounting frameworks and administrative structures. In Digital Financial Reporting in Public Universities: Enhancing Transparency and Accountability, the research focuses on institutional transparency, analyzing how modern reporting systems act as a catalyst for public trust. Expanding on the human capital aspect, Accounting Information in the Digital Age: Preparing for the Future investigates the structural skills and professional adaptations necessary for practitioners to maintain a distinct competitive advantage as automated frameworks evolve.

Concurrently, ERP Systems and AI in the Accounting Profession: A Bibliometric Analysis maps the literature to demonstrate how intelligent automation and enterprise systems are fundamentally re-shaping executive decision-making and operational efficiency.

However, innovation must always be balanced against structural exposure. Innovation and Security: How Cloud Management and Accounting Are Shaping the Future analyzes this delicate equilibrium, providing a strategic view on integrating cloud capabilities while managing escalating cyber risks. Taking this further, The Advantages and Risks of Organizational Decision-Making Digitalization: A Comparative Bibliometric Approach to an Emergent Literature contrasts the concrete productivity gains driven by algorithms against the broader ethical and operational exposures stemming from over-reliance on automated data logic.

The shift toward corporate sustainability and ethical frameworks represents another core thematic pillar of this volume. As ESG compliance integrates into standard regulatory frameworks, distinguishing between authentic strategic alignment and merely symbolic reporting is vital. Non-Financial Reporting and the Risk of Greenwashing: Insights from the Literature addresses this head-on, investigating the structural tensions underlying sustainability disclosures. Complementing this analysis, Ethics, Corporate Governance and Professional Responsibility: A Conceptual Model for the Modern Accountant in the Digitalization and ESG Era outlines a revised framework for the profession, arguing that modern practitioners must serve as an ethical anchor and a strategic guide within the governance architecture.

On a macroeconomic scale, financial stability remains deeply correlated with human behavior and market literacy. Financial Literacy and Investment Behavior: Key Determinants of Living Standards in Eastern Europe demonstrates that financial education is a fundamental driver of economic inclusion and social cohesion.

Looking closely at market dynamics, Macroeconomic Trend Dominance: A Multiresolution Analysis of the BET Index introduces a multiresolution methodology to capture how external macro shocks propagate through the Romanian capital market across different time horizons. In parallel, Impact of Macroeconomic Factors on the Insurance Sector in Romania – Analysis of Performance and Stability evaluates how these identical systemic pressures stress the capital adequacy and structural resilience of the domestic insurance industry.

Finally, the impact of compounding external crises is examined in Negative Trends in Financial Reporting During Crisis: An Applied Study on Strategic Companies in Romania. This paper offers an essential, data-driven assessment of how geopolitical friction, inflation, and market volatility degrade financial reporting quality and organizational performance—providing critical insights for an economy continuously under pressure.

The research compiled in this volume confirms that modern financial and accounting studies cannot be conducted in isolation. Navigating in today complex economic landscape requires a highly interdisciplinary approach—one that actively integrates technology, regulatory evolution, and market behavior.

We express our sincere gratitude to the authors, peer reviewers, and the entire editorial board for their intellectual rigor and dedication to this publication. We trust that the analyses and empirical findings presented in this issue will stimulate professional dialogue, foster new research collaborations, and provide base for legal frameworks, for policymakers and market practitioners navigating the digital and sustainable economy.

This paper explores the drivers of financial resilience in low- and middle-income countries, with particular attention to the relative importance of saving behavior, financial constraints and exposure to financial risks. Based on a dual-risk framework, the analysis distinguishes between short-term financial stress and exposure to large, infrequent shocks to examine whether different forms of vulnerability are associated with financial resilience in different ways.
The empirical analysis uses cross-country data from the Global Findex Database (2024) and applies a cross-sectional OLS model to a sample of low- and middle-income economies. The objective is not to establish causal relationships, but to identify broad associative patterns consistent with the proposed conceptual framework. The results show that financial resilience is negatively and significantly associated with short-term financial stress, indicating that liquidity constraints play an important role in shaping the capacity of households to cope with unexpected financial shocks. In contrast, exposure to large financial shocks, proxied by concerns about medical expenses, is positively and significantly associated with financial resilience. This result should not be interpreted as evidence that risk exposure is beneficial in itself, but rather as a possible indication of adaptive precautionary behavior in contexts where major risks are more salient.
Saving behavior does not have a statistically significant association with financial resilience once financial constraints and risk exposure are accounted for. Similarly, the interaction between saving behavior and financial stress is not statistically significant. These findings suggest that, in constrained environments, financial resilience may depend less on saving behavior alone and more on the broader structure of liquidity constraints and risk exposure.
The paper contributes to the literature by providing exploratory cross-country evidence for the relevance of a dual-risk perspective on financial resilience. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that interventions aimed at strengthening financial resilience should move beyond a narrow focus on saving promotion and financial access, and should also address liquidity constraints, income instability and exposure to major financial shocks.

This article examines the role of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) as a financial education tool, proposing a different perspective where the sustainability standards act not only as a compliance requirement but as a vehicle for financial education. By using a qualitative methodology which focuses on a content analysis and a comparative case study of sustainability reports published by three large listed companies in an evolutionary approach, the research demonstrates how the transition from a vague and unstandardized framework to a very strict and detailed one has imposed significant corporate structure and decision-making processes changes and also increased the quality of the information published and reduced information asymmetry.
Furthermore, the results could be used as a direct indicator that the implementation of and alignment with the newly set European framework contribute to stakeholders’ ability to interpret Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risk as financial variables.
The paper aims to contribute to the literature by defining a conceptual framework that links the technical rigours of the ESRS to the development of financial competencies within a company and society.

The insurance sector plays a crucial role in ensuring financial stability, managing risk, and supporting sustainable economic development. In this context, this paper aims to assess the level of development and the structural characteristics of the insurance sector in the Republic of Moldova and to analyze its alignment with OECD standards and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study’s methodology is based on the analysis of key insurance market indicators, including insurance density and penetration rates, as well as sector assets as a percentage of GDP, and on the analysis of the insurance market structure. Furthermore, the study applies the SDG mapping methodology to a selection of relevant publications to identify the links between the insurance sector and the SDGs. The analysis reveals that the insurance sector in the Republic of Moldova has experienced quantitative growth in recent years, increasing insurance density and penetration rates. However, the market structure remains concentrated, particularly in the motor insurance segment, while the sector’s financial depth remains relatively modest. The SDG mapping analysis highlights a strong link between insurance sector development and several SDGs, particularly those related to economic growth, resilience, and institutional development. The study’s findings indicate that aligning the insurance sector in the Republic of Moldova with OECD principles and international best practices could strengthen governance, increase market stability, and enhance the sector’s contribution to sustainable economic development.

This article assesses the out-of-sample performance of classical volatility-based econometric models, modern AI models and meta-hybrid models in estimating financial risk for 30 international financial assets. Using daily returns computed from Yahoo Finance price data over the 2001–2024 period, we generated one-step-ahead forecasts of Value at Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES). VaR accuracy was evaluated through unconditional and conditional coverage tests (Kupiec and Christoffersen), while ES was assessed using a complementary tail-oriented diagnostic. The empirical analysis includes models from the GARCH family (GARCH, EGARCH, GJR-GARCH and APARCH), AI-based models (GRU, TCN, Quantile Random Forest and Quantile Boosting), and four metamodelling frameworks that combine forecasts from different approaches and, in some cases, include exogenous information such as the VIX. The results show that no single model is uniformly superior across all assets. However, metamodelling, especially Meta 1 and Meta 2, provides the most stable overall performance across assets and the most consistent VaR-ES calibration. AI models can be competitive for some assets, but their performance is more heterogeneous, and some specifications tend to underestimate tail risk in the absence of additional calibration mechanisms. Overall, the findings suggest that metamodelling improves the robustness of financial risk estimation by reducing the limitations associated with relying on a single model and by increasing consistency across assets and market conditions.

This article investigates the role of digital platforms on enhancing the financial literacy of households in Romania. The digitalization of the financial sector builds new opportunities for approach to financial services and knowledge, potentially contributory to improving financial literacy. This study uses an exploratory qualitative approach structured to provide an overview of the relationship between technology and financial literacy. The authors analyse the principal types of digital platforms utilized to grow financial literacy: financial applications, educational platforms, and platforms of banks and fintech companies. The advantages of digital platforms as an instrument for increasing financial literacy are identified: accessibility, interactivity, content personalization, and scalability. The strengths and weaknesses of using digital platforms are examined, including digital inequality and the lack of digital literacy among certain groups of the population. Based on the analysis, recommendations are suggested to enhance the effectiveness of using digital platforms to grow the financial literacy of Romanian households. The study proves that the systematic improvement of digital platforms can significantly develop the financial education of the population and facilitate a more active participation of households in the digital economy.

The 2023 revision of the Corporate Governance Principles of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) emphasises transparency, sustainability, and long-term value creation. In the context of Romania’s OECD accession process, aligning corporate governance practices with these standards represents a key factor in strengthening the financial market and increasing investor confidence. This paper evaluates the degree of alignment of Romanian companies listed on the capital market with the G20/OECD Principles and analyzes the role of integrating ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria in this process. The research employs a content analysis applied to a sample of 47 Romanian listed companies, based on publicly available reports for the year 2024 (annual reports, corporate governance statements, and sustainability reports). The level of compliance is measured using the OECD Governance Alignment Index (OCGAI), constructed based on the six chapters of the G20/OECD Principles, each evaluated on a scale from 1 to 4. The results indicate an aggregated OCGAI score of 2.8 out of 4, corresponding to a moderate level of alignment. The highest scores are observed in the areas of the corporate governance framework and transparency/disclosure, while sustainability and resilience record the lowest levels, suggesting an early stage of ESG integration and predominantly descriptive reporting. The findings support the need to strengthen sustainability-oriented governance mechanisms and to standardize ESG reporting in order to accelerate convergence with international standards and enhance the credibility of the capital market.