Os comportamentos pecuniários e sua relação com as irregularidades cometidas nos mercados de capitais

Abstract

This research aims to identify pecuniary factors that are related to the irregularities pointed out by control bodies in the capital markets. The central hypothesis is that irregularities committed in the capital market are positively related to pecuniary factors. The factors that represent pecuniary behavior are materialized in the proxies: i) amount of derivative financial instruments and ii) CO2 emissions) and iii) consumption of luxury clothing). Pecuniary behavior, described by Veblen (2007[1899]), is a critique of the idea of human rationality. He observes that the economic process is marked by the character of the struggle between men for the possession of goods, in which wealth and status put them in evidence, comparing and measuring forces. Within the scope of the capital market, valuation processes were developed to increase the pecuniary gain of businessmen and generally involved financial strategies based on “cunning and deceit” (Veblen, 2007 [1899]). Thus, to test the hypothesis, a sample consisting of 24 countries was used, whose data were obtained for the period between 2012 and 2019, totaling 192 observations. Regression analysis was performed with fixed effects panel data. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between the proxies chosen to represent pecuniary behavior and the number of irregularities committed in the capital market. Furthermore, this study identified a positive relationship between the money laundering rate (AML) and irregularities for the countries under analysis. On the other hand, the number of irregularities is negatively related to the number of national companies listed and the level of education in the country, that is, the higher the level of education and number of companies listed on the capital market, the lower the probability of occurrence of irregularities. irregularities. This result supports the theoretical foundation that pecuniary behavior is related to irregularities, as Veblen (2007[1899]) theorizes. This is because, according to him, pecuniary habits of thought are and always have been perpetuated by those who wish to protect their positions of power, prestige, and wealth (Swaney, 1986). Because of this inherited behavior, economic progress was achieved, in Veblen's words, by "force and fraud" at the expense of the community's social and environmental well-being (Veblen, 2007[1899]; Swaney, 1981; Swaney, 1986; Simiqueli, 2016). In short, Veblen maintained that the pecuniary pattern of behavior is endogenously tolerant of transgression. In other words, irregularities are not market failures but are ever-present phenomena in the market economy. These results build on the literature in three ways: a) they offer another epistemological lens for accounting to reflect on the irregularity committed in the capital market to the assumptions that deviant behavior is a function of beyond and expected reward or a market failure; b) it adds a quantitative methodological approach to Veblenian studies, as these are recognized for preserving empirical works; c) to contribute both with accounting professionals, public policymakers and regulatory bodies of the capital market, as well as with investors, in the reflection on the risks to social well-being (materialized by irregularities committed in the capital market) associated with the theorized pecuniary behavior by Veblen.