Firm, industry, and country level effects on firm value across GCC countries

Using a multilevel analysis on 1,185 firm-year observations for non-financial listed firms across six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from 2015 to 2023, our paper investigates how factors at different levels (firm, industry, and country) contribute to variations in market values. A baseline model is developed to identify the distribution of these variations, followed by further analysis incorporating specific variables to each level to explore their impact on the specified firm market value variations. The baseline model indicates that 57% of the variations in firm market values are attributable to firm-level differences. However, once country and industry factors are included, approximately 71% of the variations can be explained by country-level factors. Empirical results reveal that while leverage, liquidity, and size at the firm level and GDP at country level are significantly affect firm market values, while country inflation and governance along with industry both profitability and competitiveness have no significant impact. The findings suggest that policymakers within the GCC region should focus on enhancing corporate governance frameworks at the country level to improve their market valuation.