We examine the practice of share repurchases in the UK from 2000 to 2016 We find that an important regulatory reform in 2003, which relaxed previously strict rules about repurchases, was followed by a significant increase in repurchase activity by UK main-market listed firms We then examine the...

We examine the practice of share repurchases in the UK. We find that an important regulatory reform in 2003, which relaxed previously strict rules about repurchases, was followed by a significant increase in repurchase activity by UK listed firms. However, unlike in the US, repurchases remain a...

The information environment in China has been found to be so opaque as to prevent investors from being able to formulate valuations of companies based upon firm-specific information, a situation which promotes inefficiency in the allocation of resources in an economy and stunts its growth. The...

In 2003, a new UK corporate governance Code recommended that the CEO should not become chairman of the same firm. The UK regulator, adopting an agency theory perspective, argued that this prevents powerful CEOs from clinging to power, to the detriment of firm performance. An alternative...

Unusually high accounting accruals are observable to sophisticated investors, who must then decide whether the accruals represent managerial manipulation of reported earnings or an indication of future firm performance. We hypothesise that both cash and stock dividends contain information useful...

In this paper, we extend previous work on the relationship between corporate distributions and market value. Adopting an information content perspective, we study the relationship between both market value and future earnings and regular dividends and share buybacks, controlling for other...

Why do firms pay dividends? This is a question which has long interested researchers, particularly since the dividend irrelevance proposition of Miller and Modigliani (1961) because, even though their theory (which relies on several assumptions) suggests investors are indifferent between a...

In the UK, SSAP 13 requires that firms immediately expense most of their Ramp;D expenditures. The reported earnings of high-Ramp;D expenditure firms are therefore likely to convey less value-relevant information to investors than those of less research-intensive firms. Using a sample of firms...

Although theory suggests that companies would rationally select into audit even if it were not a legal requirement, many countries impose mandatory audits. This is arguably due to an audit having elements of a public good, which may result in not enough audits being purchased without regulatory...