This article analyses the cost of using private finance to build hospitals under the UK government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Hospital trusts' annual payments to their private sector partners are higher than expected and are taking 11% of their budget. The additional cost of private...

Governments increasingly use private finance to fund roads infrastructure. In particular the European Commission has promoted the use of public private partnerships (PPPs) to deliver the projects forming the trans-European Network. This use of private finance raises important questions about how...

Corporate social responsibility encompasses a multiplicity of different concepts, such that its nature is confused, and it remains difficult to operationalize because opening dialogue with and responding to the various expectations of diverse stakeholders is beyond the capacity of many...

While austerity is commonly presented as a necessary, although undesirable, reduction in public expenditure, this framing may disguise a re‐imagining of the state whereby governments seize the opportunity of economic difficulties to shrink the state. This paper offers a critical examination of...

This paper examines the direct effect of internal control quality (ICQ) on cost of equity capital and whether the former has a moderating effect on the association between voluntary disclosure and cost of equity capital in an emerging market (Egypt). ICQ is measured using a survey of external...