This study visits the role of shareholder proposals in the governance of public corporations by studying withdrawn shareholder proposals. Among all shareholders, unions are the most likely to withdraw proposals. Furthermore, firms with a record of poor performance, lower insider ownership and...

Following Taleb/Tapiero (2009) , the hypotheses are contrasted based on partial information of firms had losses (including external risk factors); the policy implications of this analysis are projected after evaluating two fundamental issues that continue to preoccupy the public opinion: how...

This paper analyses the role of venture capitalists in Italian Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). Between 1999 and 2012 venture capital backed IPOs are on average less underpriced than non-venture backed IPOs. By using both a matching and a regression-based approach to account for the non-random...

First externalities risk due to the size of the companies or the principle that large companies are also at risk of bankruptcy (too big to fail) are examined. The problem is illustrated by a case in which extreme risks with negative consequences for savers and investors are taken. If we...

The main objective of this paper is to present a reading of The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin in the context of the financial crisis, in particular, reflect from a few fragments of Benjamin's work appear to lie around a Black Swan. The recovery of the fragments of The Arcades seems...

This paper examines the optimal design and consequences of financial disclosure regulation. Our model represents the regulation as creating a real option for an investor to delay investment until information is disclosed. We find conditions on investment opportunities that ensure that regulation...

In this paper, we evaluate firm-, industry- and country-specific factors determining a firm's capital structure. The empirical validity of several capital structure theories has been ambiguous so far. We shed light on the main drivers of leverage and depict differences in industry and country...

This paper focuses on the time series properties of the level of underpricing of IPO shares and volume of initial selling in Hong Kong equity market. Strong autocorrelation among the level of underpricing has been identified. Evidence suggests that the initial selling volume plays an important...

In view of recent corporate scandals, it is argued that corporate governance can learn from public governance. Institutions devised to control and discipline the behaviour of executives in the political sphere can give new insights into how to improve the governance of firms. Some proposal such...