"This paper examines the association between differences in ownership structure and income smoothing behavior in firms. The underlying constructs affecting this association include agency relationships, managerial incentives, information asymmetry, and firm profitability. A logistic regression...

This paper uses cointegration and causality tests to study the temporal behavior of dividends and earnings at the individual firm level. We find that, for a sample of 143 non-utility firms, approximately one-fifth of the firms exhibits a temporal relationship between dividends and earnings that...

This paper looks at board composition determinants in New Zealand. We document that the proportion of outside board members is inversely related to insider equity ownership supporting the notion that these variables are substitute mechanisms in controlling agency problems. We also find that...

On April 1, 1988, New Zealand stopped the double taxation of dividends by implementing a full dividend imputation program. Because many believed that the tax advantage of debt had led to more highly leveraged firms subject to greater financial risk than was socially optimal, it was hoped the...

We test the hypothesis that the risk incentive effects of CEO stock option grants motivate managers to take on more risk than they would otherwise. Using a sample of mergers we document that the ratio of post- to pre-merger stock return variance is positively related to the risk incentive effect...