This critical and thought-provoking book explores the causes and consequences of Europe’s failed political and economic institutions. Europe’s recession has created new challenges as market turmoil has shaken the foundations of the twin pillars of the new drive for European...

We analyze the ability of the capital structure and the ownership structure as mechanisms of control of the managers of the firms and to reduce their accounting discretionary power for a sample of Chilean firms. Using earnings management and abnormal accruals as indicators of discretionary...

In this paper, we propose an integrated model of capital structure to study the partial adjustment process to the optimal long term debt ratio. In our analysis, we consider the characteristics of the institutional environment as a factor that influences such adjustment. We use a sample of quoted...

We test whether the use of bank debt as a governance mechanism is conditioned by the financial system in which firms operate. Our results indicate that the legal and institutional environment determines the use of bank debt to finance growth opportunities. Firms use bank debt to finance their...