This paper examines the differences in accrual-based and real earnings management across countries from the perspective of investor protection. Following prior research (Leuz et al., 2003), we hypothesize that accrual-based earnings management is more constrained by strict discipline in...

Obtaining more accurate equity value estimates is the starting point for stock selection, value-based indexing in a noisy market, and beating benchmark indices through tactical style rotation. Unfortunately, discounted cash flow, method of comparables, and fundamental analysis typically yield...

As a result of the extensive failures of financial institutions that have occurred since 1995 in Japan, legal action against previous bank directors is expected to increase in the future. The question is, what should be the duty of care for a bank director, and in particular, what should be the...

Recently, an enactment designed to create a legal system for banking agencies in Japan to improve depositors' benefits based on the required structural changes of Japanese financial and capital markets was approved and promulgated. The author compares the U.S. and Japanese banking law systems,...

This article evaluates whether the Tokyo international capital market can play a major role in the realm of international finance and what it must do to get there. The historical development and relevant laws and regulations governing the operation of this market are discussed. In addition, this...

Since the Japanese accounting method is a unique one of its own, Japanese companies trying to finance overseas are expected to be requested to disclose their performances based on the foreign countries' standards, or to disclose the tables for adjusting differences with these standards. It will...

Although ten years had passed since the bubble economy burst, and [yen] 7.2 trillion in public funds were poured into most of the Japanese banks in 1999 in order to beef up their net worth capital, the profit figures of 131 major banks in 2003 did not show signs of the financial market's...

We study the restructuring process of small and medium-sized firms in financial distress. We have a unique dataset with firms in the Netherlands that are guided in their restructuring effort by banks. Part of our dataset consists of firms that successfully restructure their operations and...

In this brief essay, prepared as part of a symposium on The New Federalism: Plural Governance in a Decentered World, I explore the regulatory dynamics at work: (1) in the operation of Securities Exchange Act Rule 14a-8, (2) in the interventions of then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in the...