In 2007, both the U.S. and the E.U. implemented sweeping reforms in the regulation of stock exchange trading and market structure, following diametrically opposite approaches. While the E.U. effort is deregulatory and decentralized, allowing investors' choices to determine how different...

This study examines the bindingness of the property holding constraints which REITs face on their portfolios, and illustrates how these constraints hinder REITs from exploiting opportunities to time the property market and thereby generate profits by taking advantage of the market's...

In this paper, we examine whether legal systems affect the structure of capital markets in terms of the development of bond markets versus equity markets. Using a dataset of 42 developed and developing countries, we document that a country's legal system, especially investor protections,...

Several commentators, most notably Harvard law professor Lucian Bebchuk, have called for greater shareholder control over public firms. Yet an extensive academic literature suggests that shareholders enjoy net benefits from board governance. Why, then, do so many observers believe shareholders...

This study explores the integration of the markets for NYSE-listed stocks. Although the NYSE bid or offer is part of the best displayed intermarket quote roughly ninety percent of the time, there is some evidence that non-NYSE markets do on occasion contribute to price discovery. Actual...

The purpose of this paper is to compare execution prices of NYSE-listed stocks on the NYSE and on non-NYSE markets. The first conclusion of this comparison is that most of the time the NYSE had the best quote. This result does not necessarily imply that execution prices on the NYSE are better...

This paper uses data on current volume and contracts approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to document the history of approvals, launches, and successes of all contracts in U. S. futures and futures options markets. Over 1,100 futures and options contracts have been approved and...

This article is the Belgian report concerning rating agencies to the 2006 Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law to be held in Utrecht. After describing credit rating practices in Belgium, the report considers the extent to which Belgian regulation requires, or relies upon,...

This article seeks to contribute to the discussion concerning the adequacy of the legal responses to conflicts of interest in institutional asset management. After defining the legal concept of a conflict of interest in general, the insights of economic theory, especially agency theory, are...