Previous research on whether the market responds to auditors' opinions has provided mixed results. We revisit this issue in China, where the stock market is dominated by individual investors who are more likely to neglect value-relevant information. In addition, China permits modified audit...

Exploiting time-series data on labor laws from 39 countries, we investigate how labor power influences firms' payouts. We find that legislative changes that strengthen labor power reduce firms' dividend payments and total payouts. The payout restriction effect of labor power is more pronounced...

Using a broad sample of listed commercial banks in East Asia and Western Europe, this paper investigates the relations among concentrated control, a set of bank operating characteristics, and legal and regulatory regimes. We find that banks with concentrated control exhibit poorer performance,...