The Financial Accounting Standards Board (the "FASB") presents a puzzle: How has this private standard setter managed simultaneously (1) to remain independent, (2) to achieve institutional stability and legitimacy, and (3) to operate in a politicized context in the teeth of opposition from its...

[Introduction]: Queensland Transport plans to launch its ‘New Queensland Driver Licence’ Smartcard in 2008. The introduction will commence in November 2008 as a pilot with a complete rollout in July 2009. Delivery of the smartcard driver licence could be through a public-private partnership,...

We model EU countries? bank ratings using financial variables and allowing for intercept and slope heterogeneity. We find that country-specific factors (in the form of heterogeneous intercepts) are a crucial determinant of ratings. Whilst ?new? EU countries typically have lower ratings than...