This paper examines the role of corporate governance in the demutualisation wave in the U.S. life insurance industry during the 1990s and 2000s. The efficiency hypothesis suggests a firm should experience improved performance after demutualisation and managers should only gain from superior...

The authors examine the empirical determinants of debt maturity structure using a maturity structure measure that incorporates detailed information about all of a firm's liabilities. They find that larger, less risky firms with longer-term asset maturities use longer-term debt. Additionally,...

This paper argues that corporate debt maturity policy affects investor tax-timing options to tax-trade corporate securities. In a multiperiod model with interest rate uncertainty, we establish that a long-term debt maturity strategy maximizes investor tax-timing option value. The analysis...

Governmental tax policies have direct consequences for public spending and the distribution of wealth among a country’s population. But unintended consequences may also occur as a result of the design of those policies. We illustrate the potential impact of such unintended consequences by...

California’s Proposition 13, which limits the growth of property tax to 2 percent per year, provides homeowners an incentive to remain in their housing units and thus contributes to residential stability. Yet, with fast home price appreciation, new home buyers may purchase a home and then sell...

Numerous empirical studies confirm that the stock market reacts negatively to the announcement of an equity issue. Yet some seasoned offerings occasion a positive market response. Studies investigating the differentiation of positive from negative responses should contribute to our understanding...

Ground-level ozone remains a serious problem in the United States. Because ozone non-attainment is a summer problem, episodic rather than continuous controls of ozone precursors are possible. We evaluate the costs and emissions reductions of a program that requires people to buy permits to drive...

In the early 1990s, China began opening its urban water sector to nonstate capital to meet increasing urban water demand. By 2007, more than 30% of large and medium urban water utilities had attracted private sector participation (PSP), of which two thirds have a majority of nonstate...

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) investing in infrastructure privatization projects in emerging economies – often known as private participation projects – face both market-based and nonmarket-based competition simultaneously. Integrating transaction cost economics, bargaining model, and the...

Desiccant wheels are effective dehumidification devices. The performance of desiccant dehumidification and cooling systems is examined in this paper. Based on a theoretical investigation, six kinds of systems (systems A–F) were analyzed as the system changed from being reversible to being...