We investigate cost-based access pricing in regulated network industries. Building on recent progress in the accounting literature, we show that a regulator must choose a particular depreciation schedule, namely, relative replacement cost depreciation in order to prevent the network provider...

This chapter reviews recent theoretical work on the design of regulatory policy, focusing on the complications that arise when regulated suppliers have better information about the regulated industry than do regulators. The discussion begins by characterizing the optimal regulation of a monopoly...

During the past forty years, the simultaneous, symbiotic growth of financial innovation, disintermediation and deregulation has created an environment with extremely complex, opaque investment instruments. That system has now collapsed. At the very center of the crisis are a small group of...

This report reviews recent as well as planned changes to accounting and solvency regulations affecting insurers and pension funds and how they may impact long-term investing by these institutions. The review of existing evidence focuses mainly on the impact of risk-based solvency requirements,...

This paper adds to the literatures on socially responsible investment (SRI), investment management, regulation of financial services and social accounting by providing a comprehensive survey of investment methods used in SRI products and regulated social reporting in financial services....

Since at least as early as the 1950s, the press, general public, politicians, and academic researchers have remarked on the high levels of US CEO pay and questioned whether these levels are fair and appropriate, as well as whether executive compensation provides proper incentives. Undoubtedly,...

As demonstrated by the market reactions to downgrades of various sovereign credit ratings in 2011, the credit rating agencies occupy an important role in today's globalized financial markets. This article provides an overview of the central characteristics of credit ratings and discusses risks...

I examine the reputation and regulatory effects on the directors' turnover and their directorships when firms are accused of fraudulent financial reporting (FR). The results show that the directors at FR firms incur reputation costs from abnormal turnover in relation to the directors at non-FR...

This study investigates the relation between audit regulation and the cost of equity capital. While a relation is intuitively appealing, there is a general lack of empirical evidence because changes in audit regulation are frequently accompanied by other major regulatory changes. We exploit...

In this paper we examine a setting where agents can form lobbying coalitions to influence a policy-maker. Policy uniformity causes agents to free ride on each other's lobbying and gives them an incentive to form lobbying coalitions. We investigate when coalitions are formed by similar or...