The majority view of the executives interviewed is that disclosure reduces the cost of equity up to the point at which a good-practice level of communication has been reached, after which there is little further effect. Greater disclosure to rating agencies and lenders reduces the cost of debt....

High levels of investment in relation to cash flows, combined with high dividend payouts, have caused UK water companies persistently to borrow to meet their cash outflows. This behaviour is not adequately explained by mainstream theories of dividends. The intensive regulatory environment has...

This paper investigates whether personal tax could help explain the size of the historic equity premium in the UK measured before personal tax. If there has been a higher tax burden on equity, some of the premium could be viewed as compensation for tax. We estimate that personal tax reduces the...

Evidence in financial markets of an opportunity for pure arbitrage, and therefore a violation of the law of one price, is considered an anomaly to be noted. This paper reports an apparent violation of the law of one price between UK government gilts and their separately traded principal and...