This paper investigates a relationship between economic governance and the dual objectives of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs): poverty reduction and financial viability. Using an unbalanced panel of 531 MFIs the important role of other institutions such as country-level business registry...

This study investigates whether culture in general and religion in particular mitigate earnings management. Using a cross-country data set, empirical tests based on rank regressions indicate that earnings management is unrelated to both religious affiliation and the degree of religiosity. In...

In recent years there have been two parallel discussions taking place in the US and in the UK about the role which institutional shareholders should play in governing the corporation. In the US this discussion is around the idea of shareholder empowerment, in the UK it is around shareholder...

This paper examines the stock price reaction to cross-border spinoff announcements and investigates whether country characteristics (such as takeover market liquidity and investor protection) cause variation in the announcements' wealth effects. We observe a positive and significant price...

This paper provides evidence of informed trading before and after a rights issue. First, we find significant net buying and selling activity by informed traders prior to the announcement date leading to a temporary price pressure effect. Even though those results are consistent with the presence...

Volatility is a measure of the average yearly changes in the market prices. The high volatility of the oil price has been pivotal in the development of international petroleum exchanges. The low volatility of the gold price is the reason why market participants usually view gold as a wealth...

Recent academic work and policy analysis give insight into the governance problems exposed by the financial crisis and suggest possible solutions. We begin this paper by explaining why governance of banks differs from governance of non-financial firms. We then look at four areas of governance:...

In this article we seek to substantiate the relation between ethics, corruption, governance and development in emerging markets, especially in Latin America. This is a theorical article where we develop a conceptual model with relations between ethics, corruption and the improve of governance of...

Trade credit is broadly used by firms around the world. Nevertheless, its use by firms in different locations is not homogeneous. A possible explanation for this are heterogeneous levels of creditor protection or quality in accounting systems among the different countries. Both features may...

The study examines the relation between the nationality and educational background diversity of directors serving on corporate boards and the firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR). We measures nationality diversity by directors' national citizenship and educational background diversity by...