We investigate the determinants of corporate financial reporting in an unregulated setting. Prior to the First World War, limited liability companies in Belgium were obliged to publish financial statements, but financial reporting was virtually unregulated. Investor protection was generally very...

This study investigates whether capital structure theory can explain debt ratios in an historical environment which was characterized by poor investor protection, booming stock markets and strong banks, and in which corporate income tax did not affect capital structure. Our results, based on a...

We investigate the impact of universal banks on the dividend policy of affiliated companies, in an environment characterized by poor investor protection, booming stock markets and strong banks. Our results, based on a unique, hand-collected sample of 428 listed companies in pre-World War I...

We investigate the impact of universal banks on the performance and the risk of affiliated companies in an unregulated environment with booming financial markets. For a unique sample of 129 Belgian companies listed in the period 1905-1909, we find that universal bank affiliation had a positive...

We investigate the impact of universal bank relations on the performance and the risk of listed companies in Belgium in the period 1905-1909. Our results are consistent with the view that universal banks are efficient institutions which overcome problems of asymmetric association inevitably...

We investigate the determinants of trade credit granted by suppliers in a historical environment which was characterized by high information asymmetries and strong banks, focusing on the role of bank-firm relationships. Our results, which are based on a unique sample of 535 firm-year...

We investigate the determinants of corporate financial reporting in an unregulated setting. Prior to World War I, limited liability companies in Belgium were obliged to publish financial statements, but financial reporting was virtually unregulated. Investor protection was generally very poor....