Using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for the period 2000-2004 we investigate poverty trends in Russia. We find that urban poverty declines at twice the rate of rural poverty so that by 2004 poverty in Russia had become a largely rural phenomenon for the first time since...

The financial stability of a company, along with its operational effectiveness, depend on whether the company endeavours to optimise its capital structure, and the speed at which it can do so. The purpose of this article is to assess the relative impact of influential factors on the speed of...

This paper uses a dynamic unrestricted capital structure model to examine the determinants of the private companies' target financial leverage and the speed of adjustment to it in two transition economies, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. We explicitly model the adjustment of companies' leverage...

Part I: Strategic Deals and Value Creation: The Lessons from Previous Research -- M&As Trends in Emerging Capital Markets -- How M&A Deals Influence Corporate Performance in Developed and Emerging Capital Markets: A Review of Empirical Results in the Literature -- Determinants of Cross-Border...

The paper presents evidence on firms' actual and target capital structure in five EU accession countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Estonia. We provide the insights into the issue of financial constrains of...

The paper extends the contingent valuation framework of Black and Cox (1976) to value subordinated debt by explicitly incorporating bankruptcy costs in the model. I show that subordinated debt prices have 'value added' relative to equity. In fact, the joint use of equity and subordinated debt...