Purpose - This study examines the link between firm-level large share price movements, firm specific company announcements and corporate governance. Stock market regulation in the UK requires firms to disclose new Price Sensitive Information (PSI) immediately via official news providers. We...

We investigate the relation between perceived competition and voluntary disclosure in the absence of capital market incentives by examining private UK companies, which have the option to withhold sales and costs of sales information from their publicly-filed accounts. We survey managers about...

Theory suggests that, under certain assumptions, corporate distributions should reduce market value on a one-to-one basis. This result is sometimes known as dividend displacement. Nonetheless, dividend displacement tends to be rejected by empirical tests for total dividends and regular...

Although theory suggests that companies would rationally select into audit even if it were not a legal requirement, many countries impose mandatory audits. This is arguably due to an audit having elements of a public good, which may result in not enough audits being purchased without regulatory...

The Chinese stock markets provide a unique experimental setting in which to examine how cash and stock dividends convey value relevant information about future performance and future cash dividends. Utilising market valuation equations based on Ohlson (1995), as well as prediction models, and...

The information environment in China has been found to be so opaque as to prevent investors from being able to formulate valuations of companies based upon firm-specific information, a situation which promotes inefficiency in the allocation of resources in an economy and stunts its growth. The...

We examine the practice of share repurchases in the UK. We find that an important regulatory reform in 2003, which relaxed previously strict rules about repurchases, was followed by a significant increase in repurchase activity by UK listed firms. However, unlike in the US, repurchases remain a...