Recent aggregate tests of the impact of taxes on long-run growth rates in the OECD countries remain vulnerable to two important criticisms. First, they typically use 'an aggregate average rate, or constructed marginal rate, that probably does not affect the rate that any particular economic...

This study reports new findings on the behavior of index futures (FKLI: code name of Kuala Lumpur Index Futures contract) prices and also records the effect of a major financial crisis on the prices. Since the inception of trading in 1995, the FKLI has been selling at a discount, which gradually...

Extract: As the Heckscher-Ohlin-Mundell paradigm predicts, in a world where capital markets are perfect and production exhibits constant-returns to scale, while aggregate wealth endowments can be an important source of comparative advantage, their internal distribution does not matter for the...

This study attempts to investigate the financial market contagion in a global perspective. We use a large sample of 26 countries representing different regions in the world and focus on the spillover effects of the 1998 Russian crisis. We use daily observations on three financial market...

Many economic reforms are undertaken at a time of economic crisis. But is this a good time for a country to undertake trade reform? In this paper we investigate whether an economic crisis at the time of trade liberalisation affects a country’s subsequent growth performance. We employ threshold...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact on bank risk of portfolio diversification between traditional margin income and fee-based income for banks operating in Australia. Design/methodology/approach – Considering several performance variables, this analysis compares the...

This paper examines the trends and endogenous formation of bank board structure (size, independence, CEO duality and gender diversity) for a sample of 212 bank holding companies from 1997 to 2004. Overall, the results show that the costs and benefits of boards monitoring and advising roles could...

Accurate business failure prediction models would be extremely valuable to many industry sectors, particularly in financial investment and lending. The potential value of such models has been recently emphasised by the extremely costly failure of high profile businesses in both Australia and...

One of the options available to directors of financially distressed companies is to place their company into voluntary administration (VA). The decision to enter VA should enhance corporate governance because it allows for informed decision-making about a company's future, and ensures that...

This article reviews past and recent authorities that have addressed the definition and application of the solvency test in s 95A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The discussion highlights that, when faced with financial distress, company directors need to carefully consider the solvency...