This article aims to assess barriers to service provision in the banking and telecom sectors of four Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, and the impact of these barriers on firm performance. Our methodology involves the computation of aggregate and modal trade restrictiveness indices...

In this paper we explain the apparent diversification discount of conglomerates without assuming inefficent-cross subsidisation through internal capital markets. Instead we assume that an internal capital market efficiently redistributes scare resources across a conglomerates divisions between...

On the international scene, away from national legal rules, the use of different currencies is largely due to the process of the ''''Invisible Hand''''. How do currencies flow when their circulations are not tightly guided and canalised? The paper develops a three-country model of the world...

We examine the relation between optimal venture capital contracts and the supply and demand for venture capital. Both the composition and type of financial claims held by the venture capitalist and entrepreneur depend on the market structure. Beside, different market structures involve different...

We study a simple rational expectations (RE) model whose asset pricing implications address some of the short-run mispricings, informational inefficiencies, and overreactions observed in real markets, without a need to resort to behavioral assumptions. We accomplish this by relying on the...

Motivated by the credit crisis 2007-08, this paper presents a theory of "capital market banks"; banks that use derivative programs to exploit ine¢ ciencies in the capital markets. I model banks’ use of asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) programs as a local game, and analyse how these...

Banks can enter new countries either through greenfield entry or by acquiring local banks. I model the effect of a foreign bank's mode of entry on the stability of the local financial sector. Banks exert costly effort when they extend credit. Limited liability creates an agency problem which...

In this paper we introduce an analytic-interactive mediation approach to facilitate conflict resolution in collective bargaining. Based on field observations of labor-management negotiations in the German railway industry, we develop an approach which combines human mediation with IT-based...

This thesis contains the findings of an examination of the relationship between internal corporate governance structures and the financial performance of South African listed firms. Specifically, using a sample of 100 South African listed firms from 2002 to 2006 (a total of 500 firm-year...

While there have been a number of studies of foreign exchange risk management in UK Multinational Companies (MNCs), the management of economic exposure has received very little attention. The aim of this study was to describe the management of economic exposure (and its relationship to...