This paper analyzes the problem of designing optimal financial regulation when regulatory arbitrage allows competition from other regulators, and whether regulatory harmonization as a means to curb regulatory arbitrage is desirable. We find (i) that regulatory arbitrage and competition matter in...

This paper investigates whether M&A operations influence the performance of banks. Using a sample of 714 deals involving EU acquirers and targets located throughout the world over the period 1991-2005, we investigate whether M&A operations are associated with improved performance (using both...

This paper derives the implications of strategic disclosure for the earnings-returns relation within a setting derived from Dye (1985), Jung and Kwon (1988), and Ohlson (1995), in which firms' managers disclose favourable earnings forecasts and withhold unfavourable earnings forecasts. It shows...

Disclosure of executive compensation schemes has been made mandatory over the past decade in many countries including the UK and the US. Firms however tend not to fully disclose the functional form of their executive compensation schemes. This paper provides a rationale for the lack of voluntary...

A string of high profile corporate failures over the past years have led to strong regulatory responses for corporate governance, some of which are aimed at strengthening the audit function of the governance process. This paper introduces an analytical model investigating the desirability of...

This paper seeks to explain the discretionary accounting choices made by managers in a world characterised by asymmetric information between managers and investors. It considers a firm whose capital structure consists of both equity and debt, its manager assumed to protect the interests of the...