This paper investigates the capital structure choices for a sample of 19,752 unlisted firms for the period 1994-2004 using a rich data set of unlisted Western European firms. It is to the best of our knowledge the first large sample study to examine how a firm's characteristics and institutional...

This paper analyzes the impact of corporate taxes on the capital structure in a country where bank financing is the main external financing source. It is found that the existence of a debt tax shield and provisions for tax loss carry-forwards has an important impact on the capital structure of...

This paper analyses the capital structure decision of small non-listed bank-financed firms. These firms are rarely studied in capital structure contexts and differ from large listed firms in terms of agency and asymmetric information problems and funding sources. It is argued that the solution...

The global financial crisis has led to an increasingly focused attention on excessive bank risk-taking. One of the consequences is that the role of internal governance mechanisms (such as the board of directors) in monitoring risk has come under greater scrutiny.In this paper we examine the...

In this paper we investigate the risk-adjusted performance of US sector portfolios and sector rotation strategy using the alphas from the Fama-French five factor model. We find that five-factor model fits better the returns of US sector portfolios than the three factor model, but that...

This paper extends the understanding of the relationship between oil prices, stock markets and financial performance of oil and gas firms over the past decade. Firstly it studies the impact of oil price fluctuations on stock markets in Europe. Secondly, it examines the volatility spillovers...

This paper seeks to review the theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between bank governance and performance, providing a comprehensive understanding of the existing research and offering guidance for investors and regulators on the major points of consensus and disagreement...

In this paper we provide critical review of recent developments in the mutual fund performance evaluation literature. The new literature centres around two main themes: enhancing explanatory power of the standard Fama-French-Carhart factor models by augmenting them with different factors and...

In this paper we investigate the risk-adjusted performance of US sector portfolios and sector rotation strategy using the alphas from the Fama-French five factor model. We find that five factor model fits better the returns of US sector portfolios than the three factor model, but that...

Fama-French/Carhart alphas of passive indices should be zero, but the recent empirical evidence shows otherwise. We propose an optimisation algorithm that makes minor adjustments to the time series for the market, size, value and momentum factors, which ensures zero alpha for a self-designated...