Investors face a dizzying array of choices regarding where to invest their funds and increasingly rely on experts for advice. Most advice about securities is provided by investment advisers or broker-dealers, legal categories with little meaning to most people but fraught with consequences....

Section 913 of the Dodd-Frank Act requires the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct a study regarding gaps or deficiencies in the regulation of broker-dealers and investment advisers. These firms often perform similar functions but are regulated differently under an antiquated...

Over recent years, a number of regulators have launched proposals to expand the obligation to disclose major share ownership in listed companies. This paper shows that these are not stand-alone developments. Using a unique dataset comprising data from 25 countries over 11 years (1995-2005) and...

White-collar criminology scholarship shows that “accounting control frauds” (frauds led by the CEO) use accounting fraud to deceive (or suborn) sophisticated financial market participants. Large control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crimes combined....

The seminal paper by La Porta et al. on ‘Law and Finance’ empirically examined whether there is a causal link between high levels of shareholder protection and financial development. Subsequent studies of this ‘Law & Finance School’ also addressed many further legal topics. This chapter...

This article, part of an interdisciplinary Asia-focused book project, addresses for Japan the difficult practical and policy question facing arbitration tribunals when a foreign investor claims mistreatment by a host state but the latter alleges that the investment was tainted by corruption or...

This study analyzed activism that leads to a merger or acquisition (M&A) of a firm to see its benefits for the shareholders at the target firm as well as its acquirer. It used over thirty years of data to understand the impact of the activists’ demands of strategic significance for the firms....

Weak productivity in Egypt is rooted in deep-seated structural causes that impede market competition and prevent a more efficient resource allocation. This implies a number of challenges for economic policy to meet the objectives for long-term sustainable growth as set out in the National...

Innovative firms typically have a high growth potential, need external funds to finance investment, and rely on the key effort and know-how of inside entrepreneurs. Given the limited amount of tangible assets and the non-contractible nature of entrepreneurial effort, these firms are often...