This paper reviews the impact of institutional variables on the capital structure of firms throughout the recent financial crises (dot.com bubble, subprime crisis, and European sovereign debt crisis). For the first time, the sovereign general gross debt and current account balance have entered...

In this research paper we examine the determinants of capital structure using a large panel of firms from 31 countries, all with different legal systems and different levels of investor protection. Our results confirm that institutional variables play an important role in a firm's capital...

This research paper attempts to evaluate the benefits of using the Fama and French Model by comparing them with those resulting from the use of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Local, International, and European Monetary Union functional forms were considered, in an attempt to raise the...

In this research paper the main forces that influence different kinds of corporate control of the largest firms by country are evaluated. Firms controlled by individuals, Government, miscellaneous investors or widely held, exist under different circumstances. While firms controlled by...

Estimates of appropriate equity risk premiums are abundant in finance textbooks. Unfortunately, these estimates are ill suited to small and data scarce markets such as the Portuguese. We review the literature to select techniques to overcome this difficulty, and produce estimates of equity risk...

Estimates of appropriate equity risk premiums are abundant in finance textbooks. Unfortunately, these estimates are ill suited to small and data scarce markets such as the Portuguese. The literature is reviewed to select techniques to overcome this difficulty, and estimates of equity risk...

In this paper we evaluate the impact of the European Monetary Union based on the Fama and French three-factor model. Our research shows that the models based on EMU factors present worse explanatory power than models based on local and international factors, although international factors do not...

In this research paper we evaluate how corporate control around the world is defined and which variables, related to a firm's characteristics and the countries' infrastructures, influences this. We find that there is a small number of countries where firms are widely held. The role of financial...

The goal of this paper is to study the determinants of firms' cash holdings and how cash holdings were affected by the financial crisis of 2008. Using data from the period of 1995 to 2014 of non-financial firms, we present almost 265,000 firm-year observations. Our results suggest that cash...

Using a firm-level survey database covering 41 countries, we evaluate firms' abnormal retained earnings. The results of our work show that the trends of cash holdings and retained earnings are independent. While cash holdings around the world are increasing, the opposite has occurred for...