At the beginning of the 1990s UK accounting standards were described as a ‘laughing stock’. By the millennium they were widely acclaimed and in some respects world-leading. This paper explores some of the key technical advances in this period, and the political processes employed to secure...

This paper examines the liquidity, Tobin's Q, and cost of equity effects from voluntary and mandatory IFRS adoption. In contrast to prior work, we focus on the firm level heterogeneity in the economic consequences, recognising that the level of uncertainty avoidance (UAI) in a country will...

“Decoupling” - the unbundling of the rights and obligations of equity and debt through derivatives and other means - has posed unique challenges for corporate and debt governance. Corporate governance mechanisms, including those related to shareholder voting and blockholder disclosure in...

European company and financial law and regulation have been evolving over time along with business and financial practices. The resulting ‘social licence’ established by company and financial law and regulation aimed to balance the granted privileges of limited liability and share...

Most regulatory bodies are either powerful or independent. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are both mdash; at least in theory. This paper argues that in practice, the two boards are less powerful and less independent than...

This study uses equal-weighted portfolios of financial and non-financial SEC registrants to examine the market reaction to proposed SEC short-term borrowing disclosure regulation. Using event study methodology and two event dates -- that is, announcement and voting dates -- we find that the...

This paper is concerned with the allegation that fair value accounting rules have contributed significantly to the recent financial crisis. It focuses on one particular channel for that contribution: the impact of fair value on actual or potential failure of banks. The paper compares four...

Using aggregate data from national accounts, we study whether strengthening and harmonizing securities regulation across the European Union increases household equity ownership. We find a significant increase in the proportion of liquid assets invested in equity, both when a household's own...

We examine the real effects of mandatory-social-responsibility disclosures, which require SEC-registered mine owners to include their mine-safety records in their financial reports. These safety records are already publicly available elsewhere, which allows us to isolate and estimate the...