The shift from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) private pension arrangements coupled with the widespread reluctance to annuitize retirement savings is causing growing economic concern in developed countries. This study considers the impact of the salient decision point made...

This paper examines the characteristics of UK small firm bank finance and the causes of the frequently strained relationship between small firms and banks in the UK. Debt, credit rationing, and call option problems under the UK system are examined. The bank’s solutions including the...

This paper uses an agency theory perspective to develop an understanding of the determinants of auditor change for small firms in the United Kingdom. The paper, therefore, extends the existing literature (see Williams [22] and Francis and Wilson [9]) from a consideration of auditor change for...

The behavior of managers-such as the rewards they obtain for poor performance, the role of boards of directors in monitoring managers, and the regulatory framework covering the corporate governance mechanisms that are put in place to ensure managers' accountability to shareholder and other...

In this paper we review the literature on the short term predictability of stock prices conditional on large prior price changes. This research area is characterized by a large number of studies reflecting different markets, time periods, methodologies and model parameters. While most of the...

We examine the value of board diversity in the US banking industry as a mechanism to enhance the decision-making capabilities of a board. We employ a sample of mergers to assess if measures of diversity as displayed by the bidding bank's board are linked to the market performance of...

The recent financial crisis has raised significant questions about liberal free-markets as a mechanism for generating economic growth compared to those economies where there is greater state intervention. This article develops a theoretical framework for economic development that can explain...

There is little doubt that corporate governance has become one of the key issues for students of business management in the 1990s. This text is the first to draw together the various strands of the debate from economics, finance, and accounting perspectives, and from an international angle that...

There is existing evidence of equity returns having a mixture distribution with multiple component structures. Following the increasing interest in intraday trading, this article examines determinants of intraday equity return distributions and finds that greater information flow and stock...

This paper analyses the relationship between real and accrual earnings management activities and IPO failure risk. While the association between accrual earnings management and IPO failure has been researched in a limited setting, to date, there has been no work that analyses the impact of real...