Seminal papers on the size of the firm emphasise the benefits of in-sourcing over outsourcing services from the market. This provides a rationale for the development of large firms, especially in circumstances of market risk and uncertainty as to the price and quantity of available services....

Contract is crucial for governing the relationships between asset owners and the many types of agents that underpin the production of financial services. In this paper, we distinguish between discrete contracts for financial services and asset management contracts that are better described as...

This paper focuses upon asset owners, such as pension funds, and their models of investment management, recognizing the choice between insourcing, outsourcing and re-intermediation. Drawing upon the principal-agent problem, the dimensions of the management ‘problem' are identified emphasizing...

Investment returns are produced by combining financial assets with human capital, the decision-making protocols of investment institutions, and the electronic infrastructure which supports the flow of information about investment opportunities. At the centre of the production process stand...

Based on the seminal paper by Ronald Coase and subsequent work by Oliver Williamson, Oliver Hart and others, explanations for the existence of firms typically hinge upon the advantages of internal coordination over the purchase of market services. In recent years, the standard theory of the...

The global financial crisis and its aftermath put into sharp relief the structure and performance of the global financial services industry. Questions have been raised as to what intermediaries separately and together add to the production of investment returns and social welfare (in general)....

The global financial crisis and its aftermath put into sharp relief the structure and performance of the global financial services industry. Questions have been raised as to what intermediaries individually and collectively add to the production of investment returns and social welfare in...

This report reviews recent as well as planned changes to accounting and solvency regulations affecting insurers and pension funds and how they may impact long-term investing by these institutions. The review of existing evidence focuses mainly on the impact of risk-based solvency requirements,...

In Japan, since 2013, Japanese corporate governance reform has been developed by Japanese Government initiatives. This paper provides a theoretical framework for understanding what Japanese corporate governance reform means for Japanese companies by an application of agency theory. Corporate...

Has the antitrust arsenal run out of novel theories or weapons? Think again. Recent scholarship has come to challenge conventional wisdom with the latest target of antitrust imagination being institutional investors, including diversified index funds. New economic research suggests that common...