The first wave of highly leveraged transactions (HLTs) also known as leveraged buyouts (LBOs) began in the late 1980s. Fewer transactions occurred in the 1990's after a number of companies in the first wave failed when the economy slowed down. More recently, the driving force behind levered...

Globalization has precipitated movement of output and employment between regions. How similar are companies in different regions following this dramatic shift in economic activity? Corporate comparisons to test global convergence could be made along numerous dimensions. We look at firms along...

Globalization has precipitated movement of output and employment between regions. We examine factors related to corporate financial distress across three continents. Using a multidimensional definition of financial distress we test three hypotheses to explain financial distress using historical...

When companies fail workers lose their jobs which raises the unemployment rate and some displaced workers with less financial wealth, larger financial obligations, and who are the sole bread winners in a family become likely candidates for a personal bankruptcy filing. The central role played by...

When firms announce a restatement of their financial reports, they inform investors that their prior announcements were faulty. Not only do companies lose credibility at times such as this but also their securities are revalued as investors respond to the substance of the announcement. We...

We investigate, using data on US manufacturing firms, how and when corporate governance affects managers’ decisions to use discretionary accruals and thereby artificially influence company financial reports. We employ 3SLS to study the relationship between financial status, corporate...

This article is about ethics, or more correctly questionable ethics. It is also about greed. When a commercial party’s consideration for its stakeholders is distorted by an opportunity for short-term gain, it creates a self-centric view of the world. This myopia creates a blurred vision of...

Four concepts of cash flow are discussed and compared: simple cash flow, operating activities cash flow, net operating profit after taxes, and free cash flow. The differences between these concepts are shown to be very large. Issues connected to terminal value are presented. Finally, the idea of...

This paper considers whether real estate will ever again be a good place for the average American homeowner, investor, or speculator. Looking at the rate of change in real estate prices over the past few decades and the rate of inflation one sees a correspondence. The faster the rate of change...

For the most part, research purporting to address the issue of financial distress has actually studied samples of bankrupt companies. Financial distress and bankruptcy are different. In contrast, this paper starts with a sample of companies that are financially distressed but not yet bankrupt....