Electronic payments are considerably cheaper than their paper-based alternatives. Similarly, ATMs are a more cost-efficient way to deliver certain depositor services than are branch offices. As the share of electronic payments in 12 European countries rose from 0.43 in 1987 to 0.79 in 1999 and...

This paper aims at comparing paper-based banking and electronic banking in terms of cost-efficiency and pricing. The focus is primarily on giro payments made manually by mail and electronically via the Internet, but also by cash over the counter. The paper presents principles of efficient...

The economic accuracy of accrual-based managerial performance measures is most essential for value added investment decisions in decentralised firms. Contemporary EVA-literature often lends support to annuity-based depreciation schedules for accomplishing congruence between capital budgeting...

Corporate finance theory provides a number of competing hypotheses for explaining the capital structure choice of firms. The major ones are the 'trade-off' theory, which hypothesises an optimal combination of debt and equity capital, and the 'pecking-order' theory, which suggests a ranking order...

W ILLIAMS J. and G ARDENER E. P. M. (2003) The efficiency of European regional banking, Reg. Studies 37 , 321-330. Financial deregulation may segment European banking into pan-national and regional tiers. Regional banking must finance productive investment to facilitate regional economic growth....