We assess whether two classes of bubbles occur in the spot price of gold, rational speculative and periodically bursting bubbles, using gold's' lease rates for the first time in the literature as a measures of its fundamental value. This question is of particular significance as these are the...

This study examines the decision by firm owners to apply, or not, for intermediated debt. Based on a sample of SMEs in 9 European countries over the period 2009-2012, we examine firm characteristics, institutional and cultural factors. We focus our analyses on two distinct groups of firms, those...

The collapse of the Irish economy, still ongoing after five years, has its roots firmly in the banking sector. Lax risk management, aided by poor board oversight and behavioral biases among senior executives, is now viewed as one of the primary causes of the over-lending during the ‘Celtic...