The paper investigates how firms operating in capital market-oriented economies (the U.K. and the U.S.) and bank-oriented economies (France, Germany, and Japan) determine their capital structure. Using panel data and a two-step system-GMM procedure, the paper finds that the leverage ratio is...

In spite of the popularity of international portfolio diversification theory, extant empirical literature shows that investors prefer domestic assets and as a result, many studies argue that investors’ portfolios are largely suboptimal. This paper examines whether British investors need to...

Numerous studies have focused on the theoretical and empirical aspects of corporate capital structure since the 1960s. As a new branch of capital structure, however, debt maturity structure has not yet received as much attention as the debt-equity choice. We use the existing theories of...

This thesis presents five empirical papers investigating the issue of arbitrage trading of the FTSE 100 stock index futures. The first paper explores the effects of nonsynchronous trading on the spot index and develops a new technique as well as improving current methodologies for removing them....

In common with privatisation issues around the world, those of UK utilities have earned very high returns on a continuing basis. This presents an asset pricing puzzle and has been used as a justification for the imposition of a "windfall" tax. This paper presents a framework for analysing the...

In the present thesis a series of theoretical and empirical issues relating to the functioning and the efficiency of the emerging equity markets is investigated. The sample covers ten markets; four from the Latin America and six from the Asia, Asia-Pacific, for the period between 1976 to 1994....

This paper examines the announcement period and the post acquisition gains of UK acquirers of unlisted targets that are subject to value-ambiguity. The evidence shows that target’s age, size, intangibility of assets, and investments can explain the variations in bidding firm’s abnormal...

The paper investigates the effects of firm-specific and country-specific characteristics, and the 1997 Asian financial crisis on the debt maturity structure of firms in the Asia Pacific region. Given that the economies of the sample countries were at different stages of development and were...

Purpose -This paper aims to investigate the determinants of choice between private and public debt for British and German listed companies. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on three strands of theories: the “liquidation and renegotiation” hypothesis; the “moral hazard and...

We examine whether foreign equity holdings of portfolio investors depend on the level of information accessibility between the investors’ home and host countries. Using a comprehensive data set, alternative measures of information accessibility and robust analytical techniques, we show that...