Accounting-based profit distribution restrictions have been a key issue of the EU's company law harmonisation efforts. At present, the concept of creditor protection via the maintenance of a minimum level of nominal capital is challenged in several respects: (i) With its recent rulings, the...

The European Union (EU) has been debating for several years whether to change from the legal capital regime as regulated under the Second Company Law Directive to a solvency test regime as applied in the US, for example. Based on an analysis of direct compliance costs and capital maintenance...

We examine changes in firms' dividend payouts following an exogenous shock to the information asymmetry problem between managers and investors. Agency theories predict a decrease in dividend payments to the extent that improved public information lowers managers' need to convey their commitment...

We examine changes in firms' dividend payouts following an exogenous shock to the information asymmetry problem between managers and investors. Agency theories predict a decrease in dividend payments to the extent that improved public information lowers managers' need to convey their commitment...

We examine changes in firms' dividend payouts following an exogenous shock to the information asymmetry problem between managers and investors. Agency theories predict a decrease in dividend payments to the extent that improved public information lowers managers' need to convey their commitment...

Financial reports should provide useful information to shareholders and creditors. Directors, however, normally owe fiduciary duties to equity holders, not creditors. We examine whether this slant in fiduciary duties affects the likelihood that firms will use financial engineering to circumvent...

The paper analyses a strategy for avoiding the disclosure of the financial statements of a limited partnership with a limited liability company as general partner (GmbH & Co. KG) according to German Commercial Code (HGB). It describes the formal process of the joining of a natural person as an...

The paper analyses a strategy for avoiding the disclosure of the financial statements of a limited partnership with a limited liability company as general partner (GmbH & Co. KG) according to German Commercial Code (HGB). It describes the formal process of the joining of a natural person as an...