The protection afforded to franchisees differs widely across the world. Nations with economically strong franchise sectors typically regulate the contract’s bargaining phase and post-formation. Responding to the European Parliament’s call for a review of regulations governing Europe’s...

We use a web-based asset market experiment to study whether ESG information affects the portfolio choices of retail investors. We find a significantly higher portfolio allocation to stocks with ESG information in the order of 11 percentage points compared to a control group where no ESG...

The importance of investment advisers to the financial well-being of their clients cannot be overstated. Individuals and institutions entrust trillions of dollars to investment advisers to manage on their behalf. This paper discusses and explains fiduciary principles in investment advice....

This chapter was presented at a conference in Dublin on the (then) new Rome I Regulation of the European Union in the fall of 2009. It contrasts the Rome I rules on party autonomy with those in the United States. In particular, it considers the rules in the Rome I Regulation that ostensibly...

Insider trading, the most conspicuous misbehaviour of the stock market, is additionally one of the most troublesome & difficult one to crack by regulators around the globe. Insider trading is a term dependent upon numerous definitions and meanings and it envelops both lawful and disallowed...

Lines in the broader short versus long-term battle have been drawn between various camps: those favoring corporate management versus those favoring shareholder activists; those believing that corporations are best run for the exclusive benefit of shareholders versus those believing that other...

This chapter for an upcoming handbook on mutual funds (by Edward Elgar Publishing) offers an overview of the mutual fund market and the investors who inhabit it. On the supply side, mutual funds hold $16 trillion in financial assets and have become the largest component of our private retirement...

This paper, which forms part of the first phase of the New Special Study of the Securities Markets Project, explores how globalization has affected the operation of securities markets and the challenges this poses for their regulation. In Part I, we discuss how three secular trends –...