Corporate governance compliance and disclosure in the banking sector: using data from Japan

Using regression model this study investigates which characteristics of a bank is associated with the extent of corporate governance disclosure in Japan. The findings suggest that on average 8 banks out of a sample of 46 disclose optimal corporate governance information. The regression model results reveal in general that non-executive directors, cross-ownership, capital adequacy ratio and type of auditors are associated with the extent of corporate governance disclosure. Of these four variables, non-executive directors have a more significant impact on the extent of disclosure contrary to total assets and audit firms of banks in the context of Japan. The findings of this paper are relevant for corporate regulators, professional associations and developers of corporate governance code when designing or updating corporate governance code

Multiple agency perspective, family control, and private information abuse in an emerging economy

Using a comprehensive sample of listed companies in Hong Kong this paper investigates how family control affects private information abuses and firm performance in emerging economies. We combine research on stock market microstructure with more recent studies of multiple agency perspectives and argue that family ownership and control over the board increases the risk of private information abuse. This, in turn, has a negative impact on stock market performance. Family control is associated with an incentive to distort information disclosure to minority shareholders and obtain private benefits of control. However, the multiple agency roles of controlling families may have different governance properties in terms of investors’ perceptions of private information abuse. These findings contribute to our understanding of the conflicting evidence on the governance role of family control within a multiple agency perspectiv

What drives idiosyncratic volatility over time?

We document the patterns of market-wide and firm-specific volatility in the Portuguese stock market over the 1991–2005 period and test several explanations for the behavior of firm-level idiosyncratic volatility. Unlike previous studies we find no evidence of a statistically significant rise in firm- specific volatility. On the contrary, the ratio of firm-specific risk to total risk slightly decreases. We show that this result stems from new listings of large privatized companies that display lower firm-specific risk. Our findings are consistent with the idea that changes in idiosyncratic volatility are related to changes in the composition of the market.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bisphenol A exposure in Mexico City and risk of prematurity: a pilot nested case control study

Abstract Background Presence of Bisphenol A (BPA) has been documented worldwide in a variety of human biological samples. There is growing evidence that low level BPA exposure may impact placental tissue development and thyroid function in humans. The aim of this present pilot study was to determine urinary concentrations of BPA during the last trimester of pregnancy among a small subset of women in Mexico City, Mexico and relate these concentrations to risk of delivering prematurely. Methods A nested case-control subset of 60 participants in the Early Life Exposure in Mexico to ENvironmental Toxicants (ELEMENT) study in Mexico City, Mexico were selected based on delivering less than or equal to 37 weeks of gestation and greater than 37 weeks of gestation. Third trimester archived spot urine samples were analyzed by online solid phase extraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography isotope dilution tandem mass spectrometry. Results BPA was detected in 80.0% (N = 48) of the urine samples; total concentrations ranged from < 0.4 μg/L to 6.7 μg/L; uncorrected geometric mean was 1.52 μg/L. The adjusted odds ratio of delivering less than or equal to 37 weeks in relation to specific gravity adjusted third trimester BPA concentration was 1.91 (95%CI 0.93, 3.91, p-value = 0.08). When cases were further restricted to births occurring prior to the 37th week (n = 12), the odds ratio for specific-gravity adjusted BPA was larger and statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusions This is the first study to document measurable levels of BPA in the urine of a population of Mexican women. This study also provides preliminary evidence, based on a single spot urine sample collected during the third trimester, that pregnant women who delivered less than or equal to 37 weeks of gestation and prematurely (< 37 weeks) had higher urinary concentrations of BPA compared to women delivering after 37 weeks.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78251/1/1476-069X-9-62.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78251/2/1476-069X-9-62.pdfPeer Reviewe

The impact of ownership structure on earnings quality: the case of South Korea

© 2018, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature. This paper investigates the impact of business group ownership structure on the quality of earnings reporting using data from South Korea. In addition, we investigate the impact of ownership disparity and family ownership on earnings quality reporting. Using a self-constructed earnings quality index as a measure of earnings quality, we found that business group ownership structure is significantly associated with higher earnings quality. The result suggests that strong monitoring mechanisms introduced by the government, which are necessary for credibility in external financial markets and beneficial to business group reputation, led to increased transparency in earnings reports. We also found that disparity in ownership between control and cash flow rights in firms, as well as family ownership in group firms, was both associated with lower earnings quality

Determinants of Cross-Border M&As and Shareholder Wealth Effects in a Globalized World

We analyze theoretical insights and empirical regularities related to factors determining the cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and impact of M&As on shareholder value of acquires and targets. The analysis of cross-border M&As is a relatively new subject and only recently received rigorous attention in academic research. Within this nascent literature, the survey pays particular attention to the emerging markets, which, in line with their growing role of in the global economy, became an increasingly important arena for cross-border M&As. The existing evidence point out to prevailing challenges in studying cross-border M&As by emerging markets firms. The results are often contradictory and tend to focus on a single country falling short of formally testing existing theories or developing comprehensive theories for emerging economies. We show that the type of factors increasing the value enhancing effects of M&As tends to be similar to the factors affecting the likelihood of M&As transactions. The remaining methodological challenges for the existing studies are related to strong evidence with respect to nonrandom selection of acquisition targets, which, among other “selection issues,” has important implications for choosing counterfactual evidence in order to appropriately compare pre- and postacquisition performance of firms

Ownership identity, strategy and performance:business group affiliates versus independent firms in India

We consider whether the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance is moderated by the company affiliation with business groups. Within business groups, we explore the trade-off between inter-firm insurance that enables risk-taking, and inefficient resource allocation. Risk-taking in group affiliated firms leads to higher performance, compared to independent firms, but the impact of proactivity is attenuated. Utilizing Indian data, we show that risk-taking may undermine rather than improve business performance, but this effect is not present in business groups. Proactivity enhances performance, but less so in business groups. Firms can also enhance performance by technological knowledge acquisition, but these effects are not significantly different for various ownership categories