The IPO underpricing puzzle

Corporations - Finance ; Stock - Prices

The persistence of the prime rate

Prime rate ; Interest rates ; Bank loans ; Commercial loans

The securitization of lending markets

Bank loans ; Asset-backed financing

Farmer Mac and the secondary market

Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 ; Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (U.S.) ; Agricultural credit

FDIC Improvement Act and corporate governance of commercial banks

This paper examines provisions of the FDIC Improvement Act related to corporate governance of banks. These provisions focus on the composition and independence of the audit committee and on increased regulatory influence over executive compensation. The composition of audit committees for a sample of banking firms for 1990 is compared with those of industrial firms and with the provisions of FDICIA. The findings suggest only minor differences between banks and other firms; however, under FDICIA provisions, large changes in the composition of bank audit committees are likely. Provisions related to compensation have focused on CEOs. To address this issue, I compare the 1990 levels and factors explaining differences in CEO compensation for a sample of banks and industrial firms. The findings suggest that bank CEOs earn slightly less than their industrial counterparts and that cross-sectional differences in CEO compensation in banking and other industries are explained by similar factors.Banking law ; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 ; Bank directors

People, place, enterprise: proceedings of the first annual conference on Olympic Legacy 8 and 9 May 2008

The Olympic Legacy: People, Place, Enterprise conference took place at the University of Greenwich in May 2008. The first in a series of annual conferences, it brought together leading academics, policy makers and practitioners to debate the lasting legacy of the games. The conference had four themes: social and cultural regeneration; Olympic tourism; enterprise, including social enterprise and skills development, and education, providing a multi-dimensional perspective on the likely impacts of the forthcoming London Olympics

Do tasks make a difference? Accounting for heterogeneity of performance of children with reading difficulties on tasks of executive function : findings from a meta-analysis

Research studies have implicated executive functions in reading difficulties (RD). But while some studies have found children with RD to be impaired on tasks of executive function other studies report unimpaired performance. A meta-analysis was carried out to determine whether these discrepant findings can be accounted for by differences in the tasks of executive function that are utilized. A total of 48 studies comparing the performance on tasks of executive function of children with RD with their typically developing peers were included in the meta-analysis, yielding 180 effect sizes. An overall effect size of 0.57 (SE .03) was obtained, indicating that children with RD have impairments on tasks of executive function. However, effect sizes varied considerably suggesting that the impairment is not uniform. Moderator analysis revealed that task modality and IQ-achievement discrepancy definitions of RD influenced the magnitude of effect; however, the age and gender of participants and the nature of the RD did not have an influence. While the children's RD were associated with executive function impairments, variation in effect size is a product of the assessment task employed, underlying task demands, and definitional criteria