Board Structure and Price Informativeness

We develop and test the hypothesis that private information incorporated into stock prices affects the structure of corporate boards. Stock price informativeness may be a complement to board monitoring, because the information revealed by prices can be used by directors to monitor management. But price informativeness may also be a substitute for board monitoring, because more informative prices can trigger external monitoring mechanisms, such as takeovers. We find robust evidence for the substitution effect: Stock price informativeness, as measured by the probability of informed trading (PIN), is negatively related to board independence. Consistent with the model's predictions, this relationship is particularly strong for firms exposed to external governance mechanisms and internal governance mechanisms, and firms for which firm-specific knowledge is relatively unimportant. We address endogeneity concerns in a number of different ways and conclude that our results are unlikely to be driven by omitted variables or reverse causality. The results are also robust to using different measures of price informativeness and different proxies for board monitoringCorporate boards, Independent directors, Price informativeness

De la minus-valía a la diversidad funcional: un nuevo marco teórico-metodológico

This text, having as a departure point the proposals from the social model of disability, tends to a theorethical framework beyond them. To comprehend disability as a social phenomenon it is neccesry to develop an historical genealogy of its current dimensions, and also an analithical explanation of the daily inscription of this historical structures in the experience of disabled people. These implies the consideration of disciplinary technologies proposed by Foucault, in connection with the Theory of Practice developed by Bourdieu. Upon this conceptual fremework, emerge the social model “great the body; body as recipient of opressive social structures that experiment disabled people. Take in consideration this embodiement as key reflexion issue will provide, in the future, the oportunity to overcome limitatinos that constrict the three perspectives on disability evaluated: the one concerned with handicap, the one concerned with disability, and the other one which, as a critical not consolidated proposal, talks about functional diversity.En el presente texto, a partir de las propuestas del modelo social de la discapacidad, se propone un marco teórico que pretende abrir una vía de investigación que vaya más allá de sus propuestas iniciales. Para la comprensión de la discapacidad como fenómeno social hay que partir de una comprensión de la genealogía histórica que la ha constituido en sus dimensiones actuales, así como de un marco analítico que explique como esas estructuras cobran vigencia en la experiencia cotidiana de las personas con discapacidad. Ello conduce a la consideración de las tecnologías normalizadoras de Foucault y de la teoría de la práctica de Bourdieu. Sobre este marco conceptual se apunta el “gran olvido” del modelo el cuerpo como catalizador y sedimento de las estructuras de dominación de las que son objeto las personas con discapacidad. Considerar la corporalidad como punto de reflexión prioritario permitirá, cara al futuro, superar las limitaciones a las que se han visto sujetas las tres perspectivas sobre la discapacidad tomadas en consideración, la que versa sobre la minusvaía, la que lo hace sobre la discapacidad y la emergente que se orienta hacia la diversidad funcional

Más allá del Laboratorio. La Antropología del Conocimento Científico como apuesta metodológica.

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Insider Trading Laws and Stock Price Informativeness

WOS:000265098400003 (Nº de Acesso Web of Science)We investigate the relation between a country’s first-time enforcement of insider trading laws and stock price informativeness using data from 48 countries over 1980–2003. Enforcement of insider trading laws improves price informativeness, as measured by firm-specific stock return variation, but this increase is concentrated in developed markets. In emerging market countries, price informativeness changes insignificantly after the enforcement, as the important contribution of insiders in impounding information into stock prices largely disappears. The enforcement does not achieve the goal of improving price informativeness in countries with poor legal institutions. It does turn some private information into public information, thereby reducing the cost of equity in emerging markets

Universal banks and corporate control: Evidence from the global syndicated loan market

We investigate the effects of bank control over borrower firms whether by representation on boards of directors or by the holding of shares through bank asset management divisions. Using a large sample of syndicated loans, we find that banks are more likely to act as lead arrangers in loans when they exert some control over the borrower firm. Bank-firm governance links are associated with higher loan spreads during the 2003-2006 credit boom, but lower spreads during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Additionally, these links mitigate credit rationing effects during the crisis. The results are robust to several methods to correct for the endogeneity of the bank- firm governance link. Our evidence, consistent with intertemporal smoothing of loan rates, suggests there are costs and benefits from banks’ involvement in firm governance

Does sovereign debt ratings news spill over to international stock markets?

The evidence here indicates that sovereign debt rating and credit outlook changes of one country have an asymmetric and economically significant effect on the stock market returns of other countries over 1989-2003. There is a negative reaction of 51 basis points (two-day return spread vis-á-vis the US) to a credit ratings downgrade of one notch in a common information spillover around the world. Upgrades, however, have no significant impact on return spreads of countries abroad. Closeness (e.g., geographic proximity) and emerging market status amplify the effect of a spillover. Downgrade spillover effects at the industry level are more pronounced in traded goods and small industries.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VCY-4MWXPV4-G/1/425660f05ca521e5322fdc58492d128

An integrated formal methods tool-chain and its application to verifying a file system model

Tool interoperability as a mean to achieve integration is among the main goals of the international Grand Challenge initiative. In the context of the Verifiable file system mini-challenge put forward by Rajeev Joshi and Gerard Holzmann, this paper focuses on the integration of different formal methods and tools in modelling and verifying an abstract file system inspired by the Intel (R) Flash File System Core. We combine high-level manual specification and proofs with current state of the art mechanical verification tools into a tool-chain which involves Alloy, VDM++ and HOL. The use of (pointfree) relation modelling provides the glue which binds these tools together.Mondrian Project funded by the Portuguese NSF under contract PTDC/EIA-CCO/108302/200