La Porta et al. (1998) sustain the view that countries functioning under a Common law regime, mainly the “Anglo-Saxon” model, offer better protection to the small investors and more suitable conditions for the development of large and more liquid capital markets than do countries under Civil law regimes mainly the “Franco-Saxon” countries. Stulz and Williamson (2001) document also that not only...

This paper examines whether and how ownership structure affects the trade credit policies in smalland medium-sized firms (SMEs) using a sample obtained from a survey of Chinese enterprises. Specifically, we examine how ownership concentration affects SMEs’ use of trade credit through influencing the availability of bank credit. We also examine whether the ownership of the ultimate controller in...

This paper characterizes the optimal dynamic contract between risk-averse entrepreneurs and risk-neutral investors in an infinite horizon setting with information asymmetry. Under certain conditions, the optimal contract can be implemented with the entrepreneur’s ownership of some of the firm’s shares (insider ownership). This ownership evolves over time and tends to decrease as the entrepreneu...

Group. We thank Dun and Bradstreet for providing us with data. The views expressed are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect those of the World Bank, its Board of Directors or the countries they represent. 2 Abstract This paper uses a new dataset to examine the issue of how the design of privatization affects outcomes. Prior studies of Czech privatization have focused largely on how t...

This study examines the relationship between board and ownership structures and firm performance in an environment of severe political and economic crisis. Using panel data from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) for the period 2000-2005, we split the period into prepresidential election period (2000-2002) (a relatively stable political and economic period) and post-presidential election period ...

Oxytocin is a hormone of the posterior pituitary that promotes lactation, maternal bonding, and birth. Recent studies have shown that oxytocin may modulate social recognition in both sexes, and thus it may be related to empathy. Brain regions that are associated with social recognition and empathy (e.g., the insular cortex) are activated in the rubber hand illusion (RHI), which involves illusor...