Compensation of owner managers in Canadian family‐owned businesses: expropriation of minority shareholders

The aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis of owner managers expropriating minority shareholders by receiving excessive compensation. Using a sample of Canadian family firms, we found that when there is divergence between voting rights and cash flow rights, owner CEOs receive higher compensation than non‐owners. The higher the divergence between voting rights and cash flow rights, the higher the excess compensation. Further analysis shows that only poorly governed firms are affected by the expropriation problem. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

OPTIMAL DIVIDEND PAYMENTS WHEN CASH RESERVES FOLLOW A JUMP‐DIFFUSION PROCESS

We consider a model in which a firm faces two types of liquidity risks: a Brownian risk and a Poisson risk. The firm chooses a dividend policy to maximize shareholder value. We characterize the optimal firm value and we show that the optimal dividend policy is a barrier strategy: the firm keeps cash inside when the cash reserves level is less than a critical threshold and pays cash in excess of this threshold. We also analyze the problem of insurance against the Poisson risk. We find that it is optimal for the firm to buy full insurance when its cash reserves are above a critical threshold and not to insure otherwise.     

Regaining Missed Opportunities: The Role of Tourism in Post-war Development in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka had the opportunity to become one of the best tourism countries (TCs) in Asia immediately after independence in 1948. However, it missed opportunities on a number of occasions due to inappropriate economic policies, continuous political violence and war. Between 1983 and May 2009 the Sri Lankan tourism sector was seriously affected by nearly three decades of separatist war. Immediately after the end of the war, tourism in Sri Lanka bounced back and it has now become one of the main engines of economic growth in post-war Sri Lanka. In this article, a historical analysis has been undertaken to demonstrate how, despite its large tourism potential, Sri Lanka missed opportunities and fell far behind its Asian counterparts on a number of occasions. This article demonstrates that opportunities exist for the Sri Lankan tourism sector to play a vital role in the current post-war inclusive development strategy in terms of generating much needed foreign exchange, poverty alleviation via employment generation, accelerating economic growth and uplifting living standards of all Sri Lankans.     

Operating performance of European bank mergers

With very few exceptions the accepted viewpoint established by (predominantly) US research is that bank operating performance is not improved after merger. In this article we concentrate on European banks and investigate post-merger operating performance for 35 publicly listed bank mergers that were completed between 1992 and 1997. We find that industry-adjusted mean cash flow return did not significantly change after merger but stayed positive. We also find that the merger led to a significant decrease in profitability and capitalisation. Our key finding, in contrast to the US evidence, is that cost-efficiency ratios improved, although the improvement was not large enough to offset the profitability decrease. We also find that low profitability levels, conservative credit policies and good cost-efficiency status before merger are the main determinants of industry-adjusted cash flow returns and provide the source for improving these returns after merger.     

Forced Versus Voluntary Dividend Reduction: An Agency Cost Explanation

We examine whether the agency cost arising from shareholder‐bondholder conflict is an important determinant of the timing of dividend reduction decisions. Firms forced to reduce dividends owing to bond covenant violations experience lower earnings, more frequent losses, and greater earnings declines around the dividend reduction year than do firms that voluntarily reduce dividends. Relative to voluntary‐reduction firms, forced‐reduction firms have higher debt‐to‐equity ratios and managerial holdings. These findings coupled with the increased dividend payout ratios and lower announcement period returns suggest that financially distressed firms that anticipate poor performance have greater incentives to delay reducing dividends to avoid a wealth transfer to bondholders.     

Substitution of Noncash Payment Instruments for Cash in Europe

The substitution of noncash (check, giro, credit and debit card) payments for cash transactions is of interest for monetary policy and for determining central banks' future seigniorage revenue. We develop a novel method for approximating the share of cash transactions using public information on currency stocks, noncash payments, and card payment technology for 10 European countries. We also provide a forecast of future cash use by country. The trend in cash substitution across countries is quite similar, but the countries themselves are at significantly different stages in this process. The spread of debit and credit card payments has been the key factor behind the substitution away from cash as the use of electronic cash is still in its infancy.     

基于建立估价模型的企业并购绩效评价研究

企业并购绩效可借助一些方法加以评价,本文重点研究建立估价模型评价并购绩效。本文首先深入研究建立估价模型评价企业并购绩效的基本原理；在此基础上,通过对具体案例并购绩效实证研究进一步验证文中观点。本文认为建立估价模型、借助于EVA评价企业并购绩效是一种比较理想的方法。     

企业现金流量表的比率分析

在市场经济条件下,企业的现金流量在很大程度上决定着企业的生存和发展能力。通过对现金流量的分析,人们可以清晰地了解企业的资金周转情况和短期经营风险,评价企业的财务结构和企业偿付债务的能力,判断企业适应外部环境变化对现金收支进行调节的余地及企业持续发展的可能趋势。     

特殊会计事项对编制现金流量表的影响

销售商品提供劳务收到的现金和购买商品接受劳务支付的现金这两个会计项目的填制应从权责发生制调整到现金收付制,并且要考虑到一些特殊项目的影响,对其作适当的调整;"内部往来"等表外科目在编制现金流量时应分成三部分经营活动、投资活动、筹资活动,然后用总额法兼净额法进行调整.     

融资约束抑或过度投资——中国上市企业投资一现金流敏感度的经验证据

本文以中国上市企业为分析样本，通过检验现金持有量对投资一现金流敏感度的影响，考察企业中的融资约束和代理）中突。结果显示，融资约束与过度投资导致企业投资支出与内部现金流密切相关。民营企业、大规模地方国有企业中存在过度投资，所持有的现金具有明显的壕沟效应、进一步提高投资一现金流敏感度。而中、小规模国有企业面临的融资约束比较突出，为了抵御外部融资约束，持有现金充当对）中工具、降低投资一现金流敏感度。