Effect of diversification on capital structure

Previous empirical financial studies have paid little attention to the role of diversification strategy on financial choices. This study analyses the financing strategies of multibusiness firms, suggesting the relevance of sorting the diversification phenomena into its related and unrelated components. The implications of our findings are important because they explain earlier contradictory results on capital‐structure determinants and offer an explanation of how the degree of product specialization/diversification and the direction of diversification (related or unrelated) translate into different corporate financial behaviours.     

Liquidity in auction and specialist market structures: Evidence from the Italian bourse

Several studies find that bid-ask spreads for stocks listed on the NYSE are lower than for stocks listed on NASDAQ. While this suggests that specialist market structures provide greater liquidity than competing dealer markets, the nature of trading on the NYSE, which comprises a specialist competing with limit order flow, obfuscates the comparison. In 2001, a structural change was implemented on the Italian Bourse. Many stocks that traded in an auction market switched to a specialist market, where the specialist controls order flow. Results confirm that liquidity is significantly improved when stocks commence trading in the specialist market. Analysis of the components of the bid-ask spread reveal that the adverse selection component of the spread is significantly reduced. This evidence suggests that specialist market structures provide greater liquidity to market participants.     

State interests,military power and international commerce: Some cross‐national evidence

This article argues that the military power and commerce of states moves together in peacetime, and that the nature of this relationship is bound up with peacetime patterns of conflict. After constructing an essentially realist argument for such a relationship, and attempting to present the various ways in which military power and commerce interact, I estimate several cross‐sectional regressions with data from a number of countries. The regressions provide some support for a relationship between military spending and trade, but the connections between military spending and protectionism are not well supported.     

Information Disclosure and Stock Liquidity: Evidence from Borsa Italiana

This article examines the effect of increased corporate information disclosure on stock liquidity. Using the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Italy as a natural experiment we extend previous work examining the effect on one measure of liquidity—bid‐ask spreads—to others, specifically depth and the price impact of transactions (or effective bid‐ask spreads). Consistent with previous research we find that bid‐ask spreads of stocks decline following the introduction of IFRS, which implies that stock liquidity increases for small traders. However, we also provide evidence that depth at the best quotes declines, which challenges the proposition that liquidity increases for large trades following an increase in disclosure. In additional tests, we find that effective bid‐ask spreads of block trades also decline following the introduction of IFRS. Overall, this evidence confirms that stock liquidity for both small and large trades increases following an increase in corporate information disclosure.     

Limit order book,anonymity and market liquidity: evidence from the Sydney Futures Exchange

This study examines the impact of the removal of broker mnemonics on the Sydney Futures Exchange. Early research finds that a decrease in transparency reduces liquidity in the market, whereas more recent research finds that reduced transparency improves market quality. Results of the present study indicate an improvement in liquidity after the removal of broker mnemonics. There is a significant increase in quoted depth and trading volume, and a significant decrease in quoted spreads in the 90 day Bank Accepted Bill, 3 year Treasury Bond and 10 year Treasury Bond Futures. This improvement in liquidity is robust to the length of the event window around the structural change and trading in a control market.     

Call Auction Transparency and Market Liquidity: Evidence from China

This paper uses the natural experiment offered by the Shanghai Stock Exchange to investigate the impact of opening call auction transparency on market liquidity. We find that the dissemination of indicative trade information during the pre‐open call auction session leads to an overall improvement in stock liquidity in the continuous trading session. Bid‐ask spreads narrow in the first trading hour because adverse selection risk fell significantly and there is less price volatility in the continuous market. This effect is greater for actively traded securities than illiquid securities. Our findings are robust for different lengths of sample period, different lengths of trading hours after market open, and stocks that had (and had not) reformed the share split structure during our research period.     

Meanings of Aging Among Older Canadian Women of Varying Physical Activity Levels

This study examines how older women's meanings of successful aging differ depending on their attitudes towards old age and current leisure practices. Twenty-one women aged 75–92 completed in-depth interviews and were divided into three groups (inactive, moderately active, or highly active). Comparisons were made across groups to determine how meanings of “old” and “successful aging” differed. Findings were interpreted using biographical, biomedical, and psychosocial approaches to successful aging, and theories of leisure as a site for women's resistance and empowerment. This study contributes to knowledge about the role of physical activity in shaping the meanings of aging among older women.     

Journeys into lost memories: migration,tourism, and historical choreographies in an Alpine valley

In some villages in the Piedmontese Alps festive rituals with medieval roots are designated by the term ‘abbeys’. In the nineteenth century these ‘abbeys’ saw a contraction of their sphere of activity that was reduced to performances during the local festivals, either religious or secular. This paper will follow the vicissitudes of one of those abbeys over several centuries. This will permit to address the issues of authenticity, performance and cultural commodification in the context of the encounter between outsiders and residents. We will see the stratified construction of a ritual tradition that is attributed to a past ‘authentic’ and stable community, and in fact is elaborated in the framework of (and in response to) a radical transformation of the local life starting from the nineteenth century (economic crisis, demographic decline). Such a ‘tradition-freezing’ process is a multivocal endeavour, in which both internal and external actors (including tourists) are involved along several generations. Moreover, beneath the surface of cultural immobility ascribed to this ritual activity, it is possible to perceive the long-lasting incorporation of new elements, through a subtle imaginative ‘bricolage’. This abbey could be read as a backward-looking transformation, as a sort of willingness to transform, in a positive way, towards the past. It is a display of energy and vitality, as opposed to some negative transformations experienced by the village. During the last years, the ‘dying’ trend, the socio-economic decline and the demographic haemorrhage seem to be at least partially countered by cultural revival.