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This paper aims to investigate the likelihood and price effects of auction hijacking – transactions conducted before a planned auction – in the residential real estate market.

Using a sample of 84,203 residential properties in Oslo, Norway for the period 2007–2017, the authors employ a probit sales choice model to study the likelihood of auction hijacking and hedonic models, fixed effects models and propensity score matching to investigate the price effects.

The authors find that auction hijacking is more likely to occur in periods of higher market activity and that hijacked auction properties sell at a premium of approximately 4% compared with properties sold at regularly conducted auctions. One possible explanation for the premium could be that risk aversion among buyers leads to a higher likelihood of hijacking offers and higher prices due to the risk reduction premium that sellers can extract.

For most households, buying a home is an investment of great economic significance, and understanding the different aspects of the auction is paramount for both buyers and sellers. Policymakers need to be aware of the market effects from auction hijacking and determine whether restrictions should be introduced.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

This study aims to use a unique customer-information data set from a Norwegian bank to identify how small changes in firm-specific factors correlate with the risk of a client subsequently being involved in suspicious transactions. It provides insight into the importance of updating client risk based on changes in transaction volume and credit risk to enable effective resource use in transaction monitoring.

Changes in a firm’s bank use and accounting data were tested against subsequent flagged and reported customers to identify which changes led to a significant increase in the probability of engaging in a transaction identified as suspicious. Prioritizing resources to firms that remain suspicious after further controls can improve the risk-based approach and prioritize detection efforts. The main factors were customer probability of default (credit score), size and changes in customer characteristics. The cross-sectional data set contained administrative data on 8,538 corporate customers (219 with suspicious transactions that were subsequently flagged, 64 of which were reported). A binomial logit model was used.

Changes in transaction volume and bank use are significant in predicting subsequent suspicious transactions. Customer credit score changes were significantly positively correlated with the likelihood of flagging and reporting. Change is a stronger indicator of suspicious transactions than the level. Thus, frequent updating of client risk and using a scale rather than risk categories can improve client risk monitoring. The results also showed that the current anti-money laundering (AML) system is size-dependent; the greater the change in customer size, the greater the probability of the firm subsequently engaging in a suspicious transaction.

Client risk classification, monitoring changes in a client’s use of the bank and business risk should receive more attention.

The authors demonstrate that client risk classifications should be dynamic and sensitive to even small changes, including monitoring the client’s credit risk changes.

Directing AML efforts to clients with characteristics indicating risk and monitoring changes in factors contributing to risk can increase efficiency in detecting money laundering.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to focus on changes in a firm's use of a bank and link this to the probability of detecting a suspicious transaction.

This paper aims to study aggressive bidding strategies in real estate auctions – a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach.

The authors use two data sets to study aggressive bidding strategies. First, the results from a survey with 1,803 participants examining real estate auctions are used to identify bidding strategies and related motivations. Second, the authors apply SEM by using data from 1,078 exclusive auction journals from real estate sales in Norway to study both the direct and indirect price effects of the bidding strategies.

The authors define four aggressive bidding strategies: high opening bid, high bid increase (jump bids), short acceptance deadline and short response time. The authors find that all four strategies yield a higher sales price. Bidders can actively influence the behaviour of the other participants and cool the potential auction fever, thus reducing the final price premium.

This paper gives households, investors and policymakers a better understanding of how bidding strategies affect real estate auctions and the final price.

This paper aims to investigate whether the homes in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, are overpriced. While house prices in many countries dropped after the financial crisis, those in Norway have continued to increase. Over the past 20 years, real house prices in Oslo have increased by around 7 per cent yearly.

The authors use a vector error correction model to estimate the equilibrium between house prices, rents, construction costs and wages to examine whether house prices in Oslo are overpriced.

Long-term relationships between house prices, rents, construction costs and wages are found and used to estimate equilibrium house prices in Oslo. The overpricing in Oslo compared to estimated equilibrium prices is around 35 per cent.

Price–rent, price–construction cost and price–income ratios are often used, by practitioners to say something about over- or underpricing in the housing market. We test and find that house prices, rents and construction costs move toward constant ratios in the long run, while wages are found to be weakly exogenous in the system.

Our estimate of overpricing gives households, investors and policy-makers a better understanding of the risk associated with owning dwellings.

In periods of economic distress, expectations for businesses change and there is a heightened need for reporting quality. This study investigates the impact of crises on earnings management in the real estate sector.

The data consisted of financial statements from 2005 to 2021 from real estate firms listed on 10 European stock exchanges. Estimated discretionary accruals from four standard accruals models were used as a proxy for earnings management, using cross-sectional industry and firm fixed effects models. The authors examined earnings management during three crises: the financial crisis (2008–2009), the debt crisis (2011–2012) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021).

The results showed less earnings management during the COVID-19 crisis and more earnings management during the financial crisis, though with slightly weaker evidence. The authors did not find significant evidence of earnings management related to the debt crisis. These results suggest that stakeholders in the real estate sector should be extra vigilant in crisis periods.

This study is the first to investigate earnings management in European real estate firms, focusing on the impact of crises.

Rents are both a very important cost variable in the housing market, having large welfare and distributional implication, and one of the most important variables in house price research. The aim of this paper is to construct rent indices for Norway's capital, Oslo.

This paper uses a unique dataset with 24,257 housing for rent advertisements, creating hedonic indices using the time dummy variable method.

In this paper, the author presents annual rent indices for Norway's capital, Oslo, over the period from 1970 to 2008. In addition to an aggregate index, they construct hedonic rent indices for different flat types.

Existing Norwegian rent indices start around 2000 or are constructed with the purpose of being a part of the CPI, and are therefore adjusted for change in quality. Since the author's indices are not adjusted for quality, they give new information about Norwegian rent for the past 40 years.

One of the more contentious areas of corporate governance today is how active a company's board of directors should be in the development and execution of corporate strategy. While the spotlight is on public companies, private ones (and even not‐for‐profits) would do well to pay attention. Even though private companies and many non‐profits operate without the glare of public scrutiny, the core governance issues they must grapple with are essentially the same as their public brethren.

The power available to corporate executives stems from a new set of ethics.

Kenya is vulnerable to trade-based and other forms of money laundering. Banks are prime targets for money launderers since they can facilitate the processes of placement, layering and re-integration. Consequently, banks are key in fulfilment of the prohibitory and preventative anti-money laundering (AML) strategies. In executing these obligations, the potential for clashes between the bank following the law and obeying its contractual duties to the client arises. Hence, this paper aims to examine these potential conflicts of interests.

The examination is based on reviewing relevant literature, case law and analysing the Proceeds of Crime and AML Act and its attendant regulations. These form the core of the AML regime imposing obligations on banks.

The analysis indicates the provisions are robust and can assist in addressing money laundering risks faced by banks. Nonetheless, there are identified gaps since the primary AML legislation does not provide guidance on various issues. This can potentially lead to banks facing litigation from customers for failure to honour its duty of secrecy and customer’s instructions.

The paper seeks to make a practical and scholarly contribution in considering the issue and possibly filling this gap through advocating for statutory amendment. Subsequently, positive review of the law will help strike a balance between interference in the banker-customer contractual relationship and facilitation of banks fulfilling their prohibitory and enforcement of AML obligations.