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The economic doctrine of market efficiency plays an essential role in securities fraud litigation. In lawsuits alleging violations of SEC Rule 10b-5, the plaintiffs typically must argue that the market for the relevant security is efficient, and therefore that the “fraud on the market” doctrine applies. However, the term “market efficiency” is often applied imprecisely. In this chapter, we discuss properties of efficient markets that have been proposed in academic research, legal scholarship, and case law. We explore what must be assumed about capital markets for each of these properties to hold. We then ask how, in practice, each property could be rebutted.

We investigate the association between attributes of the audit committee of a firm and the likelihood of negative events occurring in the firm’s life in Israel. The mandate of the audit committee in Israel is substantially different from its mandate in the US. The responsibilities of the committee in the US are divided between two committees in Israel, one of which deals with reviewing the financial statements and the other one, titled “audit committee,” is in charge of the remaining tasks of the US-type audit committee. This allows us a unique opportunity to focus on the roles of the audit committee other than reviewing the financial statements. Using hand-collected data on firms traded on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2010–2014, we find that the larger the audit committee size, the larger the likelihood of negative events, consistent with the cumbersome workings and potential conflicts of interests characterizing a large committee. The percentage of directors with accounting and financial expertise on the audit committee is associated with a lower likelihood of negative events, in line with the value of such experts in tasks beyond reviewing the financial statements. The fraction of independent directors on the audit committee is not found to be significantly related to the likelihood of negative events. This is consistent with the notion that some independent directors are independent in form but not necessarily in substance, which is surprising in light of the comprehensive regulation regarding audit committee independence imposed by the Israeli regulator.

This chapter begins with a comprehensive review of the study on terrorism that has emerged in the last two decades and the consequences of terrorism in terms of economic theory. It aims to highlight the potential influence of terrorism on the distribution of military expenditure among different countries across the world. Moreover, the chapter seeks to shed light on the evolution of economic theories and models for explaining terrorism in a strategic environment to indicate the research gap in this field and presents an attempt to measure the impact of terrorism on the economic growth by considering the connection between the intensity of military expenditure made by a country and the security it faces as impinges by terrorist activities.

This study aims to examine the deterrent effect of the Market Abuse Directive (MAD) introduced in the European Union in 2003. The purpose is to evaluate whether the Directive has resulted in significant changes in pre-bid stock price run-ups observed in mergers and acquisitions within the Portuguese, Spanish and Greek stock markets.

The study analyzes a sample of 199 mergers and acquisitions in the aforementioned stock markets. The magnitude of pre-bid stock price run-ups is investigated as an indicator of illegal insider trading. The effects of the MAD, toehold positions of bidders and industry similarity between firms involved in the deals are assessed using statistical analysis.

The study’s findings indicate that the MAD has been ineffective in deterring investors from trading on non-public information. Pre-announcement price run-ups remain significant, suggesting ongoing illegal insider trading practices. Additionally, the research reveals that pre-bid stock price run-ups tend to be lower when bidders have established a larger toehold position in the target and when the firms involved in the deal belong to the same industry.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the ineffectiveness of the MAD in deterring illegal insider trading. The findings highlight the limitations of increasing penalties without an effective monitoring system in place. Furthermore, the study identifies additional factors, such as toehold positions and industry similarity, that influence the magnitude of pre-announcement price run-ups in mergers and acquisitions.

This paper aims to examine the relation between SEC regulations centered on board of director independence and financial reporting quality and investigates the different routes to board independence.

The sample includes 1,248 firm observations whose board composition is compared between 2001 and 2008. Each firm is categorized based on how they increase board independence. The authors test the hypotheses using ordinary least squares regression models.

Results show that firms choose between multiple routes when complying with the independence requirements, and how firms operationalize the SEC requirement impacts financial reporting quality. Specifically, firms that achieve increased board independence through increased board size are associated with higher financial reporting quality. However, there is no association between higher financial reporting quality and a subsequent increase in audit fees. Suggesting the reporting quality results from the board monitoring function and not from an increase in auditor effort.

No evidence exists on how a firm’s chosen route to increased board independence relates to financial reporting quality.

Among various efforts pursued to produce fuel efficient vehicles, light weight engineering (i.e. the use of low‐density structurally‐efficient materials, the application of advanced manufacturing and joining technologies and the design of highly‐integrated, multi‐functional components/sub‐assemblies) plays a prominent role. In the present work, a multi‐disciplinary design optimization methodology has been presented and subsequently applied to the development of a light composite vehicle door (more specifically, to an inner door panel). The door design has been optimized with respect to its weight while meeting the requirements /constraints pertaining to the structural and NVH performances, crashworthiness, durability and manufacturability. In the optimization procedure, the number and orientation of the composite plies, the local laminate thickness and the shape of different door panel segments (each characterized by a given composite‐lay‐up architecture and uniform ply thicknesses) are used as design variables. The methodology developed in the present work is subsequently used to carry out weight optimization of the front door on Ford Taurus, model year 2001. The emphasis in the present work is placed on highlighting the scientific and engineering issues accompanying multidisciplinary design optimization and less on the outcome of the optimization analysis and the computational resources/architecture needed to support such activity.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether fair value accounting fits for long-term equity investments, which are considered key to retool economies according to sustainability criteria. In doing so, the paper focuses on the European Union and addresses the European Commission’s (2018a) concern that current accounting rules are unfit for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development goals and the targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The paper grounds in a wide literature review on the effects of fair value accounting on investors’ asset allocation strategies. By critically integrating literature on the notion of long-term investment with theories and possible accounting approaches, the paper provides implications for a revision of the current measurement system for long-term equity investments.

The literature review supports the view that fair value accounting has played a role in discouraging equity investments over time, thus leaving economies with poorer risk-sharing and weaker long-term investments. The paper contributes to the debate on alternative measurement systems by suggesting possible solutions in relation to controversies arising from empirical evidence.

Reorienting economies according to sustainability criteria represents an urgent issue which requires prompt and policy-oriented responses. Accordingly, this paper offers insights and guidelines that can help policymakers revise current accounting rules for long-term equity investments in line with sustainable development objectives.

Companies often conduct general Employee Opinion Surveys (EOSs) to measure some features or outcomes of an organization. Converting data to results is routine and governed by the design of the EOS and the use of standard statistical methods. However, as one moves away from results to their meanings or conclusions, and from conclusions to recommendations, other factors and variables come into play. These factors and variables are governed more by the context, the presence of constraints, the intuition of the decision makers, and the actions by engaged agents. Essentially EOSs produce ambiguous conclusions and recommendations because they are “knobless,” or lacking underlying processes which are controllable by management. The theory of the organizational hologram has evolved operationally into a family of Organizational Diagnostic Survey (ODS) forms which generate sets of results representing managerially controllable processes or combinations of processes. That is, the ODS provides a set of x‐axis variables that can be employed to explain variability in EOS results, which are viewed as dependent variables plotted on the y‐axis. Every item in an ODS form is “knobby.” The relationships among the questions and higher order results are causal and structured with known interdependencies. Combining ODS and EOS allows knobby analyses of knobless survey items.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether foreign firms pay disproportionately higher monetary penalties after controlling for factors that affect the sanctioning of the firm.

In this paper, a cross-sectional data analysis has been used to examine the enforcement actions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) against all private and public companies from 1978 to 2019.

The findings indicate that that foreign firms pay disproportionately higher monetary penalties than domestic firms after controlling for factors that affect the sanctioning of firms. On average, foreign firms pay $43.3m more to the US government than US firms pay. This is a considerable difference in monetary penalties and equal to 68.95% of the average monetary penalty.

This paper shows that the US government treats US firms more favorably than foreign firms in monetary sanctions. Because the FCPA is not applied equally, this is contrary to US government guidelines and to the rule of law. The government needs to reconsider the consequences of imposing disproportionately higher penalties on foreign firms. Given the lack of judicial scrutiny of the FCPA settlement amounts against foreign firms, prosecutorial harshness against them can be remedied by amending the FCPA to eliminate the unequal treatment of foreign entities.

Significant research works explore the broadly used and successful rewards-based crowdfunding (CF) platforms, including the key motives for both creators and funders. This paper aims to examine whether the motives identified by previous researchers for rewards-based CF also apply to peer-to-peer (P2P) CF.

This research includes a review of current laws, as well as a focus on participant motives to participate in P2P CF. It also looks at how these motives differ between P2P CF and rewards-based CF. The CF platforms were then analyzed by characteristic to identify the current qualities of P2P platforms.

This research shows that though there are some common underlying motives, the differences will demand a new participant approach and a P2P CF platform that are notably different from those that support rewards-based CF.

This research is limited by the relative newness of both the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act and the P2P CF sites.

As more P2P CF platforms are created, additional research on the ability to manage investors, create effective project plans and identify keys to successful projects will further the understanding.

There is little research today, however, that connects the qualities of successful rewards-based CF to successful P2P CF platforms. In addition, regulations connected with P2P CF are not clearly defined and enforcement is not well understood.