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It has been found that stock market returns vary seasonally with the amount of daylight, and they attribute this effect to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which is a psychological condition that causes depression and heightened risk aversion during the fall and winter months. The goal of this study is to examine whether this effect also manifests itself in the pricing of initial public offerings (IPOs).

The authors conduct an empirical analysis on IPO data collected over the period 1986‐2000. Specifically, we examine potential pricing differences between IPO that go public during the fall and winter months, relative to other issues. The paper begins by exploring differences on a univariate basis (i.e. testing via t‐statistics), subsequently extending the analysis by controlling for firm and offer characteristics in a multiple regression framework.

The paper finds that IPOs experience higher levels of underpricing in both the fall and winter months and that offer price revisions are higher during the winter months. Both of these results are consistent with SAD influencing the IPO pricing process.

The results suggest that behavioral issues (i.e. the emotions of buyers) may have as much of an effect on the pricing of IPOs as more traditional characteristics. Further, the results imply that firms with flexible issuance schedules should avoid going public during months affected by SAD, thereby potentially reducing the cost of issuance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the effects of investments by US banks in advertising and promotion on their performance in the areas of profits and market share.

The model presented in the paper is motivated by the theory of the profit function. We estimate a base model with a fixed‐effects panel including an AR(1) disturbance over the period 2002‐2006. To test for selection bias, we also estimate a Heckman model.

It is found that bank profits and market share increase significantly with increased spending on advertising and promotion. Also, significant evidence is found of increasing returns to scale in this type of marketing expenditure. It is also found that increased expenditures on branching result in higher profits and increased market share, but without scale effects. The results are robust, the inclusion of variables is not suggested by profit function theory and corrected for prospective selection bias.

The extant literature does not include research on the effectiveness of bank marketing from the viewpoint of its impact on profit performance. The findings should be of interest to academics in finance and marketing and to banking practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of large equity ownership by both institutions and outside block shareholders in monitoring the board of directors’ decision to initially adopt defense mechanisms and the subsequent capital market reaction to the adoption.

This paper employs an empirical methodology that controls for selection bias. Multiple regressions were employed to assess the relationship among the variables.

Stockholder wealth effects of poison pills are positively related to pressure‐resistant institutions, which is consistent with effective monitoring. The wealth effects of poison pills, however, are negatively related to pressure‐sensitive investors, consistent with passivity. No empirical relation was found between ownership structure and shareholder approved amendments such as classified boards and fair price amendments.

This study was conducted as a large sample analysis over an earlier time period that was more applicable for evaluating anti‐takeover techniques.

The results are consistent with pressure‐resistant institutions actively monitoring to prevent unilaterally implemented defense mechanisms of all types, whereas pressure‐sensitive institutions appear to more readily accept poison pills.

These results suggest that failing to control for the type of outside investor may not clearly portray documented relations in other corporate governance studies.

Purpose – In this chapter, we advance research on the socioeconomic ranking of religious groups by using both income and wealth to document the rankings of the six major religious groups in the United States – Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical Protestants, black Protestants, and the religiously unaffiliated – during 2001–2007, a period marked by both catastrophic economic losses and widespread economic gain.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Drawing from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics (PSID), we provide descriptive statistics to explore the socioeconomic differences among the six major religious groups. In addition, we note their ownership rates and changes in wealth and income during 2001–2007.

Findings – Overall, these findings point to enduring stratification in the U.S. religious landscape. Based on median net worth, leading into the Great Recession, the six major religious groups ranked in the following order: Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical Protestants, the unaffiliated, and black Protestants. At the same time, these findings point to the upward mobility of white Catholics, who increased their income and made the greatest increase in net worth between 2001 and 2007. These data also suggest a decline in the socioeconomic status of the religiously unaffiliated as compared to previous studies.

Research implications – These findings illustrate the degree to which certain religious groups have access to wealth and other resources, and have implications for how the years leading into the Great Recession may have influenced households’ vulnerability to financial shocks.

Originality/Value – We use both income and wealth to examine whether different religious groups experienced any changes in income and wealth leading into the 2008 economic downturn.

The authors review literature that focuses on women and minorities in the context of mergers and acquisitions (henceforth referred to as mergers for the sake of simplicity) aiming to explore how and to what extent diversity and gender issues are studied in merger research. The authors sort the reviewed research into three themes: the impact of gender on merger outcome, the impact of merger on women and minorities, and the impact of merger on diversity management and equality work. The authors suggest that it is important to conduct further studies on the topic but also assert that merger managers can learn from diversity management literature and practices how to manage employees with diverse backgrounds during the post-merger integration.

This study investigates the relationship between the Chief Executive Officer's (CEO) overconfidence and financial reporting complexity in Iran, a context characterized by weak corporate governance and heightened managerial discretion.

The sample consists of 1,445 firm-year observations from 2010 to 2021. CEO overconfidence (CEOOC) is evaluated using an investment-based index, specifically capital expenditures. Financial reporting complexity (Complexity) is measured through textual features, particularly three readability measures (Fog, SMOG and ARI) extracted from annual financial statements. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is employed to test the research hypothesis.

Results suggest that CEOOC is positively related to Complexity, leading to reduced readability. Additionally, robustness analyses demonstrate that the relationship between CEOOC and Complexity is more distinct and significant for firms with lower profitability than those with higher profitability. This implies that overconfident CEOs in underperforming firms tend to increase complexity. Also, firms with better financial performance present a more positive tone in their annual financial statements, reflecting their superior performance. The findings remain robust to alternative measures of CEOOC and Complexity and are consistent after accounting for endogeneity issues using firm fixed-effects, propensity score matching (PSM), entropy balancing approach and instrumental variables method.

This study adds to the literature by delving into the effect of CEOs' overconfidence on financial reporting complexity, a facet not thoroughly investigated in prior studies. The paper pioneers the use of textual analysis techniques on Persian texts, marking a unique approach in financial reporting and a first for the Persian language. However, due to the inherent challenges of text mining and feature extraction, the results should be approached with caution.

The insights from this study can guide investors in understanding the potential repercussions of CEOOC on financial reporting complexity. This will assist them in making informed investment decisions and monitoring the financial reporting practices of their invested companies. Policymakers and regulators can also reference this research when formulating policies to enhance financial reporting quality and ensure capital market transparency. The innovative application of textual analysis in this study might spur further research in other languages and contexts.

This research stands as the inaugural study to explore the relationship between CEOs' overconfidence and financial reporting complexity in both developed and developing capital markets. It thereby broadens the extant literature to include diverse capital market environments.

The distinction between discussing human capital (HC) and its actual measurement is the presence of indices and equations to substantiate the belief of measuring intangibles. The chapter makes a concise mention of research precedents, deriving leads for the foundation of HC. The chapter aims to provide clarity on the concept of HC measurement and bring to light the tools that can confer tangibility to intangibles. It argues that the measurement of HC is an achievable idea; furthering that a systematic review into the inter-disciplinary studies can offer viable solutions to the challenge of measuring intangibles. The chapter while discussing the contention makes a vivid mention of Bhutan’s gross national happiness (GNH), Happiness Seismograph, Cobb–Douglas model and others to make an impression on the minds of the reader.

In this paper I will analyse the nature of the relationship between area and health in cities. Although it has long been known that mortality and morbidity are unevenly distributed within urban environments (Stamp, 1964; Learmonth, 1988) it remains problematic as to how these differences should be explained. In the present paper I will present detailed information on the spatial distibution of mortality, morbidity, and health services in cities and consider the explanations which have been put forward to account for them. Research which has considered this topic covers various fields; medical geography, medical ecology, epidemiology, and sociology, and has utilised numerous methodological approaches, from straightforward mapping techniques to complex multi‐variate analysis. Research has also been carried out across the world. However, because differences in the political and social organisation of cities can have an effect on health, and these structural differences vary from country to country, I have restricted the current review to work carried out in the cities of the developed world as studies are more comparable.