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There is ample evidence that financial market development leads to economic growth. If improving labor rights can be shown to positively influence equity markets, then that, in turn, will lead to economic growth. The finance literature has examined the impact of a broader metric, namely, the Economic Freedom Index, on equity returns worldwide, and the evidence is mixed. This study focuses on one dimension of economic freedom: labor rights. Specifically, the study analyzes the impact of labor rights on national equity market indexes using the Labor Rights Index developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Fraser Institute (FI). Using panel regression analysis for 49 countries (for the OECD Index) and 76 countries (for the FI Index) over the period 1985–2014, the study finds that changes in labor rights have a statistically significant positive impact on equity returns, after controlling for business-cycle effects and time-fixed effects. The study also finds significant differences in the labor–rights–equity returns relationship between developed and less developed economies.

This chapter depicts the burden of suicidal behavior among African American males. It describes the public health approach to preventing suicidal behavior among African American males. This approach includes assessing and describing the problem; identifying causes or risk and protective factors; developing and evaluating programs and policies; and implementing and disseminating findings and activities. The chapter provides a review of the epidemiology of fatal and non-fatal suicidal behavior; a summary of what is known about the risk and protective factors of the problem; and a descriptive analysis of the circumstances associated with suicides among young African American males is presented. Lastly, the authors give a summary of evidenced-based prevention programs which could be applied in preventing male suicidal behavior.

Whether corporate governance systems and practices are converging to the Anglo-American shareholder-value-oriented model or continue to diverge from this model and maintain their idiosyncrasies has been controversially debated among scholars in a variety of academic disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to review, critique and integrate the disparate positions in the convergence-divergence debate in corporate governance and to suggest promising directions for future research.

The author constructs a theoretical framework in which convergence and divergence dynamics are conceptualized as simultaneous processes of institutional change and continuity. This framework takes into account the influence of economic market forces, social embeddedness and cultural forces in shaping corporate governance at the national and the firm levels and provides a holistic and integrative perspective on the extant literature in the convergence-divergence debate.

The literature review does not support either the predictions of convergence advocates or the predictions of divergence advocates. Instead, the paper finds that convergence and divergence dynamics can coexist and lead to increasing heterogeneity in corporate governance arrangements of firms within and between corporate governance systems. This finding adds complexity to the debate and opens room for interesting research directions.

The paper offers a comprehensive review of the topic and draws from literature in financial economics, comparative law, economic sociology, international business, political science and strategic management. Most importantly, the paper offers a multi-theoretical framework that allows for an integration of the divergent perspectives presented in the literature.

The enterprise risk management (ERM) approach promises to manage corporate risks holistically, as opposed to the silo perspective in traditional risk management frameworks. There is evidence that different economic and regulatory environments profoundly shape the implementation of ERM in different countries. To understand better the specific situation in Germany, this chapter presents an analysis on the current application, the regulatory environment, and the development over time of ERM in Germany. Finally, we highlight some important avenues for further research on ERM in Germany and beyond.

In this chapter, we apply the new measure of speculative activities (hereafter, named the speculative ratio) in Chan, Nguyen, and Chan (2013) to study the relationship between those activities and volatility in the oil futures market. We document that the speculative ratio (trading volume divided by open interest) can isolate speculative elements from total trading activities. Using the oil futures data and dividing the data into two subperiods surrounding Hurricane Katrina, we find an increased speculative trades in the post-Hurricane Katrina period. Our results show that speculative activities create a more volatile oil futures market and they lower the information flow between volatility and speculative activities in the post-Hurricane Katrina period.

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 chapter sheds light on how the internationalization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is jointly influenced by the ownership involvement of the state and other relational investors and by the home country’s institutional setting. It integrates international business literature and insights from the theory of corporate governance into a varieties of capitalism framework. Taking a configurational perspective, the interdependencies that link the SOE internationalization to the joint effects of particular combinations of actors and institutions are analyzed. As a result, it is argued that only a few home country–SOE governance configurations favor the expansion of SOEs abroad: (i) a configuration in which the state is a dominant owner capable of aligning the interests of any other private shareholder and the government is embedded in a proactive institutional context, so as to effectively orchestrate the internationalization process, (ii) a configuration in which, assuming the home country institutions markedly deficient in supporting interventions, relational co-owners are involved in SOE ownership and governance and have commitment, influential power, and competencies to equip the company with an effective strategy and competitive advantages to be exploited abroad. In all other configurations, the international performance of SOEs is worse, being undermined by institutional contexts that favor an inward-looking approach of the state and government, and/or by principal–principal agency problems.

The authors review the call for cultural competence in psychiatric diagnosis and highlight the barrier of ‘monocultural ethnocentrism’ ‐ the tendency to presume that European‐American standards fit all cultural, racial and ethnic groups. They suggest that clinicians should: familiarise themselves with the history of racism in psychiatry; avoid stereotyping; appreciate the diversity within cultural, racial and ethnic groups; understand that individuals from various cultural, racial and ethnic groups may have had more traumatic experiences; and understand that individuals from the US and UK may have experiences with racism, some of which may cause mental illness. Finally the authors suggest strategies to increase cultural competence.

The paper examines the role of employees in governance. The paper highlights from a theory basis that employee and shareholder utilities can be coincident. However, it shows that corporate practice with respect to employee involvement in governance and decision‐making is diverse. The paper draws out the contrast in approaches between the Anglo‐American and the German approach to employees by detailing differences in employee power, career patterns, ownership patterns and legal obligations. These lead to enactment of a different structural and cultural governance systems; which are encapsulated in the unitary board structure of the UK and the two‐tier German approach. The strengths and limitations of the unitary board and two‐tier boards are highlighted, and the case for convergence examined.

This paper is ambitious. Its central purpose is to examine how a number of developed economies, plus the largest developing economy, vary in terms of corporate governance: USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, South Korea, Taiwan, Sweden, Switzerland and mainland China. We understand corporate governance in a very broad sense, descriptive not prescriptive: as who controls and influences firms, and how. We are thus dealing very much with varieties of capitalism. In a sense, we shall be seeking to characterise national systems of corporate governance, but we must stress that our concern is always with the situation of the individual firm. We shall find it convenient most of the time to give one label to a country's whole economy, but this will always be an approximation, which conceals variations among that country's firms. At other points, we shall distinguish types of firm and indicate the rough proportions of each type in a particular economy.