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Outlines Hong Kong’s financial system during the pre‐unification era. Looks at recent issues, regulatory changes and its development as an international financial centre. Considers banking, the stock market, the bond & futures market, the gold market, regulatory bodies and monetary and currency policies. Contrasts these with the pre‐unification system in China. Outlines the way that these two systems propose to exist together, looking at the potential benefits and problems this may bring.

Policies which help employees balance their work and non‐work priorities have become increasingly popular among UK employers in recent years. Along with a legislative imperative for family leave‐related policies, employers are being encouraged to introduce work‐life policies and make them more inclusive in order to enhance their business performance. This paper looks at how four financial services organisations have approached the work‐life balance agenda and examines the fit between the organisational intentions for work‐life policy and actual outcomes for both organisations and employees. Culture played a large part in determining the experience of policies but so did resources. What managers were being asked to achieve in the business was often incompatible with formal work‐life policies. Despite the rhetoric, work‐life balance was still viewed as a tool for, and was used by female parents, limiting its potential to achieve the promoted business benefits.

In the fall of 1988, our library system was well below state and national standards for facilities and books. We knew of no additional municipal appropriations that were earmarked for our system beyond normal operating expenses. To stay viable, we saw but one choice — a bond referendum. Accordingly, we convinced the city council to put a $10.6 million library bond referendum on the ballot.

Scrutinizes Russia’s capital markets and the state of the economy. Recounts the establishment of the US‐Russian Capital Markets Forum in 1996 and the reforms they recommended making. Looks also at banking, equities, trading equities, mutual funds, tapping foreign capital markets, government securities, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and corporate bonds – and the role they can all play in helping Russia’s economy to recover. Concludes that, in some areas, Russia has made tremendous progress. Recommends that investors need to think carefully about investment decisions before acquiring Russian securities.

This article outlines contingent claims created as a result of the arrangements underlying the transfer of state‐owned commercial banks’ non‐performing loans to asset management companies. An understanding of these factors is central in analysing the potential for China’s as set management companies to realise value from their acquisition of these nonperforming state‐owned enterprise loans. After establishing the scale of the non‐performing loan problem, the article identifies and describes a number of real and financial options that may assist in the consideration of the value of assets associated with the transfer of non‐performing loans from the state‐owned commercial banks to the asset management companies. Real and financial options appear in the form of implied guarantees over asset management corporation debt, implied guarantees associated with the non‐performing assets remaining with the stateowned commercial banks, and within the equity positions held by the asset management companies as a result of equity‐for‐debt swaps initiated under the current reform process. The article concludes that any gains made to the credit standing of the state‐owned commercial banks reflect the value of implied guarantees over both the asset management corporation debt and the remaining stock of non‐performing loans held by the banks. Furthermore, institutional arrangements associated with the equity positions held by the asset management corporations significantly reduce the value of options associated with operation and control of firms in which the equity positions are held. Additionally, the structure of equity positions taken under the equity‐debt swaps suggest that the value of equity positions held in state‐owned enterprises by the asset management companies will be considerably lower than hoped for and implied in the asset management companies’ mandates.

In this study we analyze the determinants of the type and structure of debt included in dual offerings of debt and equity. Our sample consists of 54 dual offerings of convertible bond and common stock (CBCS) and 258 dual offerings of straight bond and common stock (SBCS). We find that firms with high asset substitution problems are more likely to issue CBCS offerings instead of SBCS offerings. These firms are also more likely to include convertible bonds with a high probability of conversion in the issue. The probability of CBCS offerings is higher for firms with low information asymmetry and during high interest rate periods. We also find that the announcement returns of CBCS offerings are lower than the returns of SBCS offerings.

Zero‐coupon bonds have attracted a great deal of investor interest and generated a great deal of investor confusion. This article will attempt to clear up the confusion, validate the investor interest, and provide enough information so that the reader can decide whether the investment is appropriate.

The U. S. economy is based on free enterprise. “Free” indicates that the national economy is based largely on necessary restrictions, both in business transactions and in capital transactions. The hall‐mark of free enterprise is the kind of competition that considers both the size and geographic scope of the participants. Restraint on competition is determined by law, by regulation, and by judicial decision. Arange of these determinations has been established in the modern U. S., to set expected conduct of business. The purpose of this paper is to examine the conduct of corporations that is beyond legal business affairs, and those that falls into unlawful areas. “Unlawful” here defines violations of law and regulation. Clearly the federal and state governments have enacted an integrated scope of law controlling conduct in both business practices and employment protection. This analysis focuses on the external violations of law and regulation.

This article employs linear regression techniques to model the variables associated with work‐life balance outcomes of employees. Using data from employee surveys carried out in four financial sector companies in Scotland, it was found that while the level of perceived availability did not have an impact on work‐life balance, organisational culture was significantly associated. This indicates that without a supportive work‐life organisational culture, the provision of arrangements in themselves will not necessarily lead to better work‐life balance outcomes. The analysis also shows that longer working hours, job status, take‐up and experiences of limited access to arrangements were significantly associated with work‐life outcomes. The findings are discussed in the context of recent government legislation and initiatives and further research examining the impact of work‐life initiatives on employees is recommended.

In recent years, a sizeable amount of research in finance and accounting has been devoted to the issue of bond rating and bond rating changes. A major thrust of these research efforts was to develop and test some prediction‐based models using mainly financial ratios and their trends. This paper tests the ability of statistical decomposition analysis of financial statements to predict bond rating changes. The results show that the decomposition analysis almost does not beat the a priori probability model and is no better than multiple discriminant analysis using simple financial ratios. One important piece of information for participants in debt markets is the assessment of the relative risk associated with a particular bond issue, commonly known as bond ratings. These ratings, however, are not usually fixed for the life of the issues. From time to time, the rating agencies review their ratings of the outstanding bond issues and make changes to these ratings (either upward or downward) when needed. Over the years, researchers have attempted to develop and test some prediction based models in order to predict bond ratings or bond rating changes. These prediction models have employed some variables that are assumed to reflect the rating agency decision‐making activities. Although the rating process is complicated and based mainly on judgmental considerations, Hawkins, Brown and Campbell (1983, p. 95) reported that the academic research strongly suggests that a reliable estimate of a potential bond rating or rating change can be determined by a few key financial ratios. Information theory decomposition measures have received in recent years considerable attention as a potential tool for predicting corporate events, namely corporate bankruptcy (e.g., Lev 1970; Moyer 1977; Walker, Stowe and Moriarity 1979; Booth 1983). The underlying proposition in these studies is that corporate failure, as an event, is expected to be preceded by significant changes in the company's assets and liabilities structure. Although the event of bond rating changes is different from the bankruptcy event in terms of consequences, one can still propose that a bond rating change, as a corporate event, is also expected to be preceded by some significant changes in the company's assets and liabilities structure. Therefore, the decomposition analysis may have a predictive ability in the case of bond rating changes. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test and compare the classification and predictive accuracy of the decomposition analysis with the performance of a multiple discriminant model that uses financial ratios and their trends in the context of bond rating changes.