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This study aims to provide a modern perspective on the role of dividends in smaller developed countries such as Ireland by examining views regarding the determinants of payout levels, the role of taxation and the relevance of conventional signalling theory.

The study employs semi‐structured interviews with the financial directors of 20 leading Irish companies.

The results suggest support for the notion that dividend policy affects share valuations. However, views regarding this issue – and the role of taxation and signalling theory – vary markedly between quoted and unquoted firms as well as depending on firms' dividend histories.

The study suffers from the problem that in interview‐based research the participants are necessarily a self‐selecting group. Notwithstanding this point, the evidence suggests that the views of managers in a nation with a small, but highly developed, stock market are in line with those in countries with much larger exchanges. Further research could usefully extend the analysis and establish whether similar views exist in other countries with relatively small stock markets, but where the exchange is in an “emerging” rather than “developed” state.

The contribution of the paper comes from the uniqueness of the Irish setting: the Irish market is relatively small but, unlike many similarly sized markets, it is highly‐developed, with long‐term historical links to the London Stock Exchange. The results, therefore, provide evidence about the extent to which earlier findings based on the world's largest developed markets also prevail in those that are more modestly sized.

This paper aims to identify the views of Dublin‐based financial analysts and major Irish fund managers on dividends.

The paper uses semi‐structured interviews with 16 participants and analyses their responses concerning the role of dividends in the share screening process; the perceived relationship between dividend payment policy and share values; the impact of taxation and attitudes to share buybacks.

The results support the notion that dividends are an important in investor decision‐making processes and that dividends influence share valuations. Another key finding is that fund managers appear to be able to influence the dividend policy of Irish companies in which they have a shareholding. Finally, taxation issues appear relatively unimportant and the majority of fund managers prefer cash dividends to buybacks.

The paper addresses the issue of dividend policy from a qualitative standpoint, rather than the conventional large‐sample aggregate form of analysis. Moreover, whilst most other studies have investigated the issue from the corporate point of view, this investigation focuses on analysts' and fund managers' views.

Purpose – This chapter examines the cultural resources that enable Black single mothers in the United States to handle the burdens of poverty while parenting. Through a Black feminist theory lens, the convergence of the historical traditions, practices and institutions within the Black community are examined as to how they enable Black women to effectively care for their families. Additionally, the cultural strengths of the Black community are highlighted to further elucidate how they help Black women resist the hegemonic perceptions of Black single mothers as unfit.

Methodology – To explain the cultural resources leveraged by Black women in poverty to raise their families, qualitative analysis of the existing peer-reviewed literature focusing on a range of topics specific to the Black community and family were utilized. The United States Census Bureau data were used to describe the target population and to better inform the overall analysis.

Findings – Despite the stereotypes and obstacles faced by single Black mothers in poverty, characteristics specific to the Black community, and Black women in particular, have enabled them to establish communities, networks, and environments that help them care for and raise their children.

Social implications – Attention to the sociohistorical experiences of the Black community and family must be paid in order to understand single-mother family formation within the Black community. Moreover, greater understanding of the cultural strengths of the Black community must be acknowledged in order to better comprehend how single Black women living in poverty are able to effectively sustain families and defy stereotypes.

Originality/value of chapter – Previous analyses of families headed by low-income Black women have often taken a negative, if not judgmental, approach. This analysis takes a different approach. In addition to exploring the structural and historical origins of families headed by low-income Black women, it highlights the strengths born out of the cultural practices and traditions of the Black community and family.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the changing nature of commercial leases with specific reference to the landlord and tenant relationship, lease lengths and incentivisation in the post-recessionary UK property market.

The research applies data analysis utilising the Estates Gazette Interactive database coupled with survey analysis conducted across three UK cities to investigate and compare the changing nature of the commercial property leasing market and the landlord and tenant relationship.

The empirical analysis highlights that recessionary conditions prevalent in the market from the 2007 global crisis has caused a reassessment of lease structures, leading to shorter lease terms and increased use of incentives, as tenants have been empowered to negotiate more flexible leases due to their stronger market position.

This paper builds upon previous research conducted back in 2005, investigating commercial leases in the market up-cycle. The recent volatility in the commercial property sector requires fresh insights and in-depth analysis of lease patterns, length and covenant strength, which is fundamental for investor decision-making. In addition, past research has tended to consider solely landlord or occupier perspectives, whereas this research offers new insight into the landlord–tenant lease negotiation process.

Understanding the key locational and neighbourhood determinants and their accessibility is a topic of great interest to policymakers, planners and property valuers. In Northern Ireland, the high level of market segregation means that it is problematic to understand the nature of the relationship between house prices and the accessibility to services and prominent neighbourhood landmarks and amenities. Therefore, this paper aims to quantify and measure the (dis)amenity effects on house pricing levels within particular geographic housing sub-markets.

Most hedonic models are estimated using regression techniques which produce one coefficient for the entirety of the pricing distribution, culminating in a single marginal implicit price. This paper uses a quantile regression (QR) approach that provides a “more complete” depiction of the marginal impacts for different quantiles of the price distribution using sales data obtained from 3,780 house sales transactions within the Belfast Housing market over 2014.

The findings emerging from this research demonstrate that housing and market characteristics are valued differently across the quantile values and that conditional quantiles are asymmetrical. Pertinently, the findings demonstrate that ordinary least squares (OLS) coefficient estimates have a tendency to over or under specify the marginal mean conditional pricing effects because of their inability to adequately capture and comprehend the complex spatial relationships which exist across the pricing distribution.

Numerous studies have used OLS regression to measure the impact of key housing market externalities on house prices, providing a single estimate. This paper uses a QR approach to examine the impact of local amenities on house prices across the house price distribution.

Inter-organisational cooperation in revenue collection has received limited attention in the tax administration literature. Recent experiences from Tanzania offer a unique opportunity to examine opportunities and challenges facing such cooperation between central and local government agencies in a developing country context. The administration of property taxes (PT) in Tanzania has been oscillating between decentralised and centralised collection regimes. This paper aims to examine how inter-organisational cooperation affected implementation of the reforms.

The study draws on data from a variety of sources of information collected during a series of fieldworks over the past decade. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior managers and operational staff of the national and municipal tax administrations. The interviews focused on the background and objectives of the property tax reforms, working relations between the central and local government revenue administrations, technical and administrative challenges and innovations, and changes over time with respect to revenue enhancement and implementation of the reforms. Relevant tax legislation and regulations, budget speeches and reports were reviewed.

Two lessons of broader relevance for policy implementation and PT administration are highlighted. First, institutional trust matters. Top-down reform processes, ambiguity related to the rationale behind the reforms and lack of consultations on their respective roles and expectations have acted as barriers to constructive working relationships between the local and central government revenue agencies. Second, administrative constraints, reflected in poor preparation, outdated property registers and valuation rolls and inadequate incentives for the involved agencies to cooperate hampered the implementation of the reforms.

This paper contributes to the literature on inter-organisational cooperation in revenue collection through a detailed case study of property tax reforms in a developing country context. It also contributes to the literature on policy implementation by identifying political and administrative factors challenging the reform process. In line with this literature, the study shows that policy implementation is not necessarily a coherent process. Instead, it is frequently fragmented and disrupted by changes in policy formulation and access to adequate resources.

The history of the Episcopal Training Institution is an under researched area of teacher education in Scotland. The College was opened in Edinburgh in 1850 and initially trained male students. After 1867, the male students transferred to Durham and the College trained female students. The students were trained to teach in the Episcopal schools throughout Scotland. These schools were predominantly established for the children of the Episcopal denomination or they were mission schools that educated the poor. The College struggled to recruit sufficient numbers of students in the early twentieth century and the College closed in 1934. A very small number of Episcopal schools still exist in the twenty-first century Scotland.

Drug Treatment Courts (DTCs) offer a form of alternative sentencing for people who have been convicted of a crime related to drug or alcohol abuse. The work of rehabilitation in DTCs is client-centered, meaning that it takes into account all of the client’s needs that affect their life in regards to completion of the program and rehabilitation. DTCs employ teams of people made up of judges, lawyers, educators, clinicians, and community supervisors. There are specific ways that librarians might become involved with DTCs regarding both literacy and, more specifically, health literacy. Existing programs could be adapted to solve common health literacy problems of participants, and librarians could also forge relationships with DTCs. Training for librarians should include education about the health and literacy problems faced by this population so they can successfully connect DTC participants with people and information that will contribute to their success completing the program and building healthier lives. This chapter looks to established best practices within DTCs and to some current related programs within public libraries to find grounds for expanding services to this population.