The problem. Historically, researchers could only agree that the optimal capital structure was the one that maximized the firm's wealth. Assuming that a common set of factors exists that can be combined to describe both the maximization of the firm's value (i.e., shareholder wea…
This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay investigates financial characteristics of bank mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the U.S. banking industry, employing the most recent data available for U.S. banks. It is interesting, but not surprising, to find several…
This dissertation includes three papers focusing on three topics in International Finance. It first looks at the capital control in Malaysia, and then studies the Asian Currency Crisis and last models the different capital structure and output volatility between emerging markets…
This thesis examines the determinants of capital structure in the MENA coun- tries. The main interest is to investigate both financial firms specially banks and non-financial firms. This study test the main theories of capital structure, namely: trade off theory and pecking orde…
Existing research demonstrates that corporate financing decisions influence the cash-flow rights and control rights of the securities issued by companies differently and that the same corporate capital structures and/or ownership patterns have diverse effects and aims across cou…
This thesis analyses the impact of tax policy on firms' leverage ratios in a balanced panel of 129 medium-sized listed companies from II European countries from 1993 to 2005. A general model of company leverage is applied within which King's tax ratios are used to capture tax po…
Islamic law is an integrated part of the Muslim religion that encompasses every aspect of their way of life. In the world of finance, Islamic law provides financing regulations that restrict certain types of investments and forbid interest. This dissertation looked at the relati…
This dissertation presents three essays. The first analyzes the determinants of the fiscal costs and output loss for a broad sample of countries experiencing a banking crisis. It explores three hypotheses: crisis countries with a greater supply of financial professionals, all el…
A firm's level of debt versus its level of equity has important implications for its value as well as its cost of capital. However, there are opposing views among many researchers and corporate finance experts pertaining to a firm's optimal capital structure. Banks are responsib…
Although there have been many prior studies of the determinants of capital structure, most have investigated listed companies in countries with well-developed markets and institutions. The main objective of the present study is to extend prior research by investigating both list…