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This paper examines the relationships between bank switching and both customer vulnerability and consumer-oriented policies (financial education and disclosure practices).

The analysis employs microdata from the Special Eurobarometer on Financial Products and Services, for 24 European nations. It carries out a probit estimation on the factors explaining propensity of bank switching, focusing on three characteristics associated with customer vulnerability: an advanced age, low educational attainment and residence in a rural or a relatively poor region.

The authors report that the probability of bank switching is significantly lower for three groups of vulnerable customers: the elderly, the less educated and those living in deprived regions. Further the authors identify that national financial education policies and disclosure practices have no significant effects on bank switching.

Based on these results, the authors propose more targeted policies recognising customers' heterogeneity are required to increase bank switching behaviour.

This paper exploits a unique source of information on bank switching behaviour and customer characteristics across European nations. These data are complemented with information about consumer financial education policies and disclosure practices from the World Bank and geographical, market and regulatory factors at the regional and national levels. The paper contributes to two academic areas. First, it presents further evidence on heterogeneity of bank customer switching behaviour, addressed at improving the understanding of customer vulnerability in banking services. Second, it examines the efficacy of consumer-oriented policies (financial literacy and disclosure practices) in encouraging bank switching.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate two related questions. First, is earnings management behaviour in private firms related to managerial ownership and if so, what form does the relationship take. Second, is there evidence of opportunistic earnings management behaviour in private firms.

This study uses univariate and multivariate (regression) methodologies to examine the association between managerial ownership and earnings management in private firms. The study employs a data set of 1,223 large private UK firms.

Evidence is presented indicating opportunistic earnings management behaviour in private firms. Specifically, firms with low managerial ownership appear to engage in more earnings management when faced with poor performance. Further, when firms report income-increasing discretionary accruals, the magnitude of abnormal accruals varies non-linearly with managerial ownership.

This study is limited by availability of data on sample firm ownership. This study uses cross-sectional data due to these limitations. Further research could investigate the relationships between earnings management and classes of shareholders other than managers in private firms.

Policy implications of this work suggest that non-managing shareholders in private firms face considerable agency costs, in particular where managerial ownership is very low or very high.

Pervasiveness of earnings management in private firms compared to public firms is well documented in the literature. There is limited extant research on the relationship between ownership structure and earnings management in private firms. The novel aspect of this study is to present findings on the association between this behaviour, managerial ownership and firm performance in private firms.

The study examines influence of behavioural economic theories of add-on goods and contingent charges on the regulation of two touchstone markets in the UK. These markets, the payment protection insurance (PPI) market and the market for overdrafts can both be characterised as add-on goods, have displayed excessive levels of profitability and been the focus of continuing and substantial public mis-trust. Despite these similarities, the regulatory treatment of these two markets has been very different. The purpose of this paper is to explore the context of these cases and examine why these differences in regulatory reporting have developed.

The research questions are examined through a detailed review of the regulatory reporting in the UK PPI and overdraft market. This review of over 20 regulatory reports, numerous enforcement actions, associated legal proceedings and related international evidence is employed to determine commonalities and differences in the regulatory actions proposed, motives adopted and success of these regulatory processes.

It is reported the dynamic and fragmented regulatory structure, multiple policy agendas and a successful legal intervention have all influenced how these financial services markets have been regulated and behavioural economic concepts applied. In particular aspects of overdraft markets remain challenging to address as it is still possible to exclude competition within aftermarkets. The regulatory intervention into PPI markets by contrast addressed concerns raised by add-on good theory and amended the form of distribution underlying this market more directly and successfully.

There have been numerous excellent reviews of behavioural economics and finance published on a diversity of topics. Despite such a wide coverage, a relatively under-researched aspect of this literature remains the application of these relatively new theoretical insights within markets and how these have influenced regulatory practice. This review of regulatory reporting addresses this gap in the literature through considering two of the most problematic financial services markets of the last decade in the UK.

This paper explores the experiences of Lebanese and Ukrainian diasporans on the Canadian island of Newfoundland by using the concepts of host-region and reflective domestic ethnicity. ¹ It is based on fieldwork among the descendants of Lebanese immigrants who settled at the turn of the twentieth century (Hirschfeld Shibley) and recent immigrants from Ukraine (Lesiv). Many studies of diasporas explore the notion of ethnicity. These explorations often take place in large and representative diasporic settings that, in turn, offer platforms for diverse public expressions of ethnic identities reinforced by vibrant diasporic institutions. Newfoundland is a comparatively small territory and has historically been an unpopular destination for immigrants. Furthermore, in Canada, the island is known for its distinct regional sense of identity. The generalised framework of ‘hostland’ frequently used to embrace entire countries or continents is unsuitable for the present study. Via a narrower regional prism, our findings show that, albeit for dissimilar reasons, Lebanese and Ukrainian diasporans engage with their ethnic heritages predominantly in domestic spheres. We explore domestic ethnicity formation processes focusing on select creative expressions, including material objects.

Gambling has been a part of the human experience for a long time, perhaps as long as humans have interacted socially. Its literature has been accumulating since ancient times, with references found in some of the earliest records. Throughout history gambling has had a bad reputation because of the multitude of social problems attributed to it. The gambling industry today refers to the activity as “gaming,” which does not sound quite as notorious.

John Ashton, MBBS, MSC, FFCM, MRCPsych, senior lecturer in Community Health, University of Liverpool, and consultant to Mersey Regional Health Authority, describes the modern approach to public health. This recognises the social aspects of health problems and encourages personal involvement of the community

This case presents students with an opportunity to develop a set of performance metrics based on four strategic goal statements. The setting is a highly ranked U.S. MBA program. Students are given some basic, limited-but-sufficient contextual information about the school to get a sense of its heritage, avowed differentiating characteristics, and important foci.

This paper examines the Competition Commission report on the provision of small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) banking services in the UK. The examination will centre on the perceived clash between the ‘remedies’ proposed by the Competition Commission and the present forms of lending decision making, a key function in business banking. It is concluded that the Competition Commission assessment of the provision of banking services by clearing banks to small firms, directs scant attention as to how banking services are ‘manufactured’ or banks actually make decisions and operate in practice.

The paper considers two central issues; one, how was the definition of the UK banking market undertaken within the Cruickshank Report, and two, how might the assumptions made in defining banking markets have influenced the competition analysis and overall conclusions presented by the report. In this paper, the banking market for personal customers is discussed in relation to theoretical and empirical work and the distribution of banking branches in the UK. An assessment of the form of competition, used in the Cruickshank Report, builds on this discussion and considers the implications of a possible oversight in the definition of the UK banking market. Recommendations and suggestions for further work are provided within the conclusions.

Retail payments systems are a key element in the financial infrastructure of any capitalist economy ‐ through them governments can enact economic policy and individuals and companies can conduct their transactions. A recent development for UK retail payments systems has been the recommendations of the ‘Review of Banking Services in the UK’ (the Cruickshank Report). In this report, recommendations are made as to the operation of the primary UK retail payments system (APACS); a new regulatory framework and the removal of ‘barriers to entry’ are proposed to encourage greater competition in the industry. This paper considers these two proposals, which have both received government support for early implementation, in terms of wider policy issues surrounding payments systems, including economic efficiency and safety and security, and the economic incentives which underpin the present retail payments system in the UK. It is concluded that the proposals for regulation of business activities to promote competition may underestimate the importance of payment system safety and security regulation. Equally, the proposed removal or substantial reduction in barriers to entry to individual payments systems may have a range of unforeseen consequences.