Does government linked companies (GLCs) perform better than non-GLCs? Evidence from Malaysian listed companies

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of an alternative ownership/control structure of corporate governance on firm performance. Specifically, we investigated the governance system of government linked companied (GLCs) in Malaysia. In this paper, we examine governance mechanism and firm performance of Malaysian GLCs and non-GLCs over a 11 year period from 1995 to 2005. We only select a sample of companies which are listed in Main Board. We chose a sample of 210 firms. We used Tobin’s Q which is an indicator of market performance is used as a proxy for company’s performances; meanwhile ROA is used to determine accounting performance. This paper is to determines whether after controlling firm specific characteristics such as corporate governance, agency cost, growth, risk and profitability, GLCs perform better than non-GLCs. Findings highlight that non-GLCs performance is better GLCs in term of corporate governance, and other firm specific characteristics. The relationship between ownership structure and firm performance has been issue of interest among academics, investors and policy makers as one of key issues in understanding the effectiveness of alternative governance systems where government ownership serves as a control mechanism.

Benchmarking occupational health and safety performance of Australian construction companies.

It is mandatory for Australian construction companies to provide a safe working environment for their workers and sub-contractors. Consequently, occupational health and safety (OHS) is a major issue for construction firms mainly due to the fear of prosecution. The recent introduction of Zero Tolerance by the Victorian government WorkCover Authority provided even higher OHS safety standards for the construction industry. This has placed a increased burden on construction companies especially small firms that are not in a position of financial strength.

The size of the companies has been found to be a major contributing factor to the OHS performance of construction contractors. This research is based on benchmarking study of 44 construction companies in Victoria, Australia. The results show that the major factors influencing safety performance were; company size, and management commitment to OHS.

Measuring the occupational health and safety performance of construction companies in Australia

Many facility managers are now required to deal directly with small firms engaged in the maintenance, alteration and cleaning of physical infrastructure. Increasingly the performance of small firms reflects on the manager of the facility, and so an understanding of their operation is required. It is mandatory for all firms to provide a safe working environment for their workers and subcontractors. Consequently, occupational health and safety (OHS) is a major issue for companies mainly due to the fear of prosecution. The introduction of Zero Tolerance by the Victorian government WorkCover Authority in 1999 provided even higher OHS safety standards for the construction industry. This has placed an increased burden on construction and maintenance companies especially small firms that are not in a position of financial strength. The size of the company has been found to be a major contributing factor to the OHS performance of construction contractors. This research is based on a benchmarking study of 44 construction companies in Victoria, Australia. The results show that the major factors influencing safety performance were; company size, and management and employee commitment to OHS.

A comparative analysis of decision trees vis-à-vis other computational data mining techniques in automotive insurance fraud detection

The development and application of computational data mining techniques in financial fraud detection and business failure prediction has become a popular cross-disciplinary research area in recent times involving financial economists, forensic accountants and computational modellers. Some of the computational techniques popularly used in the context of - financial fraud detection and business failure prediction can also be effectively applied in the detection of fraudulent insurance claims and therefore, can be of immense practical value to the insurance industry. We provide a comparative analysis of prediction performance of a battery of data mining techniques using real-life automotive insurance fraud data. While the data we have used in our paper is US-based, the computational techniques we have tested can be adapted and generally applied to detect similar insurance frauds in other countries as well where an organized automotive insurance industry exists.

Insuring for a crisis: deposit insurance and the GFC, the Australian and New Zealand experience

Deposit insurance schemes were an important element in policy responses to the global financial crisis (GFC). There has been considerable debate about the nature and efficacy of such policy measures in alleviating the fallout from financial crises. The GFC highlighted problems associated with deposit insurance schemes including moral hazard, coverage limits, co-insurance, cross border issues and market distortions. Despite these shortcomings, deposit insurance schemes were able to ameliorate the financial panic experienced and reduce contagion. This paper evaluates the Australian and New Zealand experience with deposit insurance introduced in response to the GFC, and compares this to the OECD experience. It reflects on the performance of deposit insurance schemes considered against the attributes of good policy design, and evaluates the specific problems and strengths encountered during the GFC.

Pharmaceutical companies putting health of world's poor at risk

India makes cheap medicines for poor people around the world. The EU, pharmaceutical firms and now the US are pressuring the 'pharmacy of the developing world' to change tack

Initial public offerings of energy companies

This study analyses 158 energy company initial public offerings (IPOs) in Australia from January 1994 to December 2010, including the period of the global financial crisis (GFC). The study finds that energy company IPOs had an average 22.0 % underpricing and that those IPOs that sought to raise more equity capital and engaged underwriters had lower underpricing. There is also evidence that suggests energy company IPOs that offered options to their underwriters had higher underpricing returns, effectively cancelling the lower underpricing effect of the underwriting itself. The energy IPOs that raised equity capital after the 2007/8 global financial crisis do not appear to have offered on average, significantly different underpricing returns to their investors compared to those energy IPOs that raised capital prior to this GFC period. The findings of this study offer insights for issuers who seek to lower underpricing, for underwriters involved in the capital raising and for investors who are looking to invest in Australian energy company IPOs.