Introduction

I work mainly on financial markets and corporate finance, although since I was trained as a general microeconomic theorist I am also very interested in other areas of economics.  A lot of my recent research has been on models that integrate the financial markets with corporate finance - for example, how a firm's share price is determined by the beliefs of investors in the stock market while simultaneously influencing the capital investment policy of the firm.  I have also worked on how incentive problems for stock market traders and fund managers can affect the way the securities markets work.

My main current research project is on executive compensation and leadership.  I am trying to broaden the perspective from finance and economics - the areas I normally work in - to include ideas from strategy and organisational behaviour.

Some recent applied projects I've worked on include a report for the UK government's Department of Constitutional Affairs on outside ownership of law firms, and a report on secondary trading in the corporate bond market in Europe.

My teaching covers the core of corporate finance with incentive and communication problems as the main underlying theme.  I stress that good management means good two-way communication between managers and shareholders and I explore reasons why this may not be easy to achieve.