Analysis in this paper has proposed three potential motives for ethical investmentfinancial returns, non-wealth returns and social change. The motives are developed from the literature and illustrated in the context of a 'best of sector' fund and a socially screened fund. We find that the proposed motives are neither exhaustive nor exclusive and one single motive will not explain the behaviour of all ethical investors. There may be a trade-off between financial and psychic returns for some investors. The trade-off for consumption-investors is expected to be close to zero (total utility is maximised with small levels of ethical investment in the fun of participation model) and is expected to vary with the ethical intensity of investment-investors, as shown when we include ethical intensity into the investor's utility function. Psychic return can also be viewed as an increase in happiness and this approach would lend itself to empirical testing to increase our understanding of why we invest ethically.

This research sought to determine why people chose to invest in Earth Sanctuaries Limited (ESL), which conserves ecosystems and breeds endangered species as its corporate mission, an unequivocally ethical objective. Investors were surveyed to assess the relative importance of financial versus ecological considerations. Demographic and investor behavior attributes of ESL shareholders were compared with those of Australian shareholders as reported by an Australian Stock Exchange survey. The results showed that the environmental mission of ESL took pre-eminence over financial considerations for these investors. Comparison of the two groups revealed significant differences in most variables.

In this paper we examine the setting of offer prices for Australian industrial initial public offers (IPOs) by fixed price offers. Our investigation focuses on the associations between offer prices and both market prices and accounting based measures of intrinsic value.Fixed-price offers are less likely to be influenced by the canvassing of market demand when compared to the US setting, where book builds are typically used. We conclude that while Australian industrial IPOs are underpriced, they are not systematically undervalued. Contrary to research undertaken by Purnanandam and Swaminathan (2002) in the US 'book-build' setting, we do not conclude that Australian IPOs are systematically overvalued. As part of our analysis, we develop an empirical model of offer prices based on interviews with several leading Australian stockbrokers involved in setting them. Finally, using the ratio of offer price to intrinsic value measure, we find some evidence that undervaluation is positively related to underpricing.JEL classification: G12, G15, M40

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The regulation of equities trading in Kuwait over the period from 1983 to 2011 is documented in this paper. An eclectic approach has resulted in overlapping responsibilities for the three main regulatory and supervisory bodies. Regulation appears to be responsive to market crises. As a result, regulations have tended to change with market conditions. Kuwaiti accounting and auditing requirements are also reviewed. The institutional setting in Kuwait has a number of implications for capital market-based research. Informational inefficiency precludes research that relies on the assumption that security price reflects firm value. Other features (including the profit requirement, lock-up restrictions and the two auditor rule) provide opportunities for capital market research in Kuwait.