This paper presents evidence on the financial policies of firms strongly engaged in research and development activities. By referring to the under-investment paradox, the asset substitution problem, the asset specificity proposition and the information asymmetry literature, we postulate that R&D-intensive firms should adopt specific financial policies. In conformity with our hypotheses, empirical results based on a sample of R&D-intensive and non-R&D firms in four major industrialized countries (Europe, the UK, Japan and the US) show that R&D-intensive firms exhibit significant lower debt and dividend payment levels, but shorter debt maturities and higher cash levels than non-R&D ones. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2001.

Purpose -Commercial and Islamic banks are important players in the UAE financial market. However, little is known about their financial distress because these financial institutions usually resolve financial distress within their own organisations, which means that outsiders cannot explicitly observe distress. The purpose of the research is therefore to identify the main drivers of financial institutions' financial distress. Design/methodology/approach -The paper estimates a probability distress prediction model using the BankScope Database and the annual reports of UAE financial institutions submitted to UAE Security Exchange Authority. The paper also analyses the impact of macroeconomic information for forecasting financial institutions' financial distress. Findings -The fundamentals of financial institutions in terms of cost income ratio, equity to total assets, total asset growth and ratio of loan loss reserve to gross loans (all these variables with a lag of one year) positively impacted the probability of financial distress in the next year. Recent findings for emerging economies have cast some doubt on the usefulness of macroeconomic information for financial institutions' risk assessment. Similar results are found for UAE financial institutions in predicting the probability of financial distress. Originality/value -This is the first study to provide empirical evidence on the drivers of financial distress of commercial and Islamic banks in UAE during 2000-2008, and to examine the extent of the financial distress that can be can be attributed to internal bank-specific fundamental factors and external factors in the economy.

Due to increasing constraints on project duration and costs, together with the increasing implication of contractors in the design process, guaranteed maximum price (GMP) contracts are likely to become common in the future. This paper explores a new approach for evaluating the remuneration of the contractor. The GMP contract is considered as a hybrid arrangement consisting of a cost reimbursement contract and a call option on a fixed price contract. The option pricing theory is used as a conceptual framework to assess the GMP contract and the contractors' remuneration.Guaranteed Maximum Price Fixed Price Cost Reimbursement Call Option,