We examine the effect of stock liquidity and corporate governance on the firm's leverage decision in the order-driven stock trading system and less stringent governance environment of Australia. Using a sample of 1,207 non-financial firms from 2001 to 2013, resulting in 9,855 firm-year observations, we find the posited negative stock liquidity-leverage relation, confirming prior research observations that firms with more liquid stocks are significantly less leveraged. We also find a significant and negative relation between corporate governance quality (CGQ) and leverage, indicating that firms with high CGQ significantly reduce leverage. In a closer analysis, we find that the significantly negative CGQ-leverage relation exists only for firms with high stock liquidity and does not exist for firms with low stock liquidity. Our study is the first to examine such an interactive relationship among stock liquidity, corporate governance and leverage. The results, which are robust to a range of alternative proxies and to additional tests, provide new insights into the determinants of leverage.

The purpose of the study is to find out the significant mean difference in the capital structure among the corporate governance practices, and secondary objective of the study is to suggest the listed Manufacturing companies in the Sri Lankan context to adopt corporate governance practices towards the capital structure.

This paper examines the impact of corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure on cash holdings, specifically during various stages of the firm life cycle of S&P 1500 indexed firms. Using a sample of 9811 firm-year observations from 2006 to 2015, we document a significantly negative relation between ESG disclosure and cash holdings in the introduction, growth and shake-out/decline stages, and those lower cash holdings are associated with higher firm performance and a positive value of cash. Our findings are robust to alternative econometric specifications, alternative measures, additional control variables, propensity score matching and the use of an instrumental variable approach. Overall, our study offers useful insights into the global debate on ESG.

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emeraldsrm:374558 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This survey research aims to investigate the level of satisfaction among children (up to 14 years) with regard to facilities and services available at the children's section of the Jaffna Public Library (JPL, Sri Lanka). Design/methodology/approach -A structured questionnaire was distributed among randomly selected members of the children's section, JPL. Data collected via the structured questionnaire were analysed using SPSS 22.0. In addition to the descriptive analysis, independent samples t-test and f-test were conducted to observe the influence of personal variables on different facets of user satisfaction. Findings -The response rate was 67 per cent. Descriptive analysis showed that the prime purpose of visiting the children's section (JPL) is reading books and other materials. With regard to frequency of visit, 86 per cent of the respondents visit the library three to four times in a week or at least once a week.Results of the f-test indicated that there is no significant difference among different age groups for overall satisfaction of children's section facilities and services. Results of the t-test revealed that female children are more satisfied with the library environment compared to males. Further, the level of satisfaction with shelf arrangement, library environment and children's programmes differed significantly between children studying in the bilingual and the Tamil mediums. Originality/value -This study reports the empirical findings of the user survey carried out at the children's section of the JPL.

This paper examines the effect of state-level culture in the US on the adoption of firms' workplace diversity policies. Using firm-level panel data (1592 firm-year observations) over the period 2011-2014, we document that firms in highly individualistic states are less likely to adopt workplace diversity policies, which in turn negatively affects firm performance. Our results are robust to alternative variables and econometric specifications. Our findings provide insights into the contemporary debate on the economic aspects of workplace diversity policies for firms operating in different cultural backgrounds.