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If 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 -The authors aim to analyze whether the results of the 1980 to 2008 US presidential elections influence the stock market performance of eight industries and they seek to examine factors that are expected to affect firms' stock returns around these elections. Their empirical analysis reflects firms' exposure to government policies in two ways. Design/methodology/approach -First, to determine whether investors presume any Democratic or Republican favoritism towards or biases against certain industries, the authors perform an event study for each of the eight industries around the eight elections. Second, the authors include the firms' marginal tax rate as proxy for the firms' exposure to uncertainty about fiscal policy in a regression analysis. Findings -The authors do not find a consistent pattern in industry returns when comparing the effect of Democratic vs Republican victories. However, the extent of the reaction differs among industries. The victory of a Democratic candidate rather negatively influences overall stock returns, while the results are rather mixed for Republican victories. A change in presidency from either a Democratic to a Republican candidate or vice versa causes stronger stock market effects than re-election or the election of a president from the same party. The authors also find that the firms' marginal tax rate is positively correlated with abnormal stock price returns around the election day. Originality/value -The results are relevant for academics, investors and policy makers alike because they provide insight on the question whether stock market participants respond to expected changes in policy making as a result of presidential elections.

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In this paper we analyze whether key investor information documents (KIDs) provided by suppliers/issuers help retail investors to understand the key characteristics of financial products. KIDs are fact sheets composed to describe the characteristics of financial products in a brief, standardized and straightforward manner. In our empirical analysis we evaluate different versions of KIDs and examine whether they meet minimum requirements in order to provide benefits for consumers. Our empirical results suggest that subjects assess KIDs of suppliers/issuers merely as moderately appropriate to grasp the key characteristics of financial products. In contrast, neutral benchmark KIDs are generally evaluated as being superior to those of suppliers/issuers which at best meet current legal requirements. We argue that a major reason for these findings is consumer policy's assumption of omni-competent subjects in line with the neoclassical idea of a Homo economicus. This assumption, however, is far from being both realistic and practical.