Effects of Preferred Stock Re-rating on Common Stock Prices: Further Evidence

This study examines the price reactions of common stocks to changes in preferred stock ratings, with focuses on firms with less information available in the market as well as on firms with a relatively larger proportion of preferred stock financing. Emphasis on differential information and the relative size of preferred stocks across firms provide a more powerful test of the effect of rating changes on stock prices. Contrary to previous studies that report no price effect on common stocks due to preferred stock re-ratings, these results show that for low-information firms and for firms with a larger proportion of preferred stocks in their capital structure, a preferred stock rating downgrade exerts significant negative price effect on common stocks during the two-day announcement period. Our findings also have implications for future studies of other firm-specific events such as security offerings, stock repurchases, and convertible calls.     

The Independence of the Italian Constitutional Court

It is often asserted that the Italian Constitutional Court is not independent of the Executive and Legislative branches of the government in Rome. We offer a view of independence that is congruent with bodies such as constitutional courts. We argue that the evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, however poor it may be, indicates that the Italian Constitutional Court is as independent as any other corresponding constitutional or supreme court of democratic countries. The evidence is not directly conclusive because the question, in the end, is not whether the judges, one by one, are independent, but whether the Court is independent. The evidence we offer pertains mostly to judges. If judges are independent, as that evidence seems to indicate, the Court is a fortiori even more independent.     

Dynamic linkages between exchange rates and stock prices: Evidence from East Asian markets

This study examines dynamic linkages between exchange rates and stock prices for seven East Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, for the period January 1988 to October 1998. Our empirical results show a significant causal relation from exchange rates to stock prices for Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand before the 1997 Asian financial crisis. We also find a causal relation from the equity market to the foreign exchange market for Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore. Further, while no country shows a significant causality from stock prices to exchange rates during the Asian crisis, a causal relation from exchange rates to stock prices is found for all countries except Malaysia. Our findings are robust with respect to various testing methods used, including Granger causality tests, a variance decomposition analysis, and an impulse response analysis. Our findings also indicate that the linkages vary across economies with respect to exchange rate regimes, the trade size, the degree of capital control, and the size of equity market.     

金融危机让国家干预在西方复活

在金融危机中，没有原则可言：在全世界，国家干预复活了，用于拯救受到沉重打击的银行。有的银行已经干脆国有化了。这真的有必要吗？这是否会引起另一场危机呢？德国之声记者采访报导如下。     

Non‐linear Predictability of Value and Growth Stocks and Economic Activity

Recent empirical evidence suggests that stock market index returns are predictable from a variety of financial and macroeconomic variables. We extend this research by examining value and growth portfolios constructed by book-to-market ratio, and consider whether such predictability is evident here. Further, we assess whether such predictability is better characterised by a non-linear form and whether such non-linear predictability can be exploited to provide superior forecasts to those obtained from a linear model. General non-linearities are examined using non-parametric techniques, which suggest possible threshold behaviour. This leads to estimation of a smooth-transition threshold model, with the results indicating an improved in-sample performance and marginally superior out-of-sample forecast results.     

Fundraising or promoting philanthropy? A qualitative study of the Massachusetts Catalogue for Philanthropy

Philanthropic institutions are increasingly involved in efforts to promote or expand philanthropy in the US, yet little research has been done in relation to such efforts within the “new philanthropy” environment. This qualitative study examines one such effort: the Massachusetts Catalogue for Philanthropy. The study focuses on understanding what key individuals associated with the Catalogue think about its purpose(s) as a means of beginning to answer the underlying questions: How are these new philanthropy promotion projects different from traditional fundraising and to what degree are they contributing to a new philanthropic paradigm? Results and data analysis indicate that participants have varying opinions about the purpose of the Catalogue that come from two perspectives. One sees the Catalogue as a tool for institutional fundraising for small charities featured by the Catalogue in the annually published Catalogue for Philanthropy; the other sees the Catalogue as a mechanism for the overall promotion of philanthropy in the state by educating donors, creating a new conceptualization of philanthropy, and strengthening philanthropy. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vertical disintegration in the corporate hotel industry

Overtime, and with the advent of moving to asset-light, the companies in the corporate hotel industry have given up parts of the value chain. This has enabled new intermediate markets to emerge which have divided a previously integrated production/service process and enabled sets of specialized firms to enter and for the industry to become vertically disintegrated. This paper examines the drivers, as well as the necessary conditions and enabling processes, which have facilitated this industrial change. For the major hotel companies, competing in a disintegrated industry has far-reaching consequences which have a spill-over effect on tourism education and research.