ABNORMAL RETURNS AND ANALYSTS' EARNINGS FORECAST REVISIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PUBLICATION OF “STOCK HIGHLIGHTS” BY VALUE LINE INVESTMENT SURVEY

We examine the reaction of stocks and the response of financial analysts' earnings forecasts to securities recommended as “Stock Highlights” by Value Line Investment Survey. Significant abnormal returns appear around the publication of stock highlights. Stock price responses are relatively efficient and permanent. Using earnings expectation data provided by the Institutional Brokers Estimate System, we find analysts raise their forecasts significantly following Value Line recommendations. Near-term forecast revisions are significantly related to stock returns at the time of the recommendations. Thus, an explanation for Value Line's security recommendation success is its ability to generate firm-specific earnings information.     

Price,output, and exchange rate movements in the open economy

Since the advent of managed floating it has come to be accepted as a stylized fact that short-run deviations from purchasing power parity are both substantial and persistent. Two explanations of these deviations have been advanced in the literature. One emphasizes the role of changes in non-traded goods prices while the other views deviations from purchasing power parity as being due to sticky goods prices and slow adjustment of goods markets. This paper presents yet a third possible explanation of deviations from purchasing power parity — they may be necessary in order to facilitate the relative price changes that are required to maintain equilibrium in the face of unanticipated shocks. In addition, the issue of exchange rate overshooting is addressed. Whereas the sticky price models view exchange rate overshooting and exchange rate volatility as symptoms of some fundamental disequilibrium, the perspective taken here is that these events are, in principle, compatible with a world in which all markets clear continuously.     

Market structure and competitive conditions in the Arab GCC banking system

This paper investigates the market structure of Arab GCC banking industry during the years of 1993–2002 using the most frequently applied measures of concentration k-bank concentration ratio (CRk) and Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) and evaluates the monopoly power of banks over the ten years period using the ‘H-statistic’ by Panzar and Rosse. The results show that Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE have moderately concentrated markets and are moving to less concentrated positions. The measures of concentration also show that Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are highly concentrated markets. The Panzar–Rosse H-statistics suggest that banks in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE operate under perfect competition; banks in Bahrain and Qatar operate under conditions of monopolistic competition; and we are unable to reject monopolistic competition for the banking market in Oman.     

A research program for establishing the validity of the price-quality relationship

Despite over 30 years of empirical investigations, it remains unclear whether (1) there is an actual positive relationship between price and product quality, and (2) whether buyers perceive a positive relationship between price and product quality. Although there has been a plethora of studies on the relationship, there is little agreement on what we know about the relationship. The paper assesses the current state of knowledge on the relationship and argues for a better conceptual framework for understanding the price-quality relationship. Then the paper outlines a systematic research program for establishing the validity of the relationship, and establishes a set of criteria for evaluating the contribution to knowledge of future research on the price-quality relationship.     

Strengthening the weak link in strategic executive development: Integrating individual development and global business strategy

The global business environment of the 1990s provides both challenge and opportunity to human resource development to become an integral player in helping implement business strategy. The results of two best practice studies suggest that some leading firms such as 3M and Motorola are doing just that. At these companies current strategic business issues are the drivers of flexible and opportunistic executive development activities. Naturally occurring on-the-job experiences are consciously utilized in such a way that helping executives to develop becomes an integral part of conducting business. The implications of linking executive development to business strategy for practice and for future research are discussed. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.