Bond review and rating change announcements: An examination of informational value and market efficiency

This paper examines the impact of announcements of both bond rating reviews and rating changes on equity returns. We find that announcements of review for possible down grading of debt have a significant negative effect on stock prices while subsequent actual downgrades have a negligible impact. Further, we find that press releases convey new information to the market whereas the subsequent reporting of this information in the financial press causes little market reaction. We conclude that extreme care regarding details of the dissemination of financial information must be exercised in any event study.     

Indian foodgrain performance

The role of the green revolution in Indian foodgrain production has been subject to considerable misinterpretation. The author makes use of data only recently available in his estimation and analysis of drought-corrected trend rates of growth of foodgrain production. He confirms the view based on earlier data that the new cereal technologies in India have not resulted in significant increases in either the rate of growth of agricultural output, foodgrain production, or rice production. However, a structural change has occurred in wheat production in India.     

A Note on the Bias in House Price Capitalization Models

Recent research efforts concerning the capitalization of low-rate, seller-supplied financing have employed hedonic pricing models that may produce biased estimates of the capitalization process. The bias results when properties sold with owner financing are included in the researcher's sample. This note discusses the nature of the bias and suggests a possible solution.     

Tournament behavior in Australian superannuation funds: A non-parametric analysis

Taylor's [Taylor, J. (2003). Risk-taking behavior in mutual fund tournaments, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organisation 50, 373–383] extension of the tournament model of Brown et al. [Brown, K. C., Harlow, W. V., Starks, L. T. (1996). Of tournaments and temptations: An analysis of managerial incentives in the mutual fund industry, Journal of Finance 15, 85–110] proposes that using an exogenous (endogenous) benchmark, will induce losing (winning) managers to gamble. This presents two competing testable hypotheses that are investigated in the current study. We use a sample period covering 1989 to 2001 of Australian multi-sector growth funds. We apply the non-parametric Cross-Product Ratio methodology. Generally, we find evidence in support of Taylor's model.     

The early American style: A history of marketing and consumer values

Since the 1876 Centennial, furniture companies, decorators, and home builders have incorporated early American designs into their products. This article recounts the marketing history of this style and some clusters of consumer values—the search for authenticity, status presentation and ethnic identification, nostalgia and tradition making, domesticity and femininity, and aesthetic conservatism—with which early American objects and architecture have been associated. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Year-Round School Schedules and Residential Property Values

Debate concerning the advantages and disadvantages of year-round schedules surrounds quality of education and cost. The purpose of this article is to estimate the impact of different schedules on residential property values after controlling for school expenditures, quality of education, and neighborhood socioeconomic conditions. Furthermore, we explore the possibility that different size houses, based on the number of bedrooms, may experience a differential price impact to a year-round schedule. We find evidence that year-round schools may be more of a nuisance for nonparents than for families with children for the Clark County School District which includes Las Vegas, Nevada.