Isolating the Information Content of Equity Analysts' Recommendation Changes,Post Reg FD

We investigate the information content of equity analysts' recommendation changes subsequent to the passage of Regulation Fair Disclosure. We find that analyst upgrades (downgrades) are associated with positive (negative) abnormal returns. Overall, stock prices tend to react significantly more strongly to recommendation changes accompanied by news events than to those that are not. Even so, returns around recommendation changes not accompanied by news are significantly different from zero. This result holds after controlling for firm‐specific variables and the incidence of multiple simultaneous recommendation changes. We conclude that analyst recommendation changes, in and of themselves, are informative.     

Equality, Evolution and Partnership Law

Equal sharing in partnership law is an ancient rule that has never been adequately explained. An informal model utilizing Nash bargaining solutions and basic statistical principles suggests that it may be the transactions-cost minimizing rule. Evolutionary game theory also suggests how psychological dispositions favoring equal sharing may evolve. Psychological dispositions such as risk aversion are a familiar part of economic analysis of commercial law. However, other evolved dispositions, such as egalitarianism in certain settings, can also fit into economic legal analysis. Dispositions toward equal sharing and consensual governance in small productive groups may have evolved during the long period in which humans produced and shared food in small bands. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Evolution of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association1

This article summarizes the 45‐year history of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA). It describes how AREUEA was created in the mid‐1960s by a few academics interested in promoting real estate research. It tracks the Association's growth into a highly respected international association of real estate academics and researchers employed by industry and governments. The article also examines the activities of its members: officers elected, awards presented, conferences organized and scholars' contributions to its main academic publication—Real Estate Economics. The article identifies the most prolific contributors to the Journal (located both in the United States and internationally) and the impact that the Journal's publications have had on real estate research. Finally, we describe how real estate research interests have changed over time.     

Can Natural Experiments Measure Behavioral Responses to Environmental Risks?

Efforts to measure people’s responses to spatially delineated risks confront the potential for correlation between these risks and other, unobserved characteristics of these locations. The possibility of correlation arises in part because individuals observe other locational attributes that can be expected to influence the hedonic equilibrium. One response to this problem is to use events from nature to exploit both temporal and spatial variation in the behavioral responses of interest. This paper evaluates the use of hurricanes as a source of new risk information to households in coastal counties potentially subject to the effects of these storms. We study the extent to which housing prices before and after hurricane Andrew, a hurricane with unprecedented property loss, reveal how Floridians responded to the risk information provided by the storm. Two counties are selected – one without and another with damage from the hurricane. To evaluate the plausibility of using quasi-random experiments for locations not directly affected by natural events, we compare Lee County’s results to those of Dade County, where the majority of the damage occurred. Our findings suggest, after controlling for ex post storm damage and changes in insurance markets, there is a reasonably high level of consistency in a repeat sales model’s ability to estimate the effects of the risk information conveyed by the storm for both counties. Department of Economics, Williams College, Affiliated Economist, CEnREP, North Carolina State University and University Distinguished Professor, North Carolina State University, and Resources for the Future University Fellow, respectively. Senior authorship is not assigned. Thanks are due to Shelby Gerking and two anonymous reviewers for careful and constructive comments that substantially improved the paper. Michael Darden and Jaren Pope provided excellent research assistance and Alex Boutaud and Susan Hinton helped to make sense out of numerous drafts of this work. Smith’s contribution was partially supported by the United States Department of Homeland Security through the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), grant number EMW-2004-GR-0112. However, any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect views of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.     

Fifty-Seven Serious Defects in 'Australian' IFRS

Australian accounting standards commonly used in the preparation of company financial reports have a controversial origin. Under a protocol adopted by the Financial Reporting Council, Australian accounting standards since 2005 substantially replicate the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) made by the International Accounting Standards Board. These standards' continued development is largely outside the control of Australian authorities. The standards examined are found to have such a large catalogue of conceptual and technical deficiencies that the authors call to question the adoption of an Australian IFRS protocol.     

Contracts in the payments for ecosystem services： the case of bioprospecting

We examine the economics of royalties in bioprospecting contracts between a pharmaceutical and genetic resource supplier （local）, with an eve to understanding the relative advantages of indexing royalty, payments to gross revenue or net revenue. We show a risk-averse firm facing only production or only cost risks will index royalties to net revenue. When facing both types of risk the choice of royalty type depends on the relative magnitudes of the production and cost risk. In each case, the risk-averse firm chooses the royalty-type that shifts as much risk as possible to the local. Wheat the local is risk neutral the pharmaceutical＇s and local＇s preferences are compatible.If the local is risk averse and there is only one type of risk, it will prefer a gross revenue royalty, and shift as much risk as possible to the firm： here the local and firm preferences are compatible only ifthe firm is risk-neutral. Lastly we show if the firm sets the terms of the contract and both agents are risk averse, the.firm will not likely volunteer to implement the socially optimal royalty arrangement as it prefers to shift as much risk to the loeal, who now also prefers a more certain return, This last outcome is at the heart of the benefit sharing discussionand suggests if risk sharing and equity are a concern in benefit sharing, then the choice of rcyalty type can be an important part of negotiations between pharmaceuticals and locals for the phytochemical from nature for new drug discovery.     

A place for visual research methods in the field of leisure studies? Evidence from two studies of older adults’ active leisure

Few researchers have explored perceptions of the local environment as a potential precursor to older adults’ active leisure participation; fewer still have employed visual research methods as a tool for examining the modalities of environmental influences on leisure behaviour. This article introduces leisure researchers to the visual research techniques of Q method with photographs and photovoice and highlights the opportunities and challenges resulting from the use of visual techniques with populations of older adults. Data obtained in two visual research studies undertaken in 2008 and 2011 reveal the importance of home and local environment as a nexus for leisure participation and identify conditions that may facilitate activity participation in later life. Environmental conditions that are particularly significant in the case of older adults include the home garden, natural and aesthetically pleasing settings, the local social network and functional neighbourhood facilities. Visual research methods were used to generate these findings. Such research methods provide rich and nuanced data in studies concerning environment-behaviour interactions, which may be difficult to attain using conventional research methods.