The Effect of Bond Rating Agency Announcements on Bond and Stock Prices

This paper examines daily excess bond returns associated with announcements of additions to Standard and Poor's Credit Watch List, and to rating changes by Moody's and Standard and Poor's. Reliably nonzero average excess bond returns are observed for additions to Standard and Poor's Credit Watch List when an expectations model is used to classify additions as either expected or unexpected. Bond price effects are also observed for actual downgrade and upgrade announcements by rating agencies. Excluding announcements with concurrent disclosures weakens the results for downgrades, but not upgrades. The stock price effects of rating agency announcements are also examined and contrasted with the bond price effects.     

Small business and industrialisation in South Korea

Small firms make a significant contribution to the overall performance of the Korean economy and they should play an increasing role in its necessary diversification up to the turn of the century. However, most research attention, decision-making and operational action have concentrated so far on the further promotion of the big Korean conglomerates. This paper suggests a few tentative observations on the role of small businesses in the industrial experience of South Korea.Dr P Régnier is coordinator of the Modern Asia Research Centre (Graduate Institutes of Development and International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. This paper is based mainly on a research project dealing with the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the four Asian NIEs. Field work was conducted in each of the Asian NIEs in 1988, 1989 and 1990.     

The persistence of real estate cycles

This paper presents a model that attempts to explain the underlying causes of the prolonged cycles observed in real estate markets. In addition, the paper characterizes the features that make some property types more prone to such boom-and-bust behavior. The combination of demand uncertainty, adjustment costs, and construction lags leads to two phenomena that may help explain market persistence. The first phenomenon is the reluctance of owners to adjust occupancy levels, even in the face of large shifts in renter demand. The second phenomenon is the occurrence of periods of sustained overbuilding: the addition of new supply in the face of already high vacancy rates.     

Parametric,semiparametric, and nonparametric estimation of characteristic values within mass assessment and hedonic pricing models

Parametric estimators, such as OLS, attain high efficiency for well-specified models. Nonparametric estimators greatly reduce specification error but at the cost of efficiency. Semiparametric estimators compromise between these dual goals of efficiency and specification error. Semiparametric estimators can assume general forms within classes of functional forms. This paper applies OLS, the kernel nonparametric regression estimator, and the semi-parametric estimator of Powell, Stock, and Stoker (1989) to a data set, which should, based on theory and previous empirical work, yield positive coefficients. The semiparametric estimator, on average, displayed the performance most consistent with prior expectations followed by the nonparametric and parametric estimators. In addition, the paper shows how the semiparametric estimator can provide insights into the form of misspecification and suggest data transformations.     

The Risk Exposure of Emerging Equity Markets

The low correlation between returns in emerging equity marketsand industrial equity markets implies that the global investorwould benefit from diversification in emerging markets. Thisarticle explores the sensitivity of the emerging-market returnsto measures of global economic risk. When these traditionalmeasures of risk are used, the emerging markets have littleor no sensitivity. This finding is consistent with these markets'being segmented from world capital markets. However, the correlationbetween the emerging-market returns and the risk factors appearsto be changing over time.     

Patient product availability through the use of systems thinking: developing coherent relationships

The traditional techniques of quality improvement, such as just-in-time delivery, can only go so far in dealing with materiel management issues. A further step is necessary: the implementation of systems thinking. This type of thinking focuses on the interconnectedness of all the members that exist throughout the system. This article explains the nature of systems thinking and how it can be used in materiels management to describe and improve the availability of materiels needed.     

Evaluating cost center productivity

The monthly and yearly productivity summaries were developed and applied to a computer spreadsheet to aid the nurse manager in better understanding and communicating budget issues for diverse ambulatory care departments. A computerized spreadsheet using a commercially available personal computer program, such as Lotus, Quattro Pro, or Excel, can be used to more quickly and accurately track and summarize monthly budget reports. The data can be entered into the spreadsheet either manually or imported by query from the financial mainframe system. Contact your agency's finance or information department for information on how to accomplish this. Periodically acuity and resources should be measured and compared with quality monitors to maintain standards. For the past 10 years, our facility has successfully used this tool to make more informed decisions by identifying trouble spots early, and taking corrective action to avoid crisis management.