In this paper, we show (i) that the risk-return characteristics of our sample of 17 developed stock markets of the world have converged significantly toward each other during our study period 1974-2004, and (ii) that this international convergence in risk-return characteristics is driven mainly...

Using changes in the MSCI Standard Country Indices for 29 countries between 1998 and 2001, we document that stock returns and volumes exhibit quot;index effectsquot; in international markets similar to those detected by the studies of US stocks. The stocks added to the indices experience a sharp...

Using changes in the MSCI Standard Country Indices for 29 countries between 1998 and 2001, we document that stock returns and volumes exhibit quot;index effectsquot; in international markets similar to those detected by the studies of US stocks. The inclusion of a stock generally leads to higher...

We test whether a bias exists in analyst recommendations for firms that file for bankruptcy during 1995-2001. We fail to find over-optimism in analyst recommendations, including those of affiliated analysts. Our multivariate analysis of the market reaction to changes in analyst recommendations...

A projection of future energy consumption is a vital input to many analyses of economic, energy, and environmental policies. We provide a benchmark projection which can be used to evaluate any other projection. Specifically, we base our projection of future energy consumption on its historical...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transition of ten sub-indexes of economic freedom among 130 countries in the world. The three central questions of this study are: do economic freedom sub-indexes converge? Do some sub-indexes of economic freedom display more clear-cut convergence when...

Both the Federal government and individual state governments in the US establish long-term road fatality targets to plan and evaluate the effectiveness of their respective safety programs. The purpose of this paper is to develop a simple fatality projection model to project future fatality rates...

Can human performance continue to improve indefinitely? Or improvement will eventually slow down due to the existence of maximum limit? In this paper, the world records of 61 sport events in running and swimming through the last hundred years have been analysed to answer the question about the...