High disclosure standards are perceived to be the cornerstone of the U.S. securities markets. However. the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prohibits the quantification of unproved reserves by U.S. oil and gas firms (based on the argument that it would mislead unsophisticated individual...

This paper provides an introduction to and a review of governmental capital markets based research. It updates earlier studies and focuses on recent methodological developments. Prior research is classified ac­cording to the type of data used, emphasizing special topics that have received...

Given the "pervasive and powerful influence" of published ratings, an attempt was made to explain municipal bond ratings using information normally obtainable from financial reports. It appears that rating assignments are more closely associated with the flow of liquid financial resources from...

Current municipal GAAP is geared toward monitoring the narrow notion of dollar accountability (i.e., compliance with budgeted dollar spending limits). It is argued that even with the limitation of present measurement technology, accountants involvement in municipal financial reports could play a...

Municipal bond rating changes can have significant consequences for both borrowers and investors. Multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA) was used to examine whether financial ratios could discriminate between cities that had their ratings upgraded or downgraded from an A rating. In addition,...