Ice clouds are mostly composed of different ice crystal habits. It is of great importance to classify ice crystal habits seeing as they could greatly impact single-scattering properties of ice crystal particles. The single-scattering properties play an important role in the study of cloud remote...

This study examines the information content of Standard & Poor's common stock ranking changes. Since prior studies find Standard & Poor's common stock rankings provide investors with a measure of risk, a ranking change may signify a change in risk. Common stock ranking changes made by Standard &...

This paper examines stock price reactions to changes in Standard & Poor's common stock rankings. Using internal memoranda obtained directly from Standard & Poor's, an event study methodology, and a sample of 191 upgrades and 582 downgrades, we find that the majority of stock price reactions...

This study examines the information content of Standard & Poor's common stock ranking changes. Since prior studies find Standard & Poor's common stock rankings provide investors with a measure of risk, a ranking change may signify a change in risk. Common stock ranking changes made by Standard &...

In this study, we document evidence of a quot;reversequot; weekend effect - whereby, Monday returns are significantly positive and they are higher than the returns on other days of the week - over an extended period of eleven years (from 1988 to 1998). We also find that the quot;traditionalquot;...

In this paper we introduce a new financial product named Outperformance Certificates PLUS and we provide detailed descriptions of the product specifications. We show that the payoff of an Outperformance Certificates PLUS can be duplicated by the combination of a long position in the underlying...

Investors in tax-exempt bonds may invest in bonds that are insured against default risk. Research in this paper explores whether it makes a difference to investors which insurer provides the default risk protection. Using a sample of bonds insured by each of the major insurers, evidence is...

Index insurance has been promoted as a cost-effective risk management alternative for agricultural producers in developing countries. In this paper, we ask whether spatially separated weather variables commonly used in index insurance design, such as rainfall at different weather stations within...

This paper examines the effects of bank corporate governance on real estate lending and loan losses during the recent financial crisis. The results indicate that banks with stronger corporate governance mechanisms had higher profitability during the period 2006-2009. Our findings on the effects...

The theoretical effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 on commercial real estate have been widely written about; however, little empirical work has been done that actually measures the hypothesized effects. We find that, after controlling for general national economic conditions and regional...