The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), like many other development agencies and donors, increasingly emphasizes evidence-based programming. This requires assessments of project performance at all stages of implementation, comprising ex-ante impact assessment, monitoring...

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 study, an interesting aspect of the secondary market's pricing of the riskiness of insured municipal bonds is examined. Do secondary market investors still consider the underlying intrinsic credit quality of the issuer in pricing insured bonds? Is the pricing of this 'issuer effect'...

In this paper we introduce a new financial product named Outperformance Certificates. We study the €43 billion sample by examining 1,507 issues of the certificates outstanding in August 2005 issued by banks in Europe. We present formulas to price the certificates and empirically examine the...

This study examines two channels through which Chinese government intervenes in business activities: direct intervention via government ownership and indirect intervention via strategic development plans in selected areas. The findings show that these interventions affect corporate policies...

In this paper, we find a 'reverse%rsquo; weekend effect - whereby returns for Monday are positive and significantly greater than returns for the preceding Friday - in recent data for major stock indexes. We also find that, while a weak weekend effect exists in portfolios of smaller firms, the...

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...