This is the first large study to examine the relation between analysts' stock recommendations, earnings forecasts, and future excess stock returns in an international context. We first document that some of the peculiar findings established in the U.S. extend to other countries where individual...

Generally, information provision and certification have been identified as the major economic functions of rating agencies. This paper analyzes whether the 'watchlist (rating review) instrument has extended the agencies' role towards a monitoring position, as proposed by Boot, Milbourn, and...

The paper analyses the causes of the current crisis of the global financial system, with particular emphasis on the systemic elements that turned the crisis of subprime mortgage-backed securities in the United States, a small part of the overall system, into a worldwide crisis. The first half of...

Generally, information provision and certification have been identified as the major economic functions of rating agencies. This paper analyzes whether the watchlist" (rating review) Instrument has extended the agencies' role towards a monitoring position, as proposed by Boot, Milbourn, and...

Generally, information provision and certification have been identified as the major economic functions of rating agencies. This paper analyzes whether the watchlistʺ (rating review) Instrument has extended the agencies' role towards a monitoring position, as proposed by Boot, Milbourn, and...

Credit rating agencies do not only disclose simple ratings but announce watchlists (rating reviews) and outlooks as well. This paper analyzes the economic function underlying the review procedure. Using Moody's rating data between 1982 and 2004, we find that for borrowers of high...

The paper analyses the causes of the current crisis of the global financial system, with particular emphasis on the systemic elements that turned the crisis of subprime mortgage-backed securities in the United States, a small part of the overall system, into a worldwide crisis. The first half of...

Recently the topic of global warming has become very popular. The literature has concentrated its attention on the evidence of such effect, either by detecting regime shifts or change points in time series. The majority of these methods are designed to find shifts in mean, but only few can do...

This paper examines investment patterns of 50 sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in nations around the world. We study investment by SWFs in 903 public and private firms over the period 1984-2009. As expected, we observe SWFs investments are more often in private firms when the market returns of...