This paper re-examines the Ou and Penman (1989) conclusion that fundamental analysis identifies equity values not currently reflected in stock prices, and thus systematically predicts abnormal returns. Their fundamental summary measure Pr, the estimated probability of an earnings increase, also proxies for firm size and CAPM risk. After controlling cross-sectional differences in CAPM beta and firm size, no significant incremental predictive ability is attributable to Pr. The Pr measure is interpreted as a proxy for expected return differences rather than as new evidence of a systematic market underreaction to the future earnings signal inherent in current financial statements.

This study documents that the market's responsiveness to earnings announcements declines significantly after the issuance of qualified audit reports for a sample of ‘subject to’ qualifications and consistency qualifications. The results are consistent with a hypothesis that audit qualifications reduce the market's responsiveness to earnings announcements by altering the market's perception of earnings noise or the persistence of earnings, or both. Alternatively, a decline in earnings response coefficients may be observed because audit qualifications are more likely in firms that have undergone economic or structural changes and these changes, rather than the qualification per se, lead to decreased persistence or increased noise.

This paper provides a closed form solution for the value of a multiple claim insurance contract that is subject to a deductible amount and/or an upper limit on claims. The solution is a time integral of European option prices. The model provides three important insights. First, systematic risk in insurance policies is altered in the presence of deductibles and maximum indemnity levels. Second, idiosyncratic risk affects policy valuation and the required rates of return on underwriting portfolios. Finally, contrary to traditional actuarial intuition, changes in the risk-free interest rate may either increase or reduce policy values.

This paper uses micro data from the Current Population Surveys to document the secular decline in labor market activity among prime age men from 1967 to 1987. Declines in employment occur at all ages but are found to be particularly severe among less-educated and low-wage men. Information on the cross-section wage-employment relationship and on actual wage changes indicates that the initial fall in employment from the late 1960s to the early 1970s is entirely attributable to falling labor supply whereas since the early 1970s, wage changes predict most of the decline in employment for whites and approximately half of the decline for blacks.

This paper argues that corporations may use convertible bonds as an indirect way to get equity into their capital structures when adverse-selection problems make a conventional stock issue unattractive. Unlike other theories of convertible bond issuance, the model here highlights: 1) the importance of call provisions on convertibles and 2) the significance of costs of financial distress to the information content of a convertible issue.

[Evidence is provided on an implication of models by Myers and Majluf (1984) and Miller and Rock (1985), which predict that equity issues convey information about firms' future earnings. Consistent with the prediction, the results show that earnings forecast revisions by financial analysts subsequent to the announcement of equity issues are significantly related to announcement period abnormal returns.]

Evidence is provided on an implication of models by Myers and Majluf (1984) and Miller and Rock (1985), which predict that equity issues convey information about firms' future earnings. Consistent with the prediction, the results show that earnings forecast revisions by financial analysts subsequent to the announcement of equity issues are significantly related to announcement period abnormal returns. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.