sumer reliance upon advertising since these mechanisms substitute as sources of product/vendor information. One can predict, therefore, that when relative prices favor consumer reliance upon advertising as information, producers will respond accordingly. This prediction also received empirical verification-advertising intensity by sellers in the mobile Washington, D.C. area greatly exceeded advertising intensity in the relatively stable Baltimore, Maryland area.

ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of issuing common stock on shareholder wealth under two alternative methods of registration, shelf registration under the Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 415 and the traditional method of registering shares for immediate sale. The stock price reactions accompanying security registrations and offerings over the period from March 1982 through November 1983 are examined for over two hundred issues. A negative price reaction is observed for traditional and shelf registrations for both utility and non‐utility issuers. No statistically significant difference is observed between shelf and traditional registrations. Further negative price reactions precede the offerings of these securities.