Share Repurchases as a Tool to Mislead Investors: Evidence From Earnings Quality and Stock Performance

Several studies find that share repurchases are associated with positive wealth effects, both in the shortand long-run. By the same token, the credibility of buyback announcements as quality signals, particularly those to be executed on the open market, has been questioned. In this paper, we consider whether a sub-set of repurchase programs are perhaps motivated by an intent to mislead the market. Although intentions are not observable, we indirectly accomplish this by separating firms by their earnings quality. Firms which aggressively employ discretionary accruals, particularly those which also show lagging stock price performance, exhibit traits which suggest that executives may have been under pressure to boost stock prices. In the short-term, these programs are effectual as the market does not appear to initially distinguish firms on the basis of earnings quality. Over longer horizons, firms with poor earnings quality suffer from poor operating performance and tend to repurchase relatively fewer shares. More importantly, unlike the positive return drift generally observed after a repurchase announcement, long-horizon stock performance for poor earnings quality firms is not significant. The evidence is consistent with the notion that in some cases, company executives may be using repurchase programs to manipulate market opinion. The fact that some buyback programs, ex-ante, may be manipulative in intent provides some insight into why market underreaction is often observed in the empirical literature. The evidence here provides some justification for investor skepticism when open market buyback programs are initially announced.published_or_final_versio

Adam Smith and Colonialism

In the context of debates about liberalism and colonialism, the arguments of Adam Smith have been taken as illustrative of an important line of anti-colonial liberal thought. The reading of Smith presented here challenges this interpretation. It argues that Smith’s opposition to colonial rule derived largely from its impact on the metropole, rather than on its impact on the conquered and colonised; that Smith recognised colonialism had brought ‘improvement’ in conquered territories and that Smith struggled to balance recognition of moral diversity with a universal moral framework and a commitment to a particular interpretation of progress through history. These arguments have a wider significance as they point towards some of the issues at stake in liberal anti-colonial arguments more generally

Catchment-scale Phosphorus Export through Surface and Drainage Pathways

The site-specific nature of P fate and transport in drained areas exemplifies the need for additional data to guide implementation of conservation practices at the catchment scale. Total P (TP), dissolved reactive P (DRP), and total suspended solids (TSS) were monitored at five sites—two streams, two tile outlets, and a grassed waterway—in three agricultural subwatersheds (221.2–822.5 ha) draining to Black Hawk Lake in western Iowa. Median TP concentrations ranged from 0.034 to 1.490 and 0.008 to 0.055 mg P L−1 for event and baseflow samples, respectively. The majority of P and TSS export occurred during precipitation events and high-flow conditions with greater than 75% of DRP, 66% of TP, and 59% of TSS export occurring during the top 25% of flows from all sites. In one subwatershed, a single event (annual recurrence interval \u3c 1 yr) was responsible for 46.6, 84.0, and 81.0% of the annual export of TP, DRP, and TSS, respectively, indicating that frequent, small storms have the potential to result in extreme losses. Isolated monitoring of surface and drainage transport pathways indicated significant P and TSS losses occurring through drainage; over the 2-yr study period, the drainage pathway was responsible for 69.8, 59.2, and 82.6% of the cumulative TP, DRP, and TSS export, respectively. Finally, the results provided evidence that particulate P losses in drainage were greater than dissolved P losses. Understanding relationships between flow, precipitation, transport pathway, and P fraction at the catchment scale is needed for effective conservation practice implementation

Re-imagining the Borders of US Security after 9/11: Securitisation, Risk, and the Creation of the Department of Homeland Security

The articulation of international and transnational terrorism as a key issue in US security policy, as a result of the 9/11 attacks, has not only led to a policy rethink, it has also included a bureaucratic shift within the US, showing a re-thinking of the role of borders within US security policy. Drawing substantively on the 'securitisation' approach to security studies, the article analyses the discourse of US security in order to examine the founding of the Department of Homeland Security, noting that its mission provides a new way of conceptualising 'borders' for US national security. The securitisation of terrorism is, therefore, not only represented by marking terrorism as a security issue, it is also solidified in the organisation of security policy-making within the US state. As such, the impact of a 'war on terror' provides an important moment for analysing the re-articulation of what security is in the US, and, in theoretical terms, for reaffirming the importance of a relationship between the production of threat and the institutionalisation of threat response. © 2007 Taylor & Francis

Balancing act : competition and cooperation in US Asia-Pacific regionalism

While the United States is an important Asia-Pacific actor, its engagement with the region is complex and often difficult. Not only must US regionalism balance the diverse requirements of an ambitious policy agenda, but also US policy norms and priorities often clash with those of other regional actors. This has important implications for the capacity of the United States to provide regional leadership. Recent years have seen growing policy convergence between the United States and other Asia-Pacific actors, particularly in economic terms, but US regionalism continues to feature competition alongside collaboration

Kinetic Theory of a Dilute Gas System under Steady Heat Conduction

The velocity distribution function of the steady-state Boltzmann equation for hard-core molecules in the presence of a temperature gradient has been obtained explicitly to second order in density and the temperature gradient. Some thermodynamical quantities are calculated from the velocity distribution function for hard-core molecules and compared with those for Maxwell molecules and the steady-state Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook(BGK) equation. We have found qualitative differences between hard-core molecules and Maxwell molecules in the thermodynamical quantities, and also confirmed that the steady-state BGK equation belongs to the same universality class as Maxwell molecules.Comment: 36 pages, 4 figures, 5 table

Future challenges of occupational safety and health policy-making in the UK

Understanding the changing landscape of occupational safety and health (OSH) regulation and standards and its implications are of central importance for ensuring that OSH outcomes are not compromised and the needs of different types of organizations are met. It is also important for developing appropriate strategies to anticipate and deal with future challenges for OSH policy-making. This paper draws on findings from two qualitative studies with key OSH stakeholders in the UK that were conducted as part of a research programme funded the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health. The aim of the first study was to elicit the views of key stakeholders on changes in the current OSH landscape so as to understand the nature and implications of these changes. The second study explored stakeholder perspectives on how to secure the optimal OSH landscape in the UK by addressing key future challenges for OSH policy-making

Racial and Imperial Thinking in International Theory and Politics: Truman, Attlee and the Korean War

- Connects the background ideas of race and empire to world politics - Uses case of Truman and Attlee in the Korean War - Argues that liberal-realist internationalists’ assumptions about the US-led post-war order obscure those background ideas and fail to understand the character of the post-war order - Argues liberal-realist internationalism is akin to a legitimating ideology rather than an explanatory theory - Argues that such failings render liberal internationalism inadequate to explain or prescribe ways for the United States/West to manage the ‘rise of the rest’ today This article connects the background ideas of race and empire to world politics by looking at the world views and actions of Truman and Attlee in the Korean War. The article argues that liberal-realist internationalists’ assumptions about the US-led post-war order obscure those background ideas and fail to understand the character of the post-war order. I consider two kinds of ‘background ideas’—policy-makers’ and those embedded in liberal internationalism. Put together, these ideas render liberal-realist internationalism akin to a legitimating ideology rather than an explanatory theory. More broadly, and in the longer run, such failure to comprehend the character of the post-war order, and the roles of race, empire and periphery war in it, renders the theory inadequate to explain or prescribe ways for the United States/West to manage the ‘rise of the rest’ today