Investigating exchange rate exposure of energy firms: Evidence from Turkey

This study investigates the exchange rate exposure of Turkish energy firms from 2002 to 2010. We employed a regression model that is constructed by adding exchange rate and oil price factors to Fama-French Three Factor Model. Empirical results suggest that exchange rate risk appears to impact energy firms diversely. Among the 9 energy firms in our sample, only 2 firms seem to be exposed to exchange rate risk. These two energy firms appear to have larger open foreign currency positions and do not use any hedging methods. On the contrary, rest of the energy firms that are not found to be affected by exchange rate risk either seem to have smaller open foreign currency positions or employ hedging methods to manage exchange rate risk. Overall, our results provide evidence that energy firms exposed to exchange rate risk share similar characteristics. © University of Economics, Prague

Natural gas prices and stock prices: Evidence from EU-15 countries

This study investigates the long-run relationship between natural gas prices and stock prices by using the Johansen and Juselius cointegration test and error-correction based Granger causality models for the EU-15 countries. We employ quarterly data covering the period from 1990:1 to 2008:1. Empirical findings suggest that there is a unique long-term equilibrium relationship between natural gas prices, industrial production and stock prices in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Luxembourg. However, no relationship is found between these variables in the other ten EU-15 countries. Although we detect a significant long-run relationship between stock prices and natural gas prices, Granger causality test results imply an indirect Granger causal relationship between these two variables. In addition, we investigate the Granger causal relationship between stock returns, industrial production growth and natural gas price increase for Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Luxembourg. As a result, increase in natural gas prices seem to impact industrial production growth at the first place. In turn, industrial production growth appears to affect stock returns. © 2012 Elsevier B.V

The exchange rate risk of Turkish tourism firms

In this study, exchange rate exposures of tourism firms, whose shares are traded in Borsa I'stanbul (BIST), were investigated. In this manner, the data pertaining to eight tourism firms, whose shares are traded in BIST, were included in analyses for July 2002-June 2010. A regression model, which was developed by adding the exchange rate factor to the Fama-French three-factor model, was used in the study. Analysis results revealed that exchange rate risk is a crucial risk factor for three tourism firms. However, it was determined that the three tourism firms that are negatively affected by exchange rate risk have considerably larger open foreign currency positions than other tourism firms. © Association of Hospitality Financial Management Educators

Comparison of Teachers and Teacher Candidates in terms of Their Environmental Attitudes

It has been aimed to compare the environmental attitudes of teachers and teacher candidates and to present the importance of environmental education in teacher training. The sample of the research includes 605 final year students attending undergraduate programs of pre-school education and child development education in the universities of Konya. Ankara, Afyon, and Denizli provinces during 2008-2009 academic year and 300 pre-school teachers attending National Education Ministry In-service Training Programs conducted in Yalova, Aksaray and Rize provinces during 2008-2009 academic year. "Environmental Attitude Scale" has been used as the data collection tool. According to t-test and MANOVA results, it has been determined that teacher candidates got higher scores than pre-school teachers in terms of the total results of environmental attitude scale, and particularly the sub-factors "Importance of Field Trips in Environmental Education': and "Environmental Conservation Activities". Also, it has been stated that the difference between the scores of teachers and teacher candidates taken from the sub-factors "Requirement of Education for Environmental Problems" and "Environmental Pollution and Conservation" is not significant. In the light of the findings, researchers and practitioners have been provided with suggestions

Environmental Attitudes

It has been aimed to compare the environmental attitudes of teachers and teacher candidates and to present the importance of environmental education in teacher training. The sample of the research includes 605 final year students attending undergraduate programs of pre-school education and child development education in the universities of Konya. Ankara, Afyon, and Denizli provinces during 2008-2009 academic year and 300 pre-school teachers attending National Education Ministry In-service Training Programs conducted in Yalova, Aksaray and Rize provinces during 2008-2009 academic year. "Environmental Attitude Scale" has been used as the data collection tool. According to t-test and MANOVA results, it has been determined that teacher candidates got higher scores than pre-school teachers in terms of the total results of environmental attitude scale, and particularly the sub-factors "Importance of Field Trips in Environmental Education': and "Environmental Conservation Activities". Also, it has been stated that the difference between the scores of teachers and teacher candidates taken from the sub-factors "Requirement of Education for Environmental Problems" and "Environmental Pollution and Conservation" is not significant. In the light of the findings, researchers and practitioners have been provided with suggestions

The cardiovascular risk factors in children with renal failure; homocysteine, lipoprotein (a), dyslipidemia, folic acid, B6, B12, CRP, and fibrinogen

WOS: 000247977300681