The Impact Of Analysts? Recommendations: Evidence From The Athens Stock Exchange

This study aims to investigate the usefulness of analysts’ recommendations on firms listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). It contradicts the majority of published works which conclude that analysts’ recommendations do offer valuable investment opportunities. The unique feature of this work is that it sheds light on the issue, adopting a practical approach stemming from the investor’s point of view. It is shown through an event study methodology, that analysts’ recommendations do not result to any significant excess returns

Explaining house price changes in Greece

This paper develops an equilibrium model for the Greek housing market that incorporates both macroeconomic as well as country-specific variables that affect demand for and supply of houses. In the overall upward phase of the 26-year period examined (1985Q1-2010Q4), our investigation of short-term fluctuations in real house prices and stock prices confirms the inverse relationship between movements in the housing price index and the stock exchange general index, identifies the direction of causality as running from the financial sector to the real sector, and finds that, following an exogenous shock, reversion to the long-run equilibrium is a rather slow process. Furthermore, we identify a fundamental shift in the behaviour of Greek homeowners, who appear to be moving away from the treatment of housing as consumption good, towards treating house purchases as investment

House price comovements in the Eurozone economies

The house price boom in major industrialized countries since the early 1990s has been unprecedented. Co-movement is a key feature of it and it has been attributed by scholars to synchronization of monetary policy, financial liberalization, integration of international financial markets, as well as global business cycle linkages. In this paper we focus on seven European countries, all members of the EMU, and ask the question if, the apparent co movement of the housing prices in the seven major euro zone economies implies convergence of their housing markets. Using monthly data from DSI Statistical Bases for 1990(1)-2009(4), we concentrate on the impact of the adoption of the common currency on real house prices movements. We conduct the analysis using country-specific macroeconomic variables and then extend it by adding foreign-specific macro variables to each country’s model. The empirical analysis includes cointegration analysis and VAR specifications. Our findings suggest that the movement of the housing prices of the euro zone countries apart from the well known fundamentals of GDP, interest rates and stock returns is also based on a number of idiosyncratic and structural factors like demographics, the tax system and government intervention which determine the duration and the strength of the housing cycles in each country. Furthermore, it seems that the degree of convergence underlying housing prices co movement is limited given the diversities in living standards, regulation of property markets, government intervention and attitudes to residential housing.peer-reviewe

Determinants of Management Earnings Forecasts: The Case of Global Shipping IPOs

This paper uses a unique testing ground on the effect of price limits upon IPO pricing and initial returns. The Athens Stock Exchange offers the opportunity for this new experiment, as three substantial changes in limit regulations were implemented in a short period of eight years. The results indicate significant differences in initial returns. Effective price limits reduce underpricing in all market segments, without visible diminution of IPO activity. The introduction of mandatory book-building after price limits were phased out in Athens also led to reduced underpricing in the main market segment. Nevertheless, the existence of an independent effect of price limits explains why some regulators continue to use them to the present day

Determinants of Management Earnings Forecasts: The Case of Global Shipping IPOs

This paper uses a unique testing ground on the effect of price limits upon IPO pricing and initial returns. The Athens Stock Exchange offers the opportunity for this new experiment, as three substantial changes in limit regulations were implemented in a short period of eight years. The results indicate significant differences in initial returns. Effective price limits reduce underpricing in all market segments, without visible diminution of IPO activity. The introduction of mandatory book-building after price limits were phased out in Athens also led to reduced underpricing in the main market segment. Nevertheless, the existence of an independent effect of price limits explains why some regulators continue to use them to the present day

Explaining house price changes in Greece

This paper develops an equilibrium model for the Greek housing market that incorporates both macroeconomic as well as country-specific variables that affect demand for and supply of houses. In the overall uprising phase of the 23-year period examined (1985Q1-2008Q1), our investigation of short-term fluctuations in real house prices and stock prices confirms the inverse relationship between movements in the housing price index and the stock exchange general index, identifies the direction of causality as running from the financial sector to the real sector, and finds that, following an exogenous shock, reversion to the long-run equilibrium is a rather slow process. Furthermore, we identify a fundamental shift in the behaviour of Greek homeowners, who appear to be moving away from the treatment of housing as consumption good, towards treating house purchases as investment