Search

Determined effects on sobriety of two follow-up treatments, self-management and letter and telephone, for alcoholics (N=60) who had completed an alcohol treatment program. Results showed significant difference for the letter and telephone group after one month in comparison to the self-management and the control groups, but no significant difference after three to six months. (Author/ABL)

The article focuses on the incremental information content of the going-concern's audit opinion. The study examines only firms for which a going-concern assumption can reasonably be questioned. In an efficient market, only new or unexpected information conveyed by the audit-report would affect aggregate security prices. However, classifying going-concern audit opinions as expected or unexpected inherently involves the potential for measurement error. The studies provides evidence that the market distinguishes ex ante between firms that are deteriorating in financial condition and those that are not. This market expectations approach uses cumulative market-adjusted security returns to proxy for the market's assessment of the trend in each firm's expected cash flows, either improving or deteriorating. The study hypothesized that unexpected auditors' going concern qualifications are associated with abnormal security returns. Using two methods, financially troubled firms were classified.

This study develops and tests the hypothesis that the quality and quantity of municipal financial information are positively associated with increased competition in the primary market for new issues of general obligation bonds. A measure of market competition, the number of underwriter bids tendered, is regressed on several market-related and issue-specific control variables and a group of financial reporting test variables. A sample of 224 new issues of municipal general obligation bonds sold by competitive bid between 1978 and 1983 is examined. The results generally support the hypothesis. Employment of an independent CPA firm auditor and more extensive disclosure increase competition, as expected. However, no support was found for the argument that holding a Government Finance Officers Association Certificate of Conformance increases the level of underwriter competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]