<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This study undertook an empirical survey of the factors, which mostly influence individual investor behavior in the Greek stock exchange.<strong> </strong>The results revealed by our sample of 150 respondents confirm that there seems to be a certain degree of correlation between the factors that behavioral finance theory and previous empirical evidence identify as the influencing factors for the average equity investor, and the individual behavior of active investors in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) influenced by the overall trends prevailing at the time of the survey in the ASE.</span></span></p>

A b s t r a c t This article focuses on the issue of market concentration in the VLCC tanker sector and its significance for freight rates during 1993(1)-2010(12). It explores the nature of changes in freight rate volatility along business cycles and finds that freight rate volatility generally increases during both upswings and downswings of the market, but becomes evidently more intense during market upswings. Industrial concentration in the VLCC sector is measured via application of concentration measures that are well founded in the literature. The empirical results obtained reveal a significant increase in market concentration post-1993. Subsequently, the effect of changes in market structure upon the formation and volatility of VLCC spot and time charter freight rates is investigated. We substantiate a positive relationship between spot freight rates and market concentration over the period examined, concluding that expectations regarding the future course of concentration are critical for forecasting the direction of freight rates in the future.

The study assesses the implications for shareholder value induced by investing in companies promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR) among members of the Greek CSR Firm Network which consistently pursues CSR strategies. Alternative dynamic volatility models to identify the best fit that adequately describes the risk-return profile of these stocks were estimated, while the EGARCH model which takes into account asymmetric volatility effects was found to be statistically satisfactory in explaining CSR risk and return. The impact of volatility appears to be persistent though varying across Greek CSR companies and shareholder value hence may fluctuate considerably, as CSR stocks may not necessarily present a low risk asset class

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the appropriateness of measures of managerial skill and managerial performance through time. The empirical study carried out here, includes evidence on the simple information ratio and the distribution of it by style. It then proceeds to contrast and compare it with the ratio derived from an estimated beta, the Sharpe ratio and the Treynor ratio, while conclusions are to be drawn concerning the usefulness of each for the investor. Furthermore, empirical evidence is presented, on the ability of mutual funds managers to earn abnormal returns, in successive time periods.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.4in 0pt 0.5in; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: Batang; font-size: x-small;">Our study attempted to establish how positive and how robust the relationship between average economic growth rate and the pace at which exporting activity grows using Extreme Bounds Analysis on Dollar's (1992) 95 nation openness index.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Our results indicate that not only there is indeed such a positive and robust relationship, but there is also an equally robust but negative relationship between average economic growth rates and the real exchange rate distortion index, as well as a positive and robust effect between export share of GDP with the investment share in GDP, which in turn is robustly linked to output growth and GDP expansion.</span></p>