University of Alabama

About: University of Alabama is a education organization based out in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 27323 authors who have published 48609 publications receiving 1565337 citations. The organization is also known as: Alabama & Bama.

International Stock Market Efficiency and Integration: A Study of Eighteen Nations

Abstract: This study examines the relationships among stock prices in eighteen national stock markets by using unit root and cointegration tests for the period 1961--92 All the markets were analyzed individually and collectively in regions to test for market efficiency The results from unit root tests suggest that the world equity markets are weak-form efficient The cointegration test results show that there are only a small number of significant cointegrating vectors over the last three decades However, the number of significant cointegrating vectors increases after the October 1987 stock market crash, a result that is consistent with the contagion effect

Corporate Diversification: What Gets Discounted?

Abstract: Prior literature finds that diversified firms sell at a discount relative to the sum of the imputed values of their business segments. We explore this documented discount and argue that it stems from risk-reducing effects of corporate diversification. Consistent with this risk-reduction hypothesis, we find that ~a! shareholder losses in diversification are a function of firm leverage, ~b! all equity firms do not exhibit a diversification discount, and ~c! using book values of debt to compute excess value creates a downward bias for diversified firms. Overall, the results indicate that diversification is insignificantly related to excess firm value. A STREAM OF LITERATURE SUGGESTS that corporate diversification is associated with a substantial reduction in firm value. An underlying theme of this literature is that conglomerates tend to misallocate their investment funds by cross subsidizing poorly performing divisions. Berger and Ofek ~1995! ,f or example, document that conglomerates are prone to cross-subsidize investments in divisions with poor growth opportunities. Consistent with this finding, Rajan, Servaes, and Zingales ~2000! model the presence of power struggles among the firm’s divisions and show that diversification causes resources to f low to inefficient investments. Similarly, Scharfstein and Stein ~2000! demonstrate how rent-seeking divisional managers can subvert the internal capital allocation decision. These studies depict conglomerates as organizations that divert funds from stronger divisions to weaker ones and thereby misallocate their investment capital.1

Tectonic evolution of the Himalayan thrust belt in western Nepal: Implications for channel flow models

Abstract: We present a new geologic map of western Nepal and three balanced regional cross sections in the Himalayan thrust belt. The minimum shortening between the South Tibetan detachment and the Main Frontal thrust is 485–743 km and suggests that total Himalayan shortening may exceed 900 km. All rocks involved in the thrust belt are of upper crustal affinity, implying that a comparable length of Indian lower crust and mantle lithosphere was subducted beneath Tibet. Major structural features are the Subhimalayan thrust system, Lesser Himalayan imbricate zone, Dadeldhura thrust sheet, Lesser Himalayan duplex, Ramgarh thrust sheet, Main Central thrust sheet, and a north-dipping normal-sense shear zone, possibly related to the South Tibetan detachment. These structures are continuous along the entire Nepalese portion of the Himalayan thrust belt. New 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages from the Ramgarh thrust zone, Greater Himalayan rocks, and the lower part of the Tethyan sequence support a kinematic model in which major thrust systems in Nepal propagated southward from early Miocene time onward. The geometry and kinematic history of the thrust belt in western Nepal are not compatible with recent models for southward ductile extrusion of Greater Himalayan rocks in a mid-crustal channel. Instead, the thrust belt in western Nepal behaved like a typical forward propagating thrust system, involving unmetamorphosed, brittlely deformed rocks in its frontal part and ductilely deformed, higher-grade metamorphic rocks in its hinterland region. Although our results do not support published versions of the channel flow model, they provide additional geological and geo-chronological data that will assist future attempts to develop geodynamic models for the Himalayan-Tibetan orogenic system.