NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

9/27/2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES -An article co-authored by Northwestern State faculty members Stephen Elliott and Mark Schaub has appeared in the Fall 2006 issue of a leading professional journal.

The article, "Contagion or Competition: Going Concert Audit Opinions for Real Estate Firms," was published in the Journal of Real Estate Financial Economics. The publication is an A-level finance journal as one of the top 10 in the field. A-level journals have the highest academic standards and reject at least 90 percent of published papers.

Elliott is acting dean of business at NSU and the Kilpatrick Life Professor of Insurance. Schaub is an associate professor of finance and the Hibernia National Bank Endowed Professor of Finance. The paper was written with Michael J. Highfield of Mississippi State University.

The researchers examined whether intra-industry information transfers from going concern audit opinions create contagion or competitive stock price reactions for other real estate firms operating in the same line of business. A going concern opinion is issued when an independent auditor has doubts about the ability of a firm to remain solvent during the next operating period.

In developing the article, Elliott, Highfield and Schaub used returns from publicly traded land subdivision/development firms and Real Estate Investment Trusts and found modest evidence supporting a competitive effect among rival firms as a result of another real estate firm announcing the receipt of a Going Concern Opinion from its independent auditors.

Main Menu