Although many empirical studies have focused on R & D performance models for markets globally, the available financial information for R & D expenditure is limited. In other words, can we assume that the reported accounting information for R & D investment is adequate and valuable? This study empirically investigates the effect of R & D reported information on the value relevance of the accounting information of firms’ financial statements. Specifically, using Ohlson’s equation, it is examined whether changes in stock prices are explained better when R & D factors are included in models, in conjunction with changes in book value and abnormal earnings. We focus on listed firms on the Athens Stock Exchange in order to explore whether R & D expenses are value relevant, in a market which has been affected for a long period by the global economic crisis of 2007. In our findings, we observe that the reported R & D expenses do not have any significant influence on the investors’ choices, in contrast to expectations based on the prior literature. Moreover, the panel data analysis employed in the paper overcomes common methodological problems (such as autocorrelation, multicollinearity, and heteroscedasticity) and allows the estimation of unbiased and efficient estimators.

Public companies were classified according to whether they remain public or they have been delisted voluntarily or not. Proxy variables were separated according to accounting and/or market information and an ordered polytomous logit model was then applied in order to estimate the probability of delisting. Companies with poor liquidity, high leverage, big stock price decline and lack of interest from investors’ point of view (low trading activity) have higher probability to be delisted, voluntarily or not.

Climate variation in temperature describes the fluctuations that occur above or below the average temperature over time. This study focuses on the analysis of various approaches for calculating the average temperature to better capture and represent the true average temperature over the course of a day. As the conventional approach often fails to integrate significant behaviors of temperature variations, nine mathematical formulas are employed with a different number of daily observations. Specifically, this study inserts the geometric and harmonic mean and their variations for the estimation of the average temperature. Furthermore, the application of the formulas to the time series of temperature recordings for three station locations in Greece is analyzed. For the evaluation of the results, six widely used statistical indices for quantifying errors are applied, and their relative effects are also discussed. Finally, as a practical application of the impact of the formula used for the averaging of daily temperature, the various approaches are introduced on the same observation dataset for the estimation of the heating degree-days, an index that can have significant climatological and economic implications over a region.

We focus in the period of announcement of accounting information for companies listed in an organized market and we re-examine their probability of delisting, voluntarily or not. Adopting the same framework, consideration is given to the assumption that investors utilize market information when accounting data are published. The analysis provided indicates that investors should pay attention to the financial disclosure timing. Our investigation demonstrated that even the short period of three months is quite important to making investment decisions.

The Greek writer Phlegon (80–140 AD) from Tralles in Asia Minor wrote a book entitled On Long-lived Persons that contains a long list of people over a hundred years old. He collected data from the Roman censuses. With respect to the history of statistics, Phlegon's book is the earliest surviving text to use the Stem-and-Leaf display of collected data.