e study investigates the influence of the Jordanian monetary and fiscal policies on Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) performance using the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) approach. Market capitalization (MC), money supply (M1), and government expenditure (GE) were used as proxies for ASE performance, monetary policy, and fiscal policy, respectively. The analysis was undertaken with annual data spanning over twenty-seven years in logarithms form 1978 till 2004. Moreover, Dickey-Fuller and Johansen Cointegartion tests have been applied for testing stationarity and whether the variables have long relationship. Empirical results are consistent with previous literature, especially those related to emerging markets. The results show that these variables were not stationary in their levels and do not have long relationships. However, the second difference for MC and the first difference for GE and M1 were stationary. In addition, two main tools were used to investigate whether the variables have short-term relationships, namely impulse response analysis, and variance decomposition tests. For confirming the argument concerning the direction of the relationships among variables, Granger causality test was applied. Variance decomposition results showed that MC significantly influenced by M1 whereas GE had much less influence, since M1 and GE explain was 11% and 3%, respectively of the forecast error variance of MC. In addition, results show that stock market is responding to its own shocks since MC explained 87% of its forecast error variance in a ten-years period. The impulse response test shows that any shock to the M1 had a significant effect on the MC after almost two years, whereas GE shock had a marginal effect on the MC after three years. The response of the MC to its own-shocks was highly significant. Granger causality test showed that M1 has a significant effect on MC, while GE was not.

This paper examines the effect of the official intervention by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Central Bank of Turkey on the Australian and on the Turkish exchange rates; respectively. The data series used in this paper covers the daily Australian intervention over the period January 2, 1998 to December 22, 2006 and the daily Turkish intervention over the period March 1, 2002 to April 30, 2007. This paper uses a GARCH (1, 1) model to estimate the effect of intervention on the mean and volatility of the Australian dollar and Turkish lira. The empirical results found that official intervention is associated with a significant increase in exchange rate uncertainty. This finding supports the view of those who argue that exchange rate intervention serves to disrupt exchange rate markets.

Saudization is an important issue for the Saudi government. The researcher tried to shed some light on methods to elevate the performance of human resources in one of the front line jobs that requires special characteristics. This research examine four demographic variables which thought to be (based on previous studies) related to the performance of front line employees; which are: age, statues, experience, and education. Results support previous studies. Recommendations and guidance based on this study were presented; which might be of help to those whom interested in HR planning especially in the Saudiairlines.

The main aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent banks in Saudi Arabia and Australia follow the benchmarks of the Value Reporting Framework published by the PricewaterhouseCoopers, namely: Market Overview, Strategy, Value Creating Activities and Financial Performance. An archival method has been used to evaluate the existence of the PricewaterhouseCoopers' elements in the annual reports of the chosen banks. Therefore, two publicly traded banks from each country have been randomly selected and the latest annual reports have been obtained for each bank. The selected Australian banks are Westpac Bank and Commonwealth Bank and the selected Saudi banks are Alrajhi Bank and Saudi American Bank. The results were amazing with fair value reporting for all banks, especially for the Commonwealth Bank. The financial performance segment in the Value Reporting Framework was given the highest score (59%) in which means that the banks concerned more about their financial positions, risk profiles, economic performances, segmental analyses and accounting policies. The market overview segment in the Value Reporting Framework was the second highest score (54%) in for all banks showing that the banks also were conscious to the importance of the competitive, regulatory and macro environments in their reports. An average score of 51% were given to all banks. The two Australian banks are generally better then the Saudi banks in their reporting and show more fair value reporting. Commonwealth Bank was mostly given higher scores than Westpac. Commonwealth Bank is giving a very good example in providing comprehensive information in their Annual Report.

In Saudi Arabia the primary focus of earnings management research to date, however, has been on detecting whether and when earnings management takes place. Number of literature have typically examined number of motivations to earnings management. Following this line of research, the primary purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the auditor choice decision and its relationship with the phenomenon of earning management in Saudi business environment using a sample of Saudi joint stock companies (from 2002 to 2006). More specifically this research tests whether companies tend to choice Non-Big4 auditors when they have motivation to earnings management. The result indicates no presence of a statically significant relationship between auditor choice or auditor change and earning management phenomenon in the Saudi business environment during the period from 2002 to 2006. the study ends with number of recommendations.

Creative people generates the necessary energy for any society seeking to achieve the highest level of advancement and civilization, since creativity encompasses a set of mental and psychological attributes enabling the human beings to come up with novel and useful ideas in any domain. This emphasizes the significance of building the creative environment in our educational, economic and cultural institutions. Numerous empirical studies confirmed that organizations suffer from the weakness on creativity skills of business students, graduated from management, marketing, accounting, finance departments. The main objective of the research is to contribute in the formulation of the underpinning elements of the scientific framework which governs the process of teaching and integrating creative thinking skills into business education with the consideration of the civilizational and cultural factors in the Muslim and Arab world. This includes the development of a model to guide the process of teaching and integrating creative thinking skills into curriculum generally and more specifically business curriculum. In addition, this research seeks to review and analyze the related literature critically. This research proposed a comprehensive model including five dimensions: the materials of creativity, the creative teacher, the creative student, creative skills and the creative context. Each dimension has its own characteristics which must be met to attain the goals of teaching and integrating creative thinking skills into business education. Furthermore, the research suggests some business curriculum to integrate creative thinking skills into their scientific materials in the light of a predetermined criteria.