Bill - you are correct that the outgoing links do not actually add to your PR - unless of course the page you are linking to links back - then you get a .9 or so return based on a combination of a bunch of other factors that no one can decide on
However - starting about 3 years ago Google started adding some sort of "extra credit" to sites that were already what they considered to be "authority sites" if they were also linking out to other "authority sites". Its pretty difficult to get that status however once you do, you can do just about anything you want.
It doesnt show up as an increase in "displayed PR" but it definitely shows in the SERP rankings and can allow you to do magic with listing new pages
