国家审计促进公共支出效率的路径与机理——基于中国省级面板数据的实证分析

提高公共支出效率是建立现代财政制度的题中之义。围绕国家审计提高公共支出效率这一主题，构建国家审计提高公共支出效率的理论框架，并基于投入导向的超效率 DEA 模型测算2008—2013年中国各省份的公共支出效率，运用Tobit模型进行数据检验，结果显示：国家审计通过审计揭示功能、审计处理处罚功能与审计建议功能之间的协同作用对公共支出效率产生积极影响，共同提升公共支出效率。因此，国家审计机关要在揭露违法违规问题、进行处理处罚的基础上，重点挖掘体制、机制和制度层面的原因，提出高质量的审计建议并推动其实施，共同促进公共支出的效率效果。     

What is an Accountant? An Investigation of Images

Abstract

The purpose of our paper is to identify different images of accountants held by different groups of people and to understand how the different images come about. In doing so, we focus on how accountants are perceived by others as well as how they perceive themselves. Through analysis of 1,794 usable questionnaire responses by university students, newly appointed accountants, and practicing accountants, we find an image close to the beancounter stereotype, and that of a modern professional, with the highest score for success but also for honesty. We also uncover a third image including nuances that are neither favorable nor unfavorable (the plain vanilla accountant), which suggests that the extremes found in cultural representations do not always reflect the real world. In addition, we find that the greater the distance from the profession, the less attractive the image of accountants is and that different sources of influence affect perceptions of accountants. In particular, the public perception of an accountant is less favorable when constructed from media sources. Finally, we add to the existing literature by showing that the self-image of accountants may change over time as experienced practitioners, compared to new hires, exhibit a sort of disillusionment about their professionalism.     

Social welfare,corruption and credibility

Abstract

Economic development requires that investments by entrepreneurs are not subject to expropriation by government. Unfortunately, public agencies often serve as the instruments by which political elites engage in corruption and extracting rents from the economy. The question is how to design institutions that credibly commit to a stable system of guarantees of property rights and contract enforcement.

Principal agent theory and the new public management favor greater accountability of public managers to elected officials or eliminating public agencies through privatization. We argue for institutional designs that provide a degree of public agency autonomy. We show that public agency autonomy is a by-product of the competition between elites in democracies with multiple veto players. We show that transparency, professionalism, and legality help ensure that public managers do not engage in rent-extraction. The institutional design problem is how to induce public managers to serve the public interest without being fully responsive to elected political officials.     

Insights into the Process Dynamics of Innovation Implementation

Abstract

In France, the differences between public and private organizations seem to have been reduced by the ubiquity of some management tools and approaches, and, at the same time, highlighted by the political environment, stereotypes, and negative perceptions of French public management. Given this confusion, systematic empirical studies are needed to determine the degree of convergence, if any, between management in the public and private sectors. The present study analyzed a survey of 908 managers, in order to determine whether differences in managerial practices still exist. Our results show that some differences do persist, although they are relatively small.     

Success in failure? Reflections on the changing Spanish audit environment

The 1990s in Spain have witnessed a significant shift in attitudes towards the role of auditing, with promises of more transparent reporting being replaced by talk of audit expectations gaps. This paper explores the changing atmosphere, both through an analysis of one of the most notorious scandals of recent times - involving the Banco Español de Credito (‘Banesto’) - and a more general review of the way the Spanish profession has responded to such downturns in public expectations of auditing. While at first sight, the profession appears to have become more defensive and the audit environment more competitive, the multinational accounting firms do appear to have strengthened their position in the Spanish audit market. Intriguingly, despite public expressions of concern with the quality and capabilities of auditing and the imposition of large fines on audit firms for inadequate audit work, proposed ‘solutions’ for improving audit quality include the establishment of a self-regulated audit regime and reductions in auditor liability. The Spanish experience allows for some timely reflections on the significance of an audit expectations gap and highlights the importance of viewing the audit function from an international perspective.     

Integrated risk management and product innovation in China: The moderating role of board of directors

This study explored the role of the board of directors in the relationship between integrated risk management and product innovation. We focused on a board's direct involvement in risk oversight and its use of external audit in risk oversight, and examined their moderating effects on the relationship between integrated risk management and product innovation. Panel data from a survey of 1178 Chinese firms was analyzed to test the hypotheses. A board's direct involvement in risk oversight was found to negatively moderate the positive relationship between integrated risk management and product innovation success. The use of external audit in risk oversight similarly weakens the relationship. These results show how an effective board contributes to the innovation benefits associated with risk management in product innovation. They also have important implications for emerging economy firms pursuing an integrated approach to risk management in product innovation.     

The Effect of National Environment on Global Competitiveness

Abstract

This paper examines national environmental factors responsible for achieving global competitiveness in the pharmaceutical industry. The effect of national economic and regulatory environments on pharmaceutical market and industry structure is empirically tested using a sample consisting of both industrialized and developing countries. GNP was found to be a significant variable affecting market size, industry focus, and industry concentration. Price regulation had a significant negative effect on market demand for pharmaceuticals whereas approval time for new drugs was found to have no significant effect. Results provide important implications for public policy and global strategy.     

Audit Fees in a Joint Audit Setting

Abstract

This paper uses the uniqueness of the French audit environment to conduct an in-depth study of audit pricing issues associated with the requirement to hire two independent auditors (joint audit). I use a model derived from Simunic's [(1980). The pricing of audit services: Theory and evidence. Journal of Accounting Research, 18(1), 161–190] seminal work to examine to what extent audit fees are influenced by the number of Big 4 joint auditors (zero, one, or two). After controlling for well-known drivers of audit fees that are specific to audit client firms (size, complexity, and risk), for governance characteristics and for auditor selection, the paper shows that the decision to hire two Big 4 auditors as joint auditors does not require the payment of a higher Big 4 premium compared to the choice of one Big 4 auditor paired with a smaller auditor, other things being equal. The choice of two Big 4 auditors thus appears to be a rational economic choice for large and international firms.     

Organizing professionals and their impact on performance: the case of public health doctors in the Italian SSN

ABSTRACT

Hybrid professional managers have been associated with improvements in the performance of public sector organizations. However, less attention has been given to differences within this category. Drawing on board human capital theory, we focus on an emerging group of ‘organizing professionals’ with earlier and deeper exposure to management training and education: generalist clinical hybrids drawn from public health in the Italian healthcare system. Specifically, we investigate the impact that these hybrid hospital CEOs have on organizational performance in comparison with other backgrounds. The results indicate that this form of generalist hybrid professionalism has distinct, if not dramatic, consequences for performance.     

Nothing like the Enron affair could happen in France (!)

Abstract

This paper reviews the reactions of the French accounting profession and academia following the collapse of both Enron and Andersen. It considers policy statements and declarations on the part of the accounting profession, legislative changes, the general impact on university accounting education programmes and specific developments in accounting teaching at my own institution, HEC. It considers the value of using corporate scandals in the teaching process and claims that more accounting theory and ethical issues should be introduced in accounting educational programmes.     

Why resilience managers aren’t resilient,and what human resource management can do about it

Abstract

Prior resilience research typically focuses on either the individual or the organisational level of analysis, emphasises resilience in relation to day-to-day stressors rather than extreme events and is empirically under-developed. In response, our study inductively theorises about the relationships between individual and organisational resilience, drawing upon a large-scale study of resilience work in UK and French organisations. Our first-hand accounts of resilience work reveal the micro-processes involved in producing resilient organisations, and highlight the challenges experienced in doing resilience work in large organisations. We show that these micro-processes have significant implications for resilience at both individual and organisational levels, and draw implications for how HRM interventions can help to promote individual, and thus organisational, resilience.     

Mitigating climate change: A role for regulations and risk‐taking

Why do some firms engage in actions to reduce climate change? We propose two counterintuitive mechanisms: high levels of regulation and a firm's increased tolerance for risk. Drawing from insights on how institutional contexts constrain, and enable, prosocial firm behavior, we argue that external pressures, amplified internally by a firm's higher tolerance for risk, increase the likelihood that a greenhouse gas (GHG)‐intensive firm will engage in climate change actions that exceed regulatory requirements. An analysis based on 7,101 observations of U.S. publicly traded firms during the 2013 to 2015 period supports our hypotheses. Our models show high overall prediction accuracy (88.6%) using an out‐of‐time holdout sample from 2016. Moreover, we find that firms that have exhibited environmental wrongdoing are also more likely to engage in beyond‐compliance activities, which may be a form of greenwashing. Thus, more formal and informal regulatory oversight has the potential to spur positive environmental actions. This has implications for a firm's corporate social responsibility actions as well as for climate change regulatory policy.     

The social impact of advice during disability welfare reform: from social return on investment to evidencing public value through realism and complexity

ABSTRACT

This article illustrates how advice services create diverse public values within welfare reform. It develops a social impact framework using public value, realism, and complexity literature. Starting from a social return on investment study of advice, qualitative interviews are analysed with twenty-two clients, who sought advice for welfare benefits, and had disabilities, or physical or mental health conditions. Integrating these clients’ experiences with wider evidence illustrates how advice services advocated for people’s needs within a complicated (and controversial) welfare system. However, advice services face funding cuts, benefit assessment costs have risen, and welfare reforms have yet to meet their aims.     

An Application of Principal Component Analysis on Multivariate Time-stationary Spatio-temporal Data

Abstract

Principal component analysis (PCA) denotes a popular algorithmic technique to dimension reduction and factor extraction. Spatial variants have been proposed to account for the particularities of spatial data, namely spatial heterogeneity and spatial autocorrelation, and we present a novel approach which transfers PCA into the spatio-temporal realm. Our approach, named spatio-temporal principal component analysis (stPCA), allows for dimension reduction in the attribute space while striving to preserve much of the data's variance and maintaining the data's original structure in the spatio-temporal domain. Additionally to spatial autocorrelation stPCA exploits any serial correlation present in the data and consequently takes advantage of all particular features of spatial-temporal data. A simulation study underlines the superior performance of stPCA if compared to the original PCA or its spatial variants and an application on indicators of economic deprivation and urbanism demonstrates its suitability for practical use.     

Organizational complexity and participatory innovation: participatory budgeting in local government

ABSTRACT

In this study, we examined the relationship between organizational complexity and the adoption of participatory innovation in German municipal government. We proposed that organizations with more complex organizational structures are more likely to adopt participatory innovation. We investigated municipalities (N = 394) of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and used participatory budgeting as an indicator for innovation. Our results indicate that organizational complexity expressed by functional differentiation has a positive relationship with the occurrence of participatory innovation. The results inform a debate about the value trade-offs that are inherent to the structural design of public organizations.     

Reforming local public services

Abstract

The following article is aimed at analysing reforms in public service delivery and management at the local level of government in Germany and France from a cross-countries comparative perspective. Particular attention is paid to the results and effects these reform initiatives have caused with regard to the administrative organization, steering capacities, and output performance. Two major approaches of reform will be addressed: privatization, contracting-out, and ‘corporatization’ of local services on the one hand and public management reforms on the other. Proceeding from the distinct ‘starting conditions’ of reforms in the two local government systems, the question will be pursued, as to whether there has been an increasingly convergent or divergent development in French and German local service provision, and how these evolutions can be explained.     

Support for contracting-out and public-private partnership: exploring citizens’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

Many studies have evaluated the merits and challenges of contracting-out and public-private partnership (PPP). However, few studies have examined citizens’ views of these alternative service-delivery mechanisms and what factors influence their views. Using results from a citizen survey of a mid-sized US city, the present study investigates how consumerism, the citizenry framework, and symbolic institutionalism influence public support for contracting-out and PPP. Our findings show that symbolic institutionalism provides the most significant and consistent explanation of public support for the mechanisms. Implications for public management practices and future research, especially on creating and capturing value through PPP, are discussed.     

预算机会主义、预算治理构造和预算审计——国家审计嵌入公共预算的理论架构

各国的国家审计在公共预算中的作用呈现不同特色.沿着预算机会主义、预算治理构造到预算审计这个逻辑路径,建立一个关于国家审计在公共预算中作用的理论架构,并以美国和中国作为案例来验证这个理论构架,具有重要意义.各个国家针对预算机会主义会有一个由预算文化、预算制衡和预算问责组成的预算治理构造,预算审计属于预算问责,预算审计如何嵌入预算治理构造的决定因素是剩余预算机会主义,剩余机会主义决定预算审计体制、预算审计重点和预算审计模式.     

Regulating Audit beyond the Crisis: A Critical Discussion of the EU Green Paper

With the European Commission making global leadership claims in the field of audit regulation, the content of its 2010 Green Paper on ‘Audit Policy: Lessons from the Crisis’ warrants careful scrutiny. Important issues raised in the Green Paper include regulatory oversight, competition in the audit market, the dangers of having very few firms with the capacity to audit global transnational corporations, professional judgement, innovative audit practices and, last but not least, social responsibility. This article analyses the principal perspectives and assumptions underpinning the construction of the Green Paper. The aims are threefold: to enhance understanding of the contemporary regulatory mindset of the European Commission, contribute to policy debate and inspire future research.