Importing,exporting and performance in sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms

This paper examines productivity differences between internationally trading and non-trading firms using data on a sample of firms from 19 sub-Saharan African countries. The paper provides the first evidence of whether exporters, importers and two-way traders perform better than non-traders, and whether there are differences in performance between different types of trading firms in sub-Saharan Africa. Our results indicate that exporters, importers and two-way traders perform better than non-exporters, non-importers and non-two-way traders. We further find that two-way traders perform better than importers only or exporters only, results largely consistent with recent results for other countries and regions. Considering information on export starters, continuers and exiters we also present some evidence suggesting that there is no significant difference in performance between export continuers and starters.     

How do auditors perceive CEO's risk‐taking incentives?

Prior literature documents that executive compensation influences managerial risk preferences through executives’ portfolio sensitivities to changes in stock prices (delta) and stock‐return volatility (vega). Large deltas discourage managerial risk‐taking, while large vegas encourage risk‐taking. Theory suggests that auditors charge higher audit fees when standard audit procedures do not allow auditors to reduce audit risk including the risk arising from higher business risk. We posit and find evidence of a negative (positive) relation between CEO portfolio deltas (vegas) and audit fees. We also find a negative relation between CEO portfolio deltas and the issuance of going‐concern audit opinions (GCO).     

Export Destination,Product Quality and Wages in a Middle‐Income Country. The Case of South Africa

A robust finding in the firm‐level literature is that exporting firms pay higher wages. Using South African data this paper investigates the relationship between export destination and wages at a worker level. South Africa, a middle‐income country, has two distinct main export markets—a regional market where per capita incomes are lower than at home, and an international market with higher per capita incomes. Our estimates show that workers in firms that export to the region earn less than those that produce for the domestic market. Those in firms that export outside the region earn more than either domestic producers or region‐only exporters. Much of this difference in wages can be explained by the premium the different types of exporters pay for skills. These results support previous studies which suggest that export destination is related to product quality which in turn is related to worker quality and therefore wages.     

Is there price discovery in equity options?

We use tick-by-tick quote data for 39 liquid US stocks and options on them, and we focus on events when the two markets disagree about the stock price in the sense that the option-implied stock price obtained from the put-call parity relation is inconsistent with the actual stock price. Option market quotes adjust to eliminate the disagreement, while the stock market quotes behave normally, as if there were no disagreement. The disagreement events are typically precipitated by stock price movements and display signed option volume in the direction that tends to eliminate the disagreements. These results show that option price quotes do not contain economically significant information about future stock prices beyond what is already reflected in current stock prices, i.e., no economically significant price discovery occurs in the option market. We also find no option market price discovery using a much larger sample of disagreement events based on a weaker definition of a disagreement, which verifies that the findings for the primary sample are not due to unusual or unrepresentative market behavior during the put-call parity violations.     

The Impact of Accounting Education Research

Abstract

This paper presents an exploratory study into the nature and patterns of usage of accounting education research. The study adopts the most accessible metric, Google Advanced Scholar citations, to analyse the impact of research published in the six principal English-language accounting education journals. The analysis reveals a global readership for these journals but evidence of relatively low citation levels. However, papers tended to be cited more than expected in cross-disciplinary education journals, discipline-specific education journals, and non-education journals. Guidance is offered to authors seeking to maximise the impact of their research, and issues of concern are identified for editors and publishers. This is the first paper to look beyond content at the usefulness of research in accounting education as indicated by citations. In doing so, it contributes to the current debate on the quality of this research, and of research in accounting and finance in general.     

Core self-evaluations and salary attainment: the moderating role of the developmental network

Core self-evaluation (CSE) has been shown to be robust as a predictor of employees' salary attainment. Although the developmental network is suggested to have a positive impact on salary, do all high-CSE individuals benefit from their developmental networks similarly? We incorporate both personality research and developmental network research to explore this question in two studies. In Study 1, we investigated whether developmental network size moderates the positive CSE–salary relationship. In Study 2, we explored whether the organizational status and the strength of ties of one's developers moderate the positive CSE–salary relationship. Results indicated that high-CSE individuals with developmental networks characterized by fewer developers and by strong ties reported higher salaries than others. Overall, our findings demonstrate that the positive CSE–salary link may vary depending on the structural characteristics of the developmental network.     

Do Minority-owned Banks Pay Higher Interest Rates on CDs?

This paper analyzes whether minority-owned banks pass along an advantage in access to governmental deposits to the communities they serve in the form of higher interest rates paid on certificates of deposit (CDs). Although academic evidence has not confirmed increased profitability or efficiency of these banks since the creation of the Minority Bank Deposit Program, their unique positioning within communities may allow them to meet the needs of a clientele with lower and less stable income, and with higher than average expected future deposit withdrawals. Data from the regulatory reports provided by minority and non-minority owned banks are analyzed using five distinct time horizons for CDs. The results suggest that Black-owned banks consistently pay higher interest rates on CDs, with a lower premium for longer-term CDs, and used the premium to cushion the ill effects of the recent financial collapse on their customers. Asian-owned banks provide a smaller premium for short-term CDs, while the remaining category of minority-owned banks, including Native American, Hispanic, and Women-owned banks, also paid a premium on CDs, but shrank that premium substantially following the financial collapse. Note also that minority-owned banks may use this funding advantage in a variety of other ways to serve their respecitive communities.     

Learning-by-exporting versus self-selection: New evidence for 19 sub-Saharan African countries

We examine learning-by-exporting effects of manufacturing and services firms in 19 sub-Saharan African countries. Comparing several outlier-robust estimators, our results provide evidence for positive effects in the manufacturing sector when using the MM estimator, but not in the services sector.