An economic analysis of the earnings of industrial accountants

This paper explores hypothesized determinants of accountants' earnings using a conventional Mincer earnings function. Findings indicate that the CPA credential, MBA degree, and years of work experience increase earnings. Also presented is a more detailed analysis of the earnings gap between accountants employed in traditional accounting positions and those in finance-related positions.     

An Empirical Investigation of Audit Fees,Nonaudit Fees,and Audit Committees*

This study examines the association between audit committee characteristics and the ratio of nonaudit service (NAS) fees to audit fees, using data gathered under the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) fee disclosure rules. Issues related to NAS fees have been of concern to practitioners, regulators, and academics for a number of years. Prior research suggests that audit committees possessing certain characteristics are important participants in the process of managing the client‐auditor relationship. We hypothesize that audit committees that are independent and active financial monitors have incentives to limit NAS fees (relative to audit fees) paid to incumbent auditors, in an effort to enhance auditor independence in either appearance or fact. Our analysis using a sample of 538 firms indicates that audit committees comprised solely of independent directors meeting at least four times annually are significantly and negatively associated with the NAS fee ratio. This evidence is consistent with audit committee members perceiving a high level of NAS fees in a negative light and taking actions to decrease the NAS fee ratio.     

Pre-expatriation: the role of HR factors in the early stages of internationalization

While there has been considerable research on the early stages of internationaIization, HRM aspects have not generally been part of this work, even though many of the important variables revolve around the key people involved and such aspects as their knowledge and networks. In this article, the somewhat neglected area of HRM and internationalization before full-scale expatriation is examined. From the limited available research, it would appear that, within companies, many of the emerging HR issues in early internationalization are dealt with as and when they arise, in a relatively ad hoc manner, often through the marketing department. It is argued that there is potential for a more substantial role to be played by HR staff, but this may well depend on the development of more internationally oriented HR staff as a starting point.     

SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS IN MOTOR INSURANCE IN THAILAND

ABSTRACT: The 1990s saw rapid economic growth in Thailand. Motor insurance grew enormously, becoming the biggest income earner for total general business (both for the whole industry and for many individual companies). Cash flow underwriting seemed to be the recipe for success in a competitive market.
The agency distribution system for motor insurance in Thailand is almost wholly controlled by finance companies and banks, which expect a high rate of commission. Their delay in paying over the premiums to the insurers created bad-debt problems after the 1997 economic crash, when the government closed many of these financing companies. This also meant an end to the motor insurance boom, with a decrease in premium income and a reduction in investment returns and assets, thus threatening solvency margins.
Earlier in the decade, in 1993, there was the introduction of compulsory third-party insurance, followed by the establishment by the government of provincial bureaus to help these third-party claimants. And in 2000, just in time for the next wave of economic growth, a new rating system has been introduced to bring sophistication to the basic process of evaluating and pricing different risks, though still within a government tariff system. Liberalization is coming, in stages, and the industry is making changes so as to be in a fit state to cope with the increased competition and opportunities that this liberalization will bring.
Like all setbacks, the crash of 1997 was an opportunity for Thai motor insurers to examine the fundamentals of their business and plan to increase their professionalism. Some are already well on the way to high-quality service, meeting ISO 9002 standards, and have begun Internet trading.     

The role of product type and country‐of‐origin in decisions about choice of endorser ethnicity in advertising

Two experiments examine the effects of endorser ethnicity and product country of origin on consumer responses toward ad and brand, and investigate the moderating role of utilitarian versus hedonic product type. In Experiment 1, for utilitarian products, participants showed more favorable responses when the endorser's ethnicity was incongruent with the product's country of origin compared to when it was congruent, supporting an attribution‐theory explanation. For hedonic products, however, participants preferred ads that featured an endorser whose ethnicity matched their own, irrespective of the product's country of origin. In Experiment 2, building on the attribution explanation, two endorsers of different ethnicities generated more favorable responses than two of the same ethnicity. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Valuation and firm investment and financing policies with personal tax biases

In this paper we examine firm financial policies in the presence of personal tax biases (e.g., favoring capital gains relative to interest and dividends). A form of the value additivity principle (VAP) for the tax bias case is established and applied to the firm's merger, investment, financial structure, and dividend decisions. As with the neutral tax VAP, the revised VAP requires transaction costless capital markets but does not require capital market completeness or competitiveness. Share value maximization is found not to be the proper goal for a firm that seeks to maximize the shareholders' current expected utility; however, it is found that share value maximization is generally a good approximate objective. Firm investment policy with financial structure irrelevance (owing to offsetting personal and corporate taxes) is examined assuming that the revised VAP holds.     

Sooner or later?: Inventive rivalry and welfare

An important branch of the literature on research and development expenditures has focused on the timing of innovation under different assumptions about the degree of inventive railway. This paper examines the timing decision under conditions of growing technological opportunities. Unlike earlier work, we explicitly treat social welfare in a second-best world where patent protection is used to spur innovation. We find that, given reasonable parameters, the orderings of private introduction times vis-á-vis the socially optimal time are ambiguous. We conclude that any welfare ranking would require a complete specification of all parameters (technical, behavioral and structural) surrounding each specific technological opportunity.