Analysis of nonimmigrant visa waiver legislation in the USA

US visa requirements are among the most restrictive in the world. Three bills have been introduced into the US Congress which, if passed, would exempt nationals of some foreign countries from having to obtain a temporary visitor visa. This article examines the provisions, and conflicts between provisions, of these bills, and emphasizes the beneficial effects on the tourism industry which passage of nonimmigrant visa waiver legislation would have.     

Reward strategies for attracting,evaluating, and retaining professionals

A typology of the design of organizational reward systems that explicitly addresses attraction, evaluation, and retention of valued professionals is offered within four cultural contexts: the Apathetic Culture, the Caring Culture, the Exacting Culture, and the Integrative Culture. The strategic design of reward systems is one of the most critical but least understood phenomena in corporate America today. The special case of the autonomy-seeking professional is discussed and implications for strategic reward system change efforts are made.     

Book Reviews

Louis T. Wells Jr., Third World Multinationals, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1983, pp. viii + 206. $17.50.

O van den Muizenberg, P. Streefland, and W. Wolters (eds), Focus on the Region in Asia, Rotterdam: Erasmus University Comparative Asian Studies Program, 1982, pp. 349.

Brian Wawn, The Economics of the ASEAN Countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, London: Macmillan, 1982, pp. ix + 180. A$48.00.

Anthony H. Chisolm and Rodney Tyers (eds), Food Security: Theory, Policy, and Perspectives from Asia and the Pacific Rim, Toronto: Lexington Books, D. C. Heath and Co., pp. xx + 359. $39.50.

Marcel Bonneff. Françoise Cayrac-Blanchard, Pierre Labrousse, Jacques Leclere. Denys Lombard, Monique Zaini-Lajoubert, Pantjasila: Trente Années de Débats Politiques en Indonésie. Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de I' Homme, Etudes insulin-diennes/Archipe1 2, 1980, pp. viii + 427, illustrations, index.

Hans P. Binswanger, Robert E. Evenson, Cecilia A. Florencio & Benjamin N. F. White (eds). Rural Houshold Studies in Asia, Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1980, pp. 369. US$28.00.

Ida Bagus Mantra, Population Movement in Wet Rice Communities, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1981.

A. Fujimoto (ed.), Socioeconomic Study of Rice Farming and Marketing in Indonesia: A Case Study of Gadingsari, Central Java, Tokyo: Nodai Research Institute, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1982, pp. 139.

Wilbert Gooneratne (ed.), Labour Absorption in Rice-based Agriculture: Case Studies from South-east Asia, Bangkok: International Labour Office, Asian Regional Team for Employment Promotion, 1982. US$5.00.

Zainab Bakir and Chris Manning (eds), Partisipasi Angkatan Kerja, Kesempatan Kerja dan Pengangguran di Indonesia (Labour Force Participation. Work Opportunities and Unemployment in Indonesia), Yogyakarta: Pusat Penelitian dan Studi Kependudukan, Universitas Gadjah Mada. 1983.

Soeharsono Soemantri, Study of Indonesia's Economically Active Population, 2nd edition, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1982.

Priyono Tjiptoherijanto, M. Yasin, Bakir Hasan, Djunaedi Hadisumarto (eds). Sumber Daya Manusia, Kesempatan Kerja dan Pembangunan Ekonomi (Human Resources, Job Opportunities and Economic Development), Jakarta: Lembaga Penerbit Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Indonesia, 1982.     

Partial acquisitions,the acquisition probability hypothesis,and the abnormal returns to partial targets

The acquisition of a partial stake in a target firm has been positively linked to the likelihood that the target will be involved in a follow on full acquisition involving either the original bidder or a third party bidder. Existing studies provide only suggestive evidence of this linkage by comparing the abnormal returns to partial targets that are ultimately acquired to those that are not. Using a sample of partial acquisitions, we identify characteristics that impact the probability of a full acquisition and provide a tangible link between partial target gains and the ex ante probability of acquisition. Partial targets experience positive announcement effects, and the gains are greater for subsequently acquired targets. Partial bids initiated by corporate bidders are more likely to result in a full acquisition, and the size of the acquired stake and the level of institutional ownership are positively linked to the probability of acquisition. Further, the partial target gains are positively linked to the ex ante probability of acquisition even after controlling for any increased monitoring and discipline that the partial bidder is expected to impose. The findings are robust across various time horizons and model specifications.     

Economic Effects of Taxing Different Organizational Forms under the Nordic Dual Income Tax

This paper analyzes the economic effects of income splitting rules for closely held corporations and sole proprietorships/partnerships under the Nordic dual income tax. Income is split by imputing a return to capital, but the methods used for this differ between the Nordic countries. With a few notable exceptions, income splitting does well in the sense that the cost of capital is approximately the same in closely and widely held corporations. The special tax rules for sole proprietorships/partnerships manage to neutralize the impact of the high labor income tax on the cost of capital.     

Does trading volume detect information content in earnings reconciliations of foreign firms?

Currently, foreign firms trading securities on U.S. markets provide periodically a quantitative reconciliation of selected financial data consistent with U.S. GAAP (hereafter referred to as reconciled information) in Form 20-F. The SEC is examining whether users believe that this reconciliation process provides additional information above that provided by the foreign GAAP earning announcement and whether this incremental information enhances usefulness for market participants. We examine whether the reconciliation affects a primary indicator of information usefulness: the trading volume of capital markets participants.We use a regression model to examine the relation between a measure of abnormal trading volume and four firm-specific variables in the firm's information environment: similarities of accounting systems, analyst following, difference between reconciled earnings and foreign GAAP earnings, and dispersion of analysts’ expectations. We find a significant relation between abnormal volume and the reconciled earnings number and between abnormal volume and the dispersion of analysts forecasts. Our findings suggest that market participants may use the 20-F reconciliation in trading decisions.     

What we spend and what we get: Public and private provision of crime prevention and criminal justice

In this paper, we consider a number of issues regarding crime prevention and criminal justice. We begin by considering how crime is measured and present both general and specific evidence on the level of crime in a variety of countries. Crime is pervasive and varies substantially across countries. We outline the arguments for some public role in crime prevention, enforcement, prosecution, defence, adjudication and punishment. We consider the relative roles of the public and private sectors in crime control and criminal justice. We discuss various measures for the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. We conclude by suggesting some potential areas for research.     

'We are nurses, we are supposed to care for people': professional values among nurses in NHS Direct call centres

This paper explores the interpretive negotiation of professional values by nurses working in a large public-sector organisation in the UK, namely the NHS Direct (NHSD). Reported are findings from a number of case studies of NHSD, undertaken in response to calls for more research into so-called professional call centre settings.     

The Impact of Adopting International Accounting Standards on the Harmonization of Accounting Practices

Over the past few decades numerous organizations have been actively participating in the efforts to improve the comparability of financial reporting. Many studies have discussed the benefits and drawbacks of comparability. This study investigated the affect on the harmonization, or comparability, of accounting practices when a sample of companies choose to use international accounting standards (IASs) when preparing financial reports.This study analyzed trends in the I index, a measure of concentration for the use of a particular accounting practice introduced by van der Tas, to determine if the choice of accounting methods by a sample of Swiss companies became more aligned with a sample of companies from three other countries. The study included a control sample of Swiss companies that did not switch from reporting using local Swiss standards during the same time period, 1988 through 1995. Four accounting practices were included; depreciation, inventory, financial statement cost basis, and consolidation practices. The practices used were compared with a sample of companies from three countries; Japan, the UK, and the US.The results indicated that across the 8-year period, the majority of the I indices comparisons were positive and statistically significant. However, the results did not support that these increases were due primarily to the adoption of IASs.