Beyond budgeting ante portas,ControllingWorld am 31.3. und 1.4.

Neben dem Congress der Controller und Horváths Controller-Forum versucht sich die ControllingWorld von Management Circle als drittes gro?es Treffen der Controller-Community zu etablieren. Es geht nicht so famili?r zu wie in München und auch die Weihe eines Controlling-Papstes wie in Stuttgart fehlt. Aber als Tendenzbarometer hat auch die Bad Homburger ControllingWorld ihren Platz.     

Reply to Professor Yongding Yu

We are indebted to Professor Yu for his careful reading of our paper, and are pleased that he sympathizes with our argument that controls on purely financial capital inflows should not be relaxed so long as world interest rates remain unduly low. We agree that direct ＂real＂ investments into, and increasingly out of, China＇s economy need not be limited. These direct investment flows are now more or less balanced, without threatening a loss of monetary control by the People＇s Bank of China （PBC）.     

Einkommens- und Vermögensverteilung — zu ungleich?

The distribution of income and wealth in Germany grew increasingly unequal until the beginning of the financial crisis. But inequality has not risen in either Germany or Switzerland since 2005. Nevertheless, Germans overestimate inequality. The German gap between reality and perception of inequality is important to investigate, as the subjective assessment of inequality influences redistribution preferences. Rising inequality may damage social stability and democracy, but it is unclear whether economists are able to assess a “proper and just” distribution. Interdependencies are discussed: Does a more equal distribution create negative effects on economic growth? How does Germany rank internationally with regard to distribution? Social mobility rates differ substantially across countries; what are the implications for economic policy?     

The disposition effect in farmers’ selling behavior: an experimental investigation

The identification of the optimal selling time of stored goods is among the most essential economic decisions on a farm. Beyond monetary aspects, behavioral factors influence farmers’ selling decisions. In financial economics, the disposition effect is a commonly observed phenomenon. It describes the fact that investors hold losing stocks too long, while they sell stocks that gained in value too early. In the context of agriculture, this behavioral bias has not been analyzed thoroughly yet. To close this research gap, we conducted an incentivized online experiment with 112 farmers from Germany. The experimental design was based on a well‐proven experiment from financial economics and adapted to an agricultural decision context where stored goods must be sold. Farmers were provided information on the uncertain price developments. In addition, lotteries were conducted to elicit farmers’ risk attitude, probability weighting, and loss aversion. Results indicate that there is a robust disposition effect in farmers’ selling behavior. Furthermore, more loss‐averse farmers exhibited a higher realization of gains.     

Monetary policy,inequality and political instability

Voters in the industrialised countries are increasingly expressing dissatisfaction by dissenting from the established political parties and candidates. Based on the concepts of justice by Hayek, Rawls and Buchanan, we argue that the growing dissatisfaction is rooted in the asymmetric pattern of monetary policies since the mid‐1980s for two reasons. First, the structurally declining interest rates and the unconventional monetary policy measures have granted privileges to specific groups. Second, the increasingly expansionary monetary policies have negative growth effects, which have reduced the scope for compensation of the ones excluded from the privileges. As a result, the acceptance of the prevailing economic and political order is undermined and political instability increases.     

The effect of self-confidence and anxiety on risk reduction strategies for an innovative product

This research investigated consumer modes of information seeking as a means of reducing uncertainty for a high risk innovation. Measures of consumers' generalized and specific selfcondidence along with anxiety were taken to study their mediating effect on consumer's tendency to seek any of six information sources. Subjects completed a 20 item behavioral differential designed to measure the tendency to seek different sources. The design used was a 2×2×2 ANOVA. The sample was drawn from a middle, upper middle class, white suburban civic club. The results show that specific self-confidence was the most important variable in explaining the tendency to seek information about a microwave oven. The two most favored information sources were the impersonal independent (Consumer Reports type of magazine) and the subject's own observation and experiences. There was some tendency to use interpersonal sources, but the impersonal independent and observation/experience were favored.     

IV. Bevölkerung und Arbeit

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

ACCOUNTING COURSES AND PROFESSIONAL FUNCTIONS*

In Australia, people performing accounting functions may have undertaken a course at a university, CAE, or technical college. This study is addressed to the rationale for this multiplicity of courses by seeking to determine whether there are different outcomes, such as professional functioning and salary, among graduates from these different courses. A specially devised questionnaire was developed to determine the degree of professionalism in late 1979 of accounting graduates from some Sydney and Melbourne universities, CAEs (UG1 bachelor degree and UG2 diploma courses), and technical colleges from the following years: 1970, 1974, 1976 and 1978. Limitations such as sample size prevent definitive answers. It was found that degree of professionalism and salary were related to attendance pattern, years of accounting experience before course completed, and years of accounting experience after course completed, but that the relationships with accounting course studied are low. Data counceming the mean percentage time spent on professional, technician, and other functions are provided.     

Das europäische Verfahren zur Vermeidung und Korrektur von Leistungsbilanzungleichgewichten

The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) is part of a institutional framework known as the so-called “sixpack“, which has come into effect on December 13th 2011 in response to the European financial and debt crisis. The crisis has shown that internal and external imbalances (in particular current account deficits) are strongly intertwined. The MIP should identify external imbalances at an early stage and thus compel countries to correct these imbalances to forestall potential crises. Methodological questions are discussed, which are to be resolved to ensure the effectiveness of the MIP.