Measuring Income Inequality in Euroland

In this paper we propose an aggregate measure of income inequality for the founding countries of the European Monetary Union. Applying the methodology of the Theil index we are able to derive a measure for Euroland as a whole by using complementary data from the European Community Household Panel and the Luxembourg Income Study. The property of additive decomposability allows us to determine each country's contribution as well as that of each demographic group to overall income inequality. In addition the impact of government transfers on this inequality measure is assessed.     

Organizational change and accounting: the gunpowder monopoly in New Spain, 1757-87

The Viceroyalty of New Spain was the main source of income for the Spanish Crown and the largest producer of silver in the world throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Carlos III, a member of the Bourbon dynasty, initiated a great tax reform in the viceroyalty during the last third of the eighteenth century, and transferred public activities and leased monopolies were brought under direct state control. This paper focuses on the study of the specific change in the system of administering the gunpowder monopoly in 1766. Institutional sociology provides the theoretical framework for analysing the effects of institutionalized environments on the organizational structure and its expression through a process of bureaucratization as a mean of establishing organizational rationality. The role of accounting in the process of organizational change is analysed from a multidimensional perspective: on the one hand, as an aspect of the organizational structure which enables the improvement of the economic performance of the monopoly and to generate organizational visibility; and, on the other hand, as an element under the control of the creator of environmental rationality.     

PROPOSAL FOR A NEW MEASURE OF CORRUPTION, ILLUSTRATED WITH ITALIAN DATA

Standard cross-national measures of corruption are assembled through surveys. We propose a novel alternative objective measure that consists of the difference between a measure of the physical quantities of public infrastructure and the cumulative price government pays for public capital stocks. Where the difference is larger between the monies spent and the existing physical infrastructure, more money is being siphoned off to mismanagement, fraud, bribes, kickbacks, and embezzlement; that is, corruption is greater. We create this measure for Italy's 95 provinces and 20 regions as of the mid-1990s, controlling at the regional level for possible differences in the costs of public construction.     

The impact of TOEFL scores on placement and performance of international students in the initial graduate accounting class

This paper examines, in a US context, the relationship between performance in the initial required graduate financial accounting class and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores for a sample of international MBA students. Other variables that have been shown in the past to be associated with superior performance in that class for other samples are also considered for this international sample. These relationships have not been analysed by any previous studies. The results show that TOEFL scores are not associated with superior performance in graduate accounting for the international students. The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score is the factor most associated with superior performance in graduate-level accounting for international students. This result is consistent with the result reported in Krausz et al. (Advances in Accounting Education, 3(3), 169–177, 2000) for a sample of domestic US students.     

Deliberation over new hydrogen energy technologies: evidence from two Citizens’ Panels in the UK

Hydrogen energy and hydrogen energy technologies are still largely at the experimental and demonstration project stages. If the hydrogen is produced sustainably from renewable sources, it may be a potential means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and achieving other environmental objectives. But hydrogen technologies are still ‘emergent’ – seeking a niche to compete against incumbent technologies in stationary and mobile applications. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (buses and automobiles) and hydrogen refuelling stations have been developed, but they have yet to become established in the market. Much attention has been given to technical risk assessment of hydrogen as a hazardous gas, but broader ‘whole systems’ appraisals of a hydrogen infrastructure (for domestic and transport uses) are lacking. Importantly, public risk perceptions are seen as crucial factors influencing acceptance or rejection. This paper examines qualitative evidence about public attitudes towards hydrogen energy technologies and compares results from two Citizens’ Panels carried out recently in England and Wales. These Citizens’ Panels enabled selected samples of the general public to question the experts and deliberate over the issues raised. The paper highlights unresolved questions concerning ‘critical trust’ of experts and other stakeholders, and citizens’ demands for greater familiarity with the hydrogen technologies in practical, everyday settings, in order to offer judgements about their desirability and feasibility.     

A general equilibrium evaluation of the fiscal costs of trade liberalization in Ukraine

The establishment of an Association Agreement/Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (AA/DCFTA) with the European Union (EU) would be the next significant step towards Ukraine’s deeper integration into the world economy. Despite widely expected additional welfare gains, the signing of the AA/DCFTA at the Third Eastern Partnership summit in November 2013 in Vilnius was suspended by the Ukrainian government due to geopolitical concerns and a severe economic and financial crisis in Ukraine coming along with high external debt and a substantial public budget deficit. This puts the fiscal consequences of Ukraine’s continued liberalization into focus, as transition and developing countries face higher fiscal costs associated with trade integration. Accordingly, this paper contributes to the literature by analyzing the part of the potential EU-Ukraine DCFTA which leads to a loss of tariff revenues, namely the tariff elimination. In particular, we apply a static Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model for the single small open economy of Ukraine and focus on the effects of Ukraine’s unilateral tariff elimination by simulating three scenarios reflecting different means to compensate for the loss of tariff revenues. It turns out to be important to take these costs into consideration while modeling trade liberalization, as the results vary significantly across the scenarios.     

The Effect of Brand Gender on Brand Equity

Brand personality has been suggested as an important source of consumer‐based brand equity, yet empirical research on the relation between brand personality perceptions and brand equity is scarce. This article examines the link between masculine and feminine brand personality and brand equity as well as the underlying process of this relationship. Study 1 reported herein involves 140 existing brands and demonstrates that high levels of brand masculinity and femininity relate positively to brand equity, and that this relation is not moderated by participants’ sex. Study 2 demonstrates that brand gender accounts for brand equity ratings above and beyond other brand personality dimensions. Study 3 identifies ease of categorization as the underlying mechanism for the relationship between brand gender and brand equity.     

Family Formation and the Divisions of Labour in Belgian Couple Households

In this chapter the authors describe how a quantitative analysis resulted in a proposal for a qualitative research. The aim of the quantitative research was to analyse the impact of family formation on the division of labour in couple households, based on data from the Panel Study on Belgian Households.In a first step a typology was made based upon data of 1224 Belgian couple households (1995). The second step consisted of a longitudinal analysis for the period between 1992 and 1995. The analysis of the impact of birth on the division of labour gave evidence of the revocability of equal patterns of division of labour.Based on these findings the authors concluded that the classic concept of emancipation does not allow us to understand the empirical phenomena. Hence, the authors proposed a new (qualitative) investigation aimed at clarification and empirical validation of different contents of the concept of emancipation.