Auditors' Responses to Workload Imbalance and the Impact on Audit Quality*

Using detailed data for fieldwork hours and audit hours by rank from audit engagements in Korea, we examine whether audits conducted under workload imbalance, proxied by busy‐season audits, impair audit quality, and how auditors adjust staff assignments for busy‐season audits. We generally find that busy‐season audits are associated with lower audit quality, and that audit firms reduce the involvement of senior auditors during busy‐season audits. In addition, the greater the involvement of senior auditors and junior auditors, the lesser the deterioration in audit quality. Finally, although there is no increase in interim audits in response to workload imbalance during busy seasons, increasing interim audits can mitigate the negative impact of busy‐season audits on audit quality. Our results are relevant to auditors and regulators, who have expressed concerns about the adverse effects of workload imbalance on audit quality.     

Beyond trade creation: Preferential trade agreements and trade disputes

This study investigates the effects of preferential trade agreements (PTA) on bilateral trade disputes. We construct a unique and comprehensive dataset on inter-country trade disputes from 1995 to 2007. The dataset covers 110 countries and 1,162 bilateral country-pair trade disputes. Using this dataset in a gravity-type model of trade dispute analysis, we find that countries belonging to the same PTA tend to experience fewer trade conflicts among themselves than with non-member countries. By studying various types of PTA with different dispute settlement mechanisms, we further find that the dispute-reducing effect only comes from PTA with specific provisions on dispute settlement mechanisms. Moreover, the effect is stronger if those PTA explicitly stipulate that members can also resolve their disputes via the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. However, having PTA that do not address how members should resolve their disputes may lead to more dispute initiations than in cases without PTA.     

长江下游城市群农业产业结构的影响因素研究

[目的]长江下游城市群作为我国重要的工农业生产基地,推进其农业产业结构的发展,探究影响农业产业结构的因素,对该区域甚至全国均有一定的应用参考价值。[方法]文章通过文献调查法对长江下流城市群进行理论研究,选取上海、南京、杭州、苏州及无锡等5个城市为研究对象,针对农业产业结构进行实证分析,进而采用分析比较法研究长江下流城市群农业产业结构的影响因素。[结果]上述5个城市农业产业结构在社会生产力水平、社会发展水平、社会需求、国家政策与导向以及农业设施、农业科学技术等因素的影响下不断变化发展。[结论]调整及优化长江下游城市群农业产业结构使其达到最佳合理状态,应基于影响其发展变化因素,影响因素为一个综合体,包括社会生产力水平、社会发展水平、社会需求、国家政策与导向以及农业基础设施和农业科技水平等。     

mLearning as a softer visitor management approach for sustainable tourism

With increased visitation to protected natural areas over the last four decades, there is a need for implementation of effective visitor management strategies at these sites to mitigate visitor impacts. This study explores the application of mobile learning (mLearning) in environmental interpretation and visitor education within the context of conservation and sustainable tourism. Specifically, it proposes a conceptual framework for mLearning as a visitor management tool for sustainable tourism. Current developments and innovations in mobile broadband networks, smartphone technology, and mobile software applications present opportunities for the utilization of such mobile-driven applications in interpretive programs to encourage free-choice learning and mindful visitor experiences. If effectively implemented, such interpretive programs and mLearning applications can affect visitor perceptions, attitudes, and future intentions toward conservation and environmental protection.     

Labor Unemployment Concern and Corporate Discretionary Disclosure

We investigate how firms strategically vary their disclosure policies in response to labor unemployment concern. Using changes in state unemployment insurance laws as exogenous variations of labor unemployment concern, we show that firms provide more bad news forecasts when unemployment concern is low. This relation is stronger when firms are financially constrained, when CEOs and CFOs have higher equity incentives, and when workers are likely to be affected more by unemployment. Our findings are not driven by earnings management reversal or underlying performance changes, and are robust to a battery of identification tests. Finally, we find a similar effect of unemployment concern on disclosure using the tone of 10‐K and 10‐Q filings as an alternative proxy for corporate disclosure. Overall, our findings suggest that labor unemployment concern is an important consideration for corporate discretionary disclosure.     

另一只"看不见的手"——埃莉诺·奥斯特罗姆与"多中心"理论

在"多中心"理论之前,社会上主要存在市场秩序和国家主权秩序.多中心的产生源于集体行动理论的局限性,它颠覆了公共财产只有交由中央权威机构管理或完全私有化后才能有效管理的传统观念.本文对当代公共选择学派和公共经济学的代表人物埃莉诺·奥斯特罗姆的"多中心"理论做了解读,并从奥斯特罗姆个人学术研究经历出发,追溯多中心思想形成的全过程,最后就"多中心"理论的重要意义与发展方向做了展望.     

The synchronization club: classification of global economic groups by inequality

We find that, from 1970 to 2006, the GDPs of 181 countries are described by a log-normal with a power law tail before 1992, but by a kinked power law distribution after 1992. In the 15 years from 1992 to 2006, there are two obvious scale-free zones for annual GDPs, ranked from the largest to smallest. If the countries in each scaling region are regarded as a group, the world is divided into two groups, each with a roughly stable number of members. The power exponents of the two groups are different and hence lead to different inequalities. Therefore, the basis for classification is the macro-consistent inequality within each group. The wealth grows in a synchronous nonlinear manner within groups that have a stable wealth distribution and rank structure. If each group is considered as a club, we name it a ‘synchronization club’.