On the real effects of inflation in open economies: theory and empirics

Based on the quarterly data from four open economies (the US, the UK, Canada, and Italy) and estimated correlations and impulse responses within the traditional vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis, we find that inflation, both in the short and long term, negatively affects consumption and investment, and has a positive influence on the current account. We propose an infinite-horizon optimizing model of an open economy with a fixed rate of time preference that explains these empirics. In this type of economy, households consume both durable and non-durable goods, firms operate under costly investment, and all the transactions involving consumption and investment are subject to cash-in-advance (CIA) constraints. Employing the new ‘sign restriction’ identification procedure due to Uhlig (J Mone’t Econ 52(2)381–419, 2005), we corroborate the empirical validity of the proposed model. In order to verify the robustness of our results, we consider another shock, namely, productivity shock in our empirical analysis and find that while productivity shock dominates in the case of the US, inflationary shock has a dominating effect in the case of the UK, Canada, and Italy.     

Religious commitment related to message contentiousness

Using an experimental design, we tested whether viewers with differing levels of religious commitment have differing unaided recall, aided recall and attitudes towards non-contentious and contentious TV commercials in terms of their perceived message cues. The study, using Bahrani Muslim interviewees, demonstrates that religiously stricter Muslims have significantly lower recall and a more negative attitude towards messages perceived as contentious, while their recall and attitude scores for non-contentious messages are similar to those of subjects with lower levels of religious commitment. We recommend that international marketers show increased sensitivity to the cultures and traditions of submarkets by manipulating message cues, like music and dancing, to strengthen the brand communication while retaining its strategic integrity.     

Explaining the Role of Perceived Risk,Knowledge, Price,and Cost in Dry Fish Consumption Within the Theory of Planned Behavior

ABSTRACT

The general purpose of this study is to explore the influence of perceived risk, knowledge, price, and cost of dry fish consumption in Bangladesh using the general framework from the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The field experiments were performed in Bangladesh with a convenience sample of 558 respondents. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship among perceived risk, knowledge, price, and cost and TPB constructs. The findings showed that attitude, norms, and procedural knowledge emerge as the key determinants of intention, whereas intention, attitude, norms, and perceived risk have effects on the dry fish consumption frequency. Perceived behavioral control, price, and cost had no significant effect on intention and consumption behavior. The proposed TPB and the extended model both fit the data well and proved the expectations of this study in a promising way. The study found that people are more concerned about potential long-term risk to their family and others. Therefore, management attention should focus on reducing risks which consumers may face through producing safe and hazard-free dry fish.     

Tax planning,corporate governance and equity value

Tax planning by firms is a highly significant activity. After audit fees, tax related services are the largest source of fee income for UK accounting firms. When viewed in terms of its impact, tax planning is the major source of the corporation tax gap amongst large firms (HMRC, 2010). Although traditionally tax planning has been viewed as benefiting shareholders via increased after tax earnings, more recently the underlying motivation has been questioned. Desai and Dharmapala (2006) argue that when an information asymmetry exists between managers and shareholders with respect to tax planning, it can facilitate managers acting in their own interests resulting in a negative association between tax planning and firm value. Using a sample of UK quoted firms from 2005 to 2007 and data drawn from International Accounting Standard 12 Income Taxes (IASB, 2010) Effective Tax Rate (ETR) reconciliations, this paper reports such a negative relationship. Further, the relationship is robust to the inclusion of corporate governance measures which could be expected to moderate the potential implications of a tax related shareholder–manager information asymmetry. An innovation of this paper is in using the ETR reconciliations to examine sub-categories of tax planning activities. The paper contributes to the debate of who determines, and benefits from tax planning conducted by firms. Its findings have direct policy relevance for shareholders and tax administrations in monitoring and controlling firms’ tax planning activities.     

Knowledge acquisition using psychotherapy technique for critical factors influencing construction project layout planning

The positioning of equipment on a construction site may change in different construction phases, different environments, and different types of end products, which greatly influence the decision of the site planning engineer who seeks to maximize the construction efficiency by minimizing the friction from the site layout. This study aims to acquire and analyze site planning experts' knowledge on critical factors influencing the construction layout planning using a psychotherapy technique. Through an open‐structured interview survey and cluster analysis, 125 core factors influencing the site layout plan were analyzed and categorized into a database.     

Market orientation practices among small and medium hotels (SMHS) in tourist destination island of Langkawi

The purpose of the study is to investigate the underlying components of market orientation practices and their effect on the Small and Medium Hotels (SMHs) performances on tourist destination island of Langkawi. Fifty SMHs were randomly selected from a sampling frame of a list of SMHs registered with Malaysian Tourism Board. For data collection purposes, structured questionnaires were personally delivered and collected. Rotated component matrix factor analysis of the data extracted four underlying factors that explain seventy nine point four six percent of the total variances and alpha reliability coefficient of ninety eight percent. Those components were named as customer orientation, interfunctional orientation, service orientation, and competitor orientation. One sample Kolmogorov‐Smirnov Test indicates that SMHs in Langkawi practices market orientation in their operations and businesses. However, the finding of the study showed that their performances in 1998 was lower than 1997. We believe that this outcome is due to the effect of national and regional economic downturn in 1998.     

Do political connections affect the role of independent audit committees and CEO Duality? Some evidence from Malaysian audit pricing

This study examines whether political connection to firms affects the association between audit committee independence and demand for higher quality audits. In line with Carcello et al. (2002), our findings show that there is a positive association between audit committee independence and audit fees thus supporting the hypothesis that more independent audit committees demand higher audit quality. However, we find that this relationship is weaker for politically connected (PCON) firms suggesting that the independence of audit committees in Malaysian PCON firms may be compromised. Additionally, we provide evidence that PCON firms that have CEO duality are perceived by audit firms as being of higher risk than CEO duality firms without political connection.     

巴菲特退出了,你呢?

"股神"巴菲特卖出中国股票的做法显然并未博得所有人的认同。前不久,巴菲特将仍有很大获利后劲的中石油股票脱手的举动引起外界的极大关注。上周他在中国对媒体表示,投资中国股票的人应保持谨慎。