Rentenversicherung zwischen Nachhaltigkeit und Gerechtigkeit

Compared to other Western European countries, Germany has taken considerable steps to improve the sustainability of financing its public pension system. However, more recently we have observed attempts to revoke some of the enacted reforms before their implementation. If the positive correlation between income and life expectancy is taken into account, one can indeed diagnose a discrimination against low-income earners in the present retirement benefit schedule, and this very group will suffer disproportionately from the increase in legal retirement age enacted in 2007. Therefore, to protect the sustainability of the pension system in the political sphere, it may be necessary to modify the schedule in favor of this group. In other words, sustainability and equity of the pension system must go hand in hand.     

The Effect of Measurement Subjectivity Classifications on Analysts' Use of Persistence Classifications When Forecasting Earnings Items

Earnings items are typically classified in financial reports based on their persistence and measurement subjectivity. Archival research examines investors' use of persistence and measurement subjectivity classifications for forecasting and valuation. However, this research typically examines only one of these classifications at a time and ignores the potential interactive implications of an earnings item's persistence and measurement subjectivity classifications. We recruited experienced financial analysts to participate in two experiments that examined the effect of measurement subjectivity classifications on analysts' use of persistence classifications when forecasting earnings items. We find that analysts rely less on an earnings item's persistence classification when measurement subjectivity is high relative to when measurement subjectivity is low. We also find that presentation format affects analysts' use of these two classifications. Specifically, we find that the matrix format (i.e., rows display persistence classifications and columns display measurement subjectivity classifications) facilitates analysts' combined use of persistence and measurement subjectivity classifications relative to the sequential format (i.e., the classifications are displayed separately). These findings suggest that archival research could improve its examination of market participants' use of earnings classifications for forecasting and valuation by recognizing that the implications of an earnings item's persistence classification can vary according to the item's measurement subjectivity classification. By also demonstrating how presentation format affects analysts' use of earnings classifications, our study provides further insights into this fundamental issue in accounting research and standard setting.     

Kurz Kommentiert

KURZ KOMMENTIERT

Kurz Kommentiert     

Dutch Disease in Australia: Policy Options for a Three‐Speed Economy

‘Dutch Disease’ refers to the adverse effects through real exchange rate appreciation that the mining boom can have on various export‐ and import‐competing industries. The distinction is made between the booming sector (mining), the lagging sector (exports not part of the booming sector and import‐competing goods and services) and the non‐tradeable sector. What should the government do to reduce this Dutch ‘disease’? The principal options are: do nothing, piecemeal protectionism, moderate exchange rate effects by running a fiscal surplus, combined with lowering the interest rate, and possibly establishing a sovereign wealth fund. The costs of the latter measures may be considerable.     

‘Many Rivers to Cross’: Suburban Densification and the Social Status Quo in Greater Lyon

Urban research often considers densification from the perspective of sustainable development and social mix. This essay focuses instead on the social and political stakes involved in densification through the example of a large French metropolitan area. It shows that the densification policies put in place in the Lyon agglomeration cannot be said to succeed in breaking down the historical segregation between its residential and affluent western suburbs (banlieues) and its industrial and working‐class eastern ones. The political manoeuvres executed by the institutions implementing densification, and the search for consensus characterizing France's intercommunalities, block any possibility of redistributing functions and social classes at the metropolitan scale, and hence of ending the social specialization of Lyon's suburbs. Moreover, municipalities subjected to pressure from suburban areas carefully assess the profile of residents selected to occupy new housing units—i.e. individuals already residing in the commune in the case of western suburbs, and middle‐class individuals hailing from the eastern part of the agglomeration in the case of eastern suburbs. Densification does not foster social mix at the metropolitan scale, neither does it improve the housing conditions of disadvantaged populations.     

On the Optimality of Restricting Credit: Inflation Avoidance and Productivity

The paper presents a model in which the consumer uses up resources in order to avoid the inflation tax through the use of exchange credit. In an example economy without capital, the credit tax is optimal when the resource loss from credit use dominates the productivity effect and the inefficiency of substitution towards leisure as a result of the credit tax. The paper also examines second-best inflation policy in this context, given a credit tax. It then extends the economy to an endogenous growth setting and shows how restricting inflation avoidance can increase productivity.
JEL Classification Numbers: E13, E51, E61, G21.     

The Certified Public Accounting Profession in China: Its Development and Impact on Financial Control of Business Operations

Accounting reforms leading towards the internationalisation of Chinese accounting practices are being accelerated by the development of the certified public accountants (CPA) system, re-introduced in China in 1980. The impact of the Chinese CPA system on foreign CPAs attempting to enter the Chinese CPA profession points to issues of concern for Western business people as a whole. There is considerable potential for conflict between the traditional independence of the CPA profession in western countries and the Chinese acceptance of control by powerful government agencies.