Banks as Interest Rate Managers

Most banks have a two-tier pricing system, offering accounts at market-related interest rates and at posted rates that are changed at discrete intervals. In this paper, I develop a model of bank interest rate management. I consider a bank with two classes of loans and deposits in its balance sheet: One pays a market rate of interest, the other a posted rate. Market rates are exogenous and evolve stochastically over time. Posted rates are altered intermittently by the bank itself. The bank faces imperfect arbitrage by its customers between posted and market rate funds. Under simple assumptions about the stochastic process governing the market rate, I derive optimal decision rules for the adjustment of the posted rate and determine conditions under which these rules are asymmetric. A key prediction of the model is a negative correlation between market loan rates and the gap; this is more consistent with the behavior of British banks than is the contrary prediction of more standard models.     

Persistent and Consistent Poverty in the 1994 and 1995 Waves of the European Community Household Panel Survey

This paper focuses on the mismatch between income and deprivation measures of poverty. Using the first two waves of the European Community Household Panel Survey, a measure of relative deprivation is constructed and the overlap between the relative income poor and relatively deprived is examined. There is very limited overlap with the lowest relative income threshold. The overlap increases as the income threshold is raised, but it remains true that less than half those below the 60 percent relative income line are among the most deprived. Relative deprivation is shown to be related to the persistence of income poverty, but also to a range of other resource and need factors. Income and deprivation measures each contain information that can profitably be employed to enhance our understanding of poverty and a range of other social phenomena. This is illustrated by the manner in which both income poverty and relative deprivation are associated with self-reported difficulty making ends meet.     

Auditor Concentration: A Replication and Extension for the UK Audit Market 1991–1995

This paper examines the issue of auditor concentration in the UK during the period from 1991 to 1995. It shows that in 1995 the Big Six held 75% of the total number of audits and collectively earned 92% of the total audit fees. There was only a small increase in auditor concentration during the five year period, resulting from companies switching from small audit firms to Big Six and newly listed companies choosing a Big Six firm. The paper also examines auditor concentration within industries. Finally, the study assesses the measurement methods most commonly used in auditor concentration studies.     

Building organizational integrity

Ethical lapses by employees can put organizations at substantial risk. Although improved compliance procedures can help limit this risk, successful efforts must extend beyond compliance to build a culture of organizational integrity. Recent changes in regulatory requirements and more stringent sentencing guidelines demand an integrated approach to ethical awareness, one that encompasses the four organizational practices of controls, clearly defined principles and purpose, core values, and culture. Inevitably, the most difficult of these is building a culture of high ethical standards that are reflected in day-to-day practice. To overcome the barriers to building organizational integrity, leaders must question key organizational practices while constructing a culture based on ethical behaviors.     

Imposing regularity conditions on a system of cost and factor share equations

Systems of equations comprising cost functions and first-order derivative equations are often used to estimate characteristics of production technologies. Unfortunately, many estimated systems violate the regularity conditions implied by economic theory. Sampling theory methods can be used to impose these conditions globally, but these methods destroy the flexibility properties of most functional forms. We demonstrate how Bayesian methods can be used to maintain flexibility by imposing regularity conditions locally. The Bayesian approach is used to estimate a system of cost and share equations for the merino wool-growing sector. The effect of local imposition of monotonicity and concavity on the signs and magnitudes of elasticities is examined.     

Australian and American Settler Capitalism: The Importance of a Comparison and its Curious Neglect

Why is Australia so little known about and studied in the United States when prima facie it is one of the best comparators for America; and why do Australian comparativists often ignore the American case? The discourse of difference has predominated in America rather than the discourse of similarity. But in Australia the opposite has been true. Here an equally powerful theme has been one of searching for comparisons, similarities, and generalities between Australia and other nations and societies. Through thinking about answers to these questions, partly via a discussion of some recent writing on America and Australia, this essay argues a case for the necessity for comparison within a world history perspective. More particularly, it argues that American intellectuals and journalists should pay more attention to comparators like Australia since its similarity with America affords valuable insights into American history, politics, economy, society, and institutions, just as the converse has proven to be valuable.     

Food Stamp Program Participation of Refugees and Immigrants

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) dramatically changed the availability of food stamps to immigrants, but not to refugees. However, refugee usage of food stamps in the post-reform era has declined more than usage of either other immigrants or native citizens. We investigate food stamp program participation of immigrants and refugees to ascertain if the resulting decline was an unintended effect of the reform or is due to some other phenomena. We use data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to construct an instrument for refugees. We find that refugees are more likely than other immigrants to use food stamps. While PRWORA clearly reduced non-refugee immigrant food stamp participation, the post-reform era decline in refugee usage is fully attributable to a strong refugee response to changing labor market conditions. We also find that refugees' use of food stamps declines rapidly with time in the United States, unlike that of other immigrants.     

Dimensions of brand performance: Challenges for marketing management and managerial accountancy

This paper evaluates a range of inherent conflicts characteristic of the marketing/accounting interface. It addresses the problems which accountants face when budgeting expenditures for brand management or when attempting to assess the value of brand equity. Dimensions of brand performance are outlined, as are the management processes underpinning their creation and sustenance. A brand value budgeting perspective is proposed which integrates these processes within a framework linking marketing assets to the generation of cumulative strategic value.