Coping with International Accounting Diversity: Fund Managers' Views on Disclosure,Reconciliation, and Harmonization*

In this paper we examine the practices of representative samples of U.S.- and U.K.-based international investment managers in order to determine whether and how they are affected by accounting diversity and, therefore, by the presence or absence of quantitative reconciliation, and what their views are towards greater disclosure, reconciliation, or harmonization. We find that all three forms of reduced diversity-more uniform disclosure, quantitative reconciliation to U.S. GAAP, and international harmonization are viewed as good things by managers. None, however, appears to be critical in the investment process. Reconciliation is a costly requirement and we conclude that the SEC's insistence on reconciliation is not well-founded and that other means, especially greater emphasis on mutual recognition subject to certain minimum standards of disclosure and presentation, would be more effective.     

The Fallacy of Free Trade II

This paper argues that not a single proposition of the modern theory of free trade is upheld by the recent experience of the United States. Freer trade is supposed to raise GNP growth and productivity growth as well as the living standard. Until 1972, when the US was practically a closed economy with a trade/GNP ratio averaging a low of 12%, GNP growth was 3.8%, productivity growth was 2%, and real wages had been rising for 150 years. Since 1972, the trade/GNP ratio has been rising steadily, US GNP growth has been only 2.5%, productivity growth is below 1%, and real wages have been falling for over three-quarters of the labor force.     

The Incidence of Public Spending on Healthcare: Comparative Evidence from Asia

The article compares the incidence of public healthcare across11 Asian countries and provinces, testing the dominance of healthcareconcentration curves against an equal distribution and Lorenzcurves and across countries. The analysis reveals that the distributionof public healthcare is prorich in most developing countries.That distribution is avoidable, but a propoor incidence is easierto realize at higher national incomes. The experiences of Malaysia,Sri Lanka, and Thailand suggest that increasing the incidenceof propoor healthcare requires limiting the use of user fees,or protecting the poor effectively from them, and building awide network of health facilities. Economic growth may not onlyrelax the government budget constraint on propoor policies butalso increase propoor incidence indirectly by raising richerindividuals' demand for private sector alternatives.     

INTRAHOUSEHOLD INEQUALITY AT DIFFERENT WELFARE LEVELS: ENERGY INTAKE AND ENERGY EXPENDITURE DATA FROM THE PHILIPPINES*

ABSTRACTS This paper investigates the relationship between intrahousehold inequality and levels of household welfare. Under certain conditions it is demonstrated — with both the unitary model of the household and with some collective models — that the relationship between household welfare and inequality within the household can have an inverted u-shape. Using two sets of calorie adequacy data from a sample of 455 households in the Philippines, a spline analysis is used to test the hypothesis that inequality within the household first increases and then decreases as per capita household total expenditure increases. The two sets of calorie adequacy data are based on repeated 24- hour recalls of dietary intake, and on calorie requirements that are unadjusted and then adjusted for individual activity patterns. Results indicate that once activity patterns are accounted for, calorie intake shortfalls are borne fairly equally within the household at all per capita household total expenditure levels.     

The REIT Modernization Act of 1999

This article examines two effects of the passage of the REIT Modernization Act (RMA) of 1999: its impacts on REIT shareholder wealth and changes in REIT systematic risk in the period following its passage. The results indicate a modest positive wealth effect associated with the legislative events leading to its enactment. Our estimates of the wealth gain probably underestimate the true wealth gain because of the partially anticipated nature of the legislative process. We also document a significant decline in the systematic risk of REITs subsequent to the passage of the RMA. The evidence suggests that this decline is not attributable to a provision of the RMA that allows REITs to establish taxable subsidiaries.     

A visualization system for mineral elasticity

The authors have developed an efficient visualization system to gain insight into large collections of mineral elasticity data produced by an increasing number of both theoretical calculations and experiments. The system allows us to visualize multivariate elastic moduli (i.e., elastic constant tensors) and their variation with composition, pressure and temperature. Moreover, it supports visualization of elastic wave propagation in an anisotropic medium by rendering the wave velocity data, which are calculated as a function of propagation direction in a three-dimensional space. This paper describes the design, implementation and application of the visualization scheme we have developed for mineral elasticity. In particular, our scheme exploits a combination of parallel coordinates, star plot, scatter plot and polygon-surface rendering techniques, which are implemented using OpenGL, GLUI and C++. The result is a highly portable and flexible interactive visualization system. For illustration, the elastic properties of several important oxide and silicate minerals are successfully visualized as a function of pressure and temperature.     

Term Structure of Interest Rates with Regime Shifts

We develop a term structure model where the short interest rate and the market price of risks are subject to discrete regime shifts. Empirical evidence from efficient method of moments estimation provides considerable support for the regime shifts model. Standard models, which include affine specifications with up to three factors, are sharply rejected in the data. Our diagnostics show that only the regime shifts model can account for the well–documented violations of the expectations hypothesis, the observed conditional volatility, and the conditional correlation across yields. We find that regimes are intimately related to business cycles.     

Auction theory adaptations for real life applications

We develop extensions to auction theory results that are useful in real life scenarios.1. Since valuations are generally positive we first develop approximations using the log-normal distribution. This would be useful for many finance related auction settings since asset prices are usually non-negative.2. We formulate a positive symmetric discrete distribution, which is likely to be followed by the total number of auction participants, and incorporate this into auction theory results.3. We develop extensions when the valuations of the bidders are interdependent and incorporate all the results developed into a final combined realistic setting.4. Our methods can be a practical tool for bidders and auction sellers to maximize their profits. The models developed here could be potentially useful for inventory estimation and for wholesale procurement of financial instruments and also non-financial commodities.All the propositions are new results and they refer to existing results which are stated as Lemmas.