Performing 'Performance'—A Comedy in Five Acts

The public service in the United Kingdom is awash with performance data. From the ubiquitous league tables for schools, local authorities and police services, through key performance indicators for civil service agencies right up to Government-level Public Service Agreements, the number of published performance data sets probably now reaches five figures annually. The author discusses some of the aspects of being what are probably the most 'performance-reported' public services in the world.     

Social-Self-Interest

This paper is about rational sociality. Retaining rational choice as its basic framework, it aims to enrich it by taking seriously a well-established cultural, social and psychological phenomenon: that some inter-personal relationships have intrinsic value. These are termed primary. Utility maximisation includes the binary choice to enter or not to enter a primary relationship: this on the one hand has a direct impact on utility, and on the other imposes restrictions on consumption choices. The model encompasses standard economic choice theory as a special case, while explicitly recognising that self-interested agents make choices that are sometimes group dependent. The broad scope of this approach is illustrated by a number of extensions and applications, some of which lead to distinctly unorthodox conclusions.     

What labelling policy for consumer choice? The case of genetically modified food in Canada and Europe

Abstract. Faced with divergent opinions among consumers on the use of genetically modified (GM) foods, Canada has adopted a voluntary labelling approach for non‐GM foods, whereas the European Union has a mandatory labelling policy for GM foods. Interestingly, both labelling systems have resulted in very little, if any, additional consumer choice. Using an analytical model, we show that the coexistence of GM and non‐GM products at the retail level depends on the labelling policy, consumer perceptions, and the type of product. Although voluntary labelling tends to favour the use of GM products, it is more likely to provide consumer choice.     

Budgeting and standard costing practices in New Zealand and the United Kingdom

The findings of a survey of budgeting and standard costing practices in New Zealand (NZ) and United Kingdom (UK) manufacturers are reported. The results suggest that some commentators' predictions of a demise in standard costing and variance analysis are overstated. It has been found that standard costing systems continue to be popular and that the majority of accountants surveyed do not envisage abandonment of standard costing and variance analysis in advanced manufacturing technology environments. Comparisons between budgeting and standard costing practices used in NZ and the UK reveal a high degree of consistency. In the case of the few differences that have been observed, it appears that there is a greater lag behind prescribed practice amongst NZ manufacturers. The main differences noted are: a greater proportion of performance reports used in NZ budget centers fail to distinguish between controllable and non-controllable costs; NZ manufacturers are more reliant on historic data when setting standard costs; when distinguishing between variable and fixed costs, there is a greater tendency in NZ to simply treat direct costs as variable and overhead costs as fixed.