Fair Value Accounting for All Financial Instruments: Perceptions from Managers of Australian Financial Institutions

The Joint Working Group (JWG) proposal for the measurement of all financial instruments at fair value and the recognition of changes in fair value in the income statement met with criticism from the Joint Working Group of Banking Associations QWGBA). This research study investigates the extent to which chief financial officers in Australian financial institutions agree with the JWGBA. Findings indicated respondents tended to agree, albeit to a lesser extent, with the JWGBA. Conversely, they also agree with the JWG, as they believe fair-value information is not commercially sensitive and could be reliably determined.     

User Requirements for Not-For-Profit Entity Financial Reporting: An International Comparison

This study investigates the not-for-profit (NFP) external financial reporting regulatory environments of the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand and compares them with that of Australia. It finds a lack of clarity in the definition of a NFP entity under Australian accounting standards. The study also identifies various types of information that earlier research and the guidance in other countries suggest are useful to the users of NFP entities' financial statements. This information is not currently required under Australian accounting standards.     

Elderly consumers: a British comment

Elderly people in Britain, a substantial minority of some 18% of the total population, are not only market-place consumers but major users of social services. With reference to a recent investigation in the U.S., this paper looks at the British situation. Issues discussed include the limitations arising from relatively low incomes, advice opportunities and trends, and major problems in the supply of social services.     

Federal Home Loan Bank Advances and Commercial Bank Portfolio Composition

Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) advances are a source of government‐sponsored liquidity intended to encourage housing finance, although “community financial institutions” may use such funds more generally. Because money is fungible, it is an empirical question as to how advances are actually employed. Using panel‐vector autoregression techniques, we estimate dynamic responses of U.S. commercial bank portfolios to: FHLB advance shocks, bank lending shocks, and macroeconomic shocks. We find that FHLB advances: (i) are used as a general source of liquidity by U.S. commercial banks of all sizes and (ii) dampen the sensitivity of mortgage lending to macroeconomic shocks at small banks.     

Market Power and Buffer Stocks

The first-order conditions for a monopolist inventory holder are found under more general conditions than previously. It is found that monopolist storers facing inelastic demand will carry over more stock than they would with competition unless the elasticity of demand b increasing as price decreases or is constant. The competitive stocks equilibrium is identified and found to be Pareto optimal and hence Sams' result that there will be no losers from a rent-maximizing buffer stock policy is shown to be wrong.     

Distributional Effects of Liberalising UK Residential Utility Markets

Competition is being extended into residential utility markets world-wide; the European directives on telecoms, electricity and gas will extend choice throughout the European Union by the turn of the century. In the UK, the Privatisation Acts not only changed the ownership of utilities, but imposed a duty on the regulators to encourage competition. It is the introduction of competition, actual and potential, that has been the main force behind changing the relative prices charged to different consumers, particularly in the residential market. We use household-level data to identify the distributional impact, particularly on vulnerable households and those for whom regulators have special responsibilities. We find a mixed outcome, with some vulnerable households, especially pensioners, adversely affected: we suggest potential compensation mechanisms that could improve welfare by enabling the benefits of competition in these industries supplying essential services to be gained without harming the most vulnerable households. JEL classification: D40, 118.