Competency‐Based Education and Assessment for the Accounting Profession: A Critical Review*

In recent years many professional accounting associations have become interested in establishing competency‐based professional requirements and assessment methods for certifying accounting professionals. A competency‐based approach to qualification specifies expectations in terms of outcomes, or what an individual can accomplish, rather than in terms of an individual's knowledge or capabilities. This idea has an obvious appeal to many practitioners and administrators of professional qualification programs. However, there is limited knowledge about competency‐based approaches in the accounting profession and among accounting academics, which is constraining discussion about the value of these approaches and about the strengths and weaknesses of the different competency models that have sprung up in various jurisdictions. In this paper we review and synthesize the literature on competency‐based approaches. We identify a number of theoretical benefits of competency‐based approaches. However, we also find many alternative definitions and philosophies underlying competency‐based approaches, and a variety of visions of how competencies should be determined and assessed. We note that there is limited evidence supporting many competency‐based approaches and we identify 14 research questions that could be used to help policy makers to more effectively address policy matters related to competency‐based education and assessment.     

CAP Forum on E‐Business: E‐Commerce and Tax Planning: Canadian Experiences*

This paper explores the deployment of e‐commerce by Canadian firms in the global marketplace, with an emphasis on the implications of e‐commerce for tax planning. The business press and various government task forces have discussed challenges raised by e‐commerce for traditional “source‐based” tax systems; however, these discussions have presented little evidence of firms' reliance on e‐commerce for tax‐planning purposes. Similarly, academic research has seldom examined whether firms' decisions to implement e‐commerce are by tax‐planning considerations. It is thus largely unknown whether firms actively consider taxation issues when evaluating e‐commerce, how the factors that have been identified as influencing decisions to implement e‐commerce systems are balanced against tax‐planning considerations, and what barriers might exist in practice to using e‐commerce for tax planning. We choose a qualitative interview‐based approach to explore these issues. Our findings suggest that tax planning is not considered by most of our respondent companies in their decisions to deploy e‐commerce. The companies we interviewed tended to implement e‐commerce over several years, starting with back‐office technologies like enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Accordingly, the ability to perform online sales transactions, which is a key component of using e‐commerce for tax planning, often was not yet in place. One implication of these results is that if concerns over tax revenue losses are realistic, tax policymakers may have some time to refine tax legislation to address the challenges raised by e‐commerce.     

A Profile of Contemporary Accounting Research: Fall 1984—Spring 1994*

Abstract. During the first 10 years of Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR), Fail 1984 through Spring 1994, 313 articles and discussions were published. The main research methods reported in these articles were empirical data analysis, analytical modeling, and behavioral experimentation. The main topic areas were financial accounting, managerial accounting, and auditing. CAR considers for publication any papers of interest to the Canadian accounting research community, so this mix of methods and topics is not surprising and reflects the mix of papers submitted to CAR over the years. The articles and discussions in CAR represented 523 listed authors. A number of authors have appeared more than once, with the result that, over the 10 years, 358 different authors from 142 institutions have contributed to CAR. The great majority of the authors were university professors; at the time of authorship, slightly more authors were assistant than full or associate professors. Eighty-eight percent of the authors were male, but the percentage of female authors has steadily increased. CAR serves the Canadian accounting research community through the array of articles and discussions it publishes. Additional aspects of its Canadian service are the facts that 26 percent of the authors of the articles and discussions were resident at Canadian institutions, 17 percent of the articles dealt explicitly with a Canadian accounting issue or used Canadian data, and French abstracts of all articles plus articles completely in French represent 9 percent of the total pages of articles. As of June 1994, 696 members of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association and subscribers to CAR, as well as 286 institution libraries received the journal, representing 408 institutions. The majority of the individual member/subscribers were resident in Canada; the majority of the institutions were outside Canada. Résumé. Au cours de ses dix premières années d'existence, de l'automne 1984 au printemps 1994, Recherche comptable contemporaine (CAR) a publié 313 articles et analyses critiques. Les principales méthodes de recherche utilisées par les auteurs sont l'analyse de données empiriques, l'élaboration de modèles d'analyse et l'expérimentation comportementale, et les principaux sujets abordés relèvent de la finance, de la comptabilité, de la comptabilité de management et de la vérification. CAR s'intéresse à tout texte présentant un intérêt pour la communauté canadienne des chercheurs en comptabilité, de sorte que cette diversité de méthodes et de sujets n'est pas étonnante et reflète la variété des articles soumis à la revue au cours des années. Les articles et les analyses critiques publiés par CAR sont l'?uvre de 523 auteurs répertoriés. Bon nombre d'entre eux ont contribué à la revue à plusieurs reprises, si bien qu'en 10 ans, 358 auteurs différents provenant de 142 établissements ont collaboré à la revue. La grande majorité des auteurs sont des professeurs d'université; au moment de leur collaboration, les auteurs étaient un peu plus fréquemment professeurs adjoints que professeurs titulaires ou professeurs agrégés. De ces auteurs, 88 pour cent sont des hommes, le pourcentage d'auteurs féminins ayant cependant augmenté régulièrement. CAR s'adresse à la communauté canadienne des chercheurs en comptabilité en offrant à ses lecteurs un vaste éventail d'articles et d'analyses critiques. Mais elle offre à ses lecteurs canadiens des services qui se distinguent à d'autres égards: 26 pour cent des auteurs des articles et des analyses critiques résidaient, au moment de leur collaboration, dans des établissements canadiens, 17 pour cent des articles portent explicitement sur des questions comptables d'intérêt canadien ou font usage de données canadiennes, et les résumés français de tous les articles ainsi que les articles qui sont publiés intégralement en français représentent 9 pour cent du total des pages consacrées aux articles. Au mois de juin 1994, 696 membres de l'Association Canadienne des Professeurs de Comptabilité et d'abonnés à la revue CAR, représentant 408 établissements, ainsi que 286 bibliothèques d'établissements d'enseignement ou d'entreprises, recevaient la revue. La majorité des membres et abonnés à titre personnel résidaient au Canada, et la majorité des établissements étaient étrangers.     

Returns to Skills and the College Premium

A substantial literature documents the evolution of the college premium in the U.S. labor market over the last 40 years or so. There are at least three different interpretations of this fact: (i) shifts in the relative supply of and demand for college versus high school labor, (ii) shifts in the relative supply of and demand for skills in the college versus high school sector, and (iii) composition effects. We investigate how each of these components contributes to the dynamics of the college premium and find that all three play a role, but the increase in the college premium is primarily driven by the first component. We also find that during the 1980s, the college premium for high school workers diverged from the college premium for college workers and a substantial fraction of the gap that opens up is primarily due to the increase in the returns to cognitive skills.     

The Risk‐Taking Channel of Monetary Policy: Exploring All Avenues

The literature on the risk‐taking channel of monetary policy grew quickly, leading to scattered evidence. We examine this channel through different angles, exploring detailed information on loan origination and performance. Ex ante riskier borrowers receive more funding at the extensive margin when interest rates are lower. Ex post performance is independent of the level of interest rates at origination. Still, loans granted in periods of very low and stable interest rates show higher default rates once interest rates start to increase. Risk‐taking is stronger among banks with lower capital ratios, suggesting that this channel may be linked to managerial incentives for risk‐shifting.     

Changing Patterns in Family Farming: The Case of the Pampa Region, Argentina

In the past few decades, Argentine agriculture has been significantly reorganized. Changes include the marked growth of export production, the need for an increasing level of capital investment and technological incorporation into farms and the restructuring of public intervention. This paper examines the dynamics of farm exit and the adjustments made by capitalized family farmers in the Pampa region. We suggest transformations in family farms are the result of a substantial shift in their main characteristics which historically combined the use of family labour, a certain accumulation capacity and ownership status. In particular, we will discuss the different and changing patterns of farm operations and the adjustments made with respect to work and land tenure.     

Perception and Interpretation of Leisure Travel Articles

Limited attention has been paid to how readers perceive and interpret media messages about leisure travel experiences. This study examined college students' perceptions and interpretations of newspaper leisure travel articles revealing three central themes: intimacy and trust, tradition and authenticity, and socio-cultural knowledge. These themes are explored in order to understand the social justification of beliefs used by these college students when assigning meaning to leisure travel articles. Among the findings is the considerable role that leisure travel writers play as cultural intermediaries between local realities, readers, and future tourists. In particular, perception and interpretation of leisure travel articles revealed the expectations and shared meanings of these college students.     

Perceptions of functional clothing by able-bodied people: the other side

Functional clothing was examined as a factor in social interactions between physically disabled and non-disabled people. In the present study, the perceptions of able-bodied college students were compared with the evaluations of students with physical disabilities from a previous study. Seven line drawings of clothing with functional features were rated on semantic differential scales in a self-administered questionnaire. The non-disabled students were more positive than the disabled students on all of the scales for five of the seven styles. The able-bodied subjects also tended to use more global constructs when perceiving the styles than did their disabled counterparts, who were more likely to distinguish function as a separate dimension. Sex differences were found, with a tendency for the females to be more positive than the males in their ratings of the styles. Implications of the data and suggestions for further research are discussed.