What’s in it for Me? An Examination of Accounting Students’ Likelihood to Report Faculty Misconduct

Since there are so few controls over detecting and preventing faculty misconduct, one of the most common ways in which it is discovered is through student reports (in other words, whistleblowing). Given the importance of student reports in bringing to light faculty’s ethical lapses, this paper seeks to understand what factors influence students’ likelihood to report faculty misconduct. We develop an empirical model that integrates the decision process of the Prosocial Organizational Behavior (POB) Model with insights from the emotional perspective on whistleblowing. Specifically, we use an experimental survey to examine how students’ perceived unfairness of the faculty misconduct, feelings of anger, and the students’ self-interest in the situation in conjunction with situational “cues for inaction” lead to the intention to blow the whistle. Overall, the results from our structural model partially support our theoretical model. Interestingly, these findings demonstrate that, in the case of faculty member misconduct, anger and perceptions of unfairness play a greater role than the more rational cost-benefit process of the POB model. These results could aid in development of ethics education for students and could also inform the development of university policies that encourage students to come forward when faced with faculty misconduct.     

The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization

Abstract . ‘Savages,’ as Europeans considered the Americans of ancient times, never built the great Mayan centers. The builders of great cities in Meso-America were a well-organized group with an adequate land base and a rather sophisticated technology. From 300 B.C. to 900 A.D. the Maya developed and perfected an agriculture-based economy with a well developed commerce, writing, art, science, religion and government, as well as an advanced architecture of monuments, palaces, temples and pyramids. Their civilization reached intellectual heights unique in the Western Hemisphere. What conditions caused its decline and fall? Interpreting the geographic and historical record in the light of the relevant social sciences, one can say a complex of circumstances: ecological abuse, exploitation of the working population, mismanagement, militarism, bad weather, famines, and epidemics.     

Jungle Geopolitics in Guyana: How a Communist Utopia That Ended in Massacre Came to be Sited

Abstract . When nearly 1,000 American men, women and children lost their lives in a mass murder and suicide rite in 1978 staged by a madman, Jim Jones, a former Christian minister turned Communist leader, many Americans asked, “Why?” The press, overcoming earlier lethargy, amassed facts permitting a sophisticated psychological and sociological explanation. Neglected, however, was the question why was the Jonestown Communist utopia sited in the Guyana jungle? Given the human and geographical circumstances, its siting in the Guyana rainforest was highly probable, affording evidence that, to some extent, at least, people and their geography determine human events.     

CAUSAL INFERENCE ON EDUCATION POLICIES: A SURVEY OF EMPIRICAL STUDIES USING PISA,TIMSS AND PIRLS

The identification of the causal effects of educational policies is the top priority in recent education economics literature. As a result, a shift can be observed in the strategies of empirical studies. They have moved from the use of standard multivariate statistical methods, which identify correlations or associations between variables only, to more complex econometric strategies, which can help to identify causal relationships. However, exogenous variations in databases have to be identified in order to apply causal inference techniques. This is a far from straightforward task. For this reason, this paper provides an extensive and comprehensive overview of the literature using quasi‐experimental techniques applied to three well‐known international large‐scale comparative assessments, such as PISA, PIRLS or TIMSS, over the period 2004–2016. In particular, we review empirical studies employing instrumental variables, regression discontinuity designs, difference in differences and propensity score matching to the above databases. Additionally, we provide a detailed summary of estimation strategies, issues treated and profitability in terms of the quality of publications to encourage further potential evaluations. The paper concludes with some operational recommendations for prospective researchers in the field.     

The (uncertain) invisible college of Spanish accounting scholars

In order to test empirically the invisible college thesis in an accounting academic community and evaluate the internal mechanisms that are embedded in its reproduction, we explore in this paper the social network of Spanish accounting scholars. The social network examined arises from one event that combines formal and informal aspects of interaction between scholars: the selection of members of Ph.D. panels for the period 1994–2003. Results are consistent with the existence of an oligarchic academic community that shows a strong and positive association with measures of local influence, but that is decoupled from measures of scholarly contribution. In this regard it is difficult to sustain that high profile scholars in this community generate a disproportionate volume of new ideas, which is the basic tenet of the invisible college hypothesis. This finding is also indicative of the schizophrenia in which non-tenured Spanish accounting scholars live, between increasing demands of refereed publications by academic institutions and a hierarchical academic community sponsoring very different values.