Does inflation targeting improve fiscal discipline?

We explore the performances of inflation targeting (IT) adoption in terms of fiscal discipline (FD), while most existing studies focus exclusively on the role of FD as a precondition for IT adoption. Using a sample of developing and developed countries, we show that IT adoption exerts a positive and significant effect on FD, a result robust to a wide variety of alternative specifications. In addition, this effect is statistically significant only in developing countries, a result that may fuel the current debate regarding the relevance of IT adoption in general, and particularly for developing countries.     

Accounting education in New Zealand: A model for reforming the American system?

In response to repeated calls for changes in accounting education, the Accounting Education Change Commission was formed and several universities have embarked on a variety of programs to improve accounting education in the U.S. Overseas accounting education models exist that may assist in the reform process. This paper reports on accounting education in New Zealand, and specifically at the University of Otago, which embraces many of the attributes sought in the United States. We assess the influence of the accounting profession on education in New Zealand and describe important features of the accounting degree program. Finally, experience in New Zealand suggests U.S. reformers should examine overseas models of accounting education and that important changes may be required by the accounting profession and employers for significant reforms to occur in accounting education in the U.S.     

Flexible inflation targeting and financial stability: Is it enough to stabilize inflation and output?

We investigate empirically whether a central bank can promote financial stability by stabilizing inflation and output, and whether additional stabilization of asset prices and credit growth would enhance financial stability in particular. We employ an econometric model of the Norwegian economy to investigate the performance of simple interest rate rules that allow a response to asset prices and credit growth, in addition to inflation and output. We find that output stabilization tends to improve financial stability. Additional stabilization of house prices, equity prices and/or credit growth enhances stability in both inflation and output, but has mixed effects on financial stability. In general, financial stability as measured by e.g., asset price volatility improves, while financial stability measured by indicators that depend directly on interest rates deteriorates, mainly because of higher interest rate volatility owing to a more active monetary policy.     

Sovereign debt risk in emerging market economies: Does inflation targeting adoption make any difference?

Based on a sample of 38 emerging economies, we find that inflation targeting (IT) adoption improves sovereign debt risk. Next, we show that this favorable effect is sensitive to several structural characteristics, and to the considered time span. Finally, the measure of sovereign risk (sovereign debt ratings or government bond yield spreads) and the IT form (full-fledged or partial) equally influence the effect of IT adoption on sovereign debt risk. Thus, our paper provides valuable insights regarding IT implementation as a device for improving emerging market economies' access to international financial markets.     

Forecasting New Zealand Corporate Failures 2001–10: Opportunity Lost?

On‐going business success is not a ‘given’ and business failure is reasonably common. Such failures include 36 listed companies in New Zealand (2001–10), which, in liquidating, incurred losses for many small stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether these failures could have been anticipated from public information available at the time. Of the 36 failing companies, 25 are matched to 25 non‐failing New Zealand and Australian companies. Financial and audit report data are obtained for the three years prior to failure, yielding 150 sets of data. Ten ratios, three failure‐prediction models and three nominal indicators, which were all available at the time, are applied to the data. News reports and media are reviewed. Findings reveal that while no specific forecasts of failure are publicised through mainstream New Zealand media, significant differences between failing and non‐failing firms do exist: 75% of the tested indicators show or approach significance in one or more of the three years prior to failure. Indications increase where data for all three years is combined. Conclusions are that problems could have been signalled and published, providing stakeholders bases for enquiry. Implications are as to a failure of public accountability in this respect, how practice and policy could address this problem, and suggestions for further research.     

Do Local Property Taxes Affect New Building Development? Results from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in New Zealand

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - We utilise a quasi-natural experiment in local property tax reform arising from a compulsory amalgamation of several local councils in 2010 in...     

Research–teaching yin–yang? An empirical study of accounting and finance academics in Australia and New Zealand

This article uses a survey to explore relations between teaching and research of accounting and finance academics in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Previous research on the relationship between research and teaching is inconclusive. Two recent studies consider research–teaching relations in the accounting discipline in South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK). This investigation extends work undertaken in the UK to ANZ. Contrary to expectations, research‐active faculty see little merit in integrating research with teaching, while more junior and teaching‐oriented faculty do. In addition, the empirical model underlying the teaching–research Gestalt is remarkably similar to both ANZ and the UK.     

Organizational management in New Zealand’s public service

This paper explores the extent to which New Zealand’s central government organizations are effectively reporting on, and arguably therefore focusing on, the management of their organizations, as well as their operations. There is widespread concern that new public management reforms have resulted in an over-emphasis on the former at the expense of the latter. A solution to this problem requires a clear and consistent framework for how organizational management should be reported.     

Finance company failure in New Zealand during 2006–2009: Predictable failures?

Over 31 finance companies (non-bank deposit takers) failed in New Zealand over the 2006–2009 period. With an estimated loss of over NZ$3 billion, there was public outcry and a parliamentary inquiry into the causes of the failures, but few have asked if this was a predictable event. We find that failed finance companies have lower capital adequacy, inferior asset quality, more loans falling due, higher earnings and lower cash flows. Furthermore, failed companies have a longer audit lag and some trustees appear to have a greater percentage of failed firms than others. Our logistic model can successfully classify failure one year before for 88.7% of companies. Our logistic model (neural network) can also correctly classify up to 87.5% (83.3%) of a holdout sample. Our results are of interest to regulators and practitioners, as we show that publicly available data could distinguish between failed and non-failed finance companies.     

Consumer Debt Relief in South Africa—Should the Insolvency System Provide for NINA Debtors? Lessons from New Zealand

South African natural person insolvency law has remained largely creditor‐orientated despite the international trend to assist over‐indebted debtors. Furthermore, although the South African system provides for a number of debt relief procedures, the entry requirements are of such a nature that most debtors are effectively excluded from any form of relief and therefore bound to their desperate situations. The majority of these excluded debtors fall within the no income and no assets (the so‐called No Income No Asset (NINA) debtors) category‐the main feature of this article. In the South African insolvency system, a person can therefore be ‘too poor to go bankrupt’. With reference to international principles and a thorough comparative study of the New Zealand system, the South African system is analysed, and some recommendations are made in order to provide a more accessible, effective and nondiscriminate system with specific focus on the plight of the NINA debtor. This is done by keeping the complex South African debt and poverty situation in mind as it is acknowledged that any reform should take cognisance of the unique socio‐economic and cultural background. It is recognised that providing relief to the NINA category debtors will have an impact on the economy. However, it is submitted that the exclusion of this group will be even more expensive as it creates an obstacle for these debtors to enter the formal sector and economy, thereby discouraging broader economic growth. Copyright © 2013 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why do large shareholders adopt a short‐term versus a long‐term investment horizon in different firms?

I ask why the same large shareholders have different investment horizons. Using data for 1998–2013, I examine four fundamental firm policies for their potential influence on blockholders’ investments with different time horizons. The panel ordinary least squares, difference‐in‐difference (using the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act), logistic, and dynamic generalized method of moments regression analyses reveal that blockholders adopt a short‐term horizon in smaller firms with a less independent board, high leverage, and high dividends while the same blockholders keep their investments longer in firms with a more independent board and low dividends. Under various economic conditions, different firm characteristics gain importance in blockholders’ decision on short‐term versus long‐term investments.     

Are Private Sector Standards Enough? An Example From Public Sector Hospitals in New Zealand

The aim of this paper is to assess whether and to what extent public sector hospital reports in New Zealand disclose information which best support the public interest. We analyse the content of the annual reports of Crown Health Enterprises (CHEs) for 1994, 1995 and 1996. It is concluded that the developments in public sector accounting, with respect to the public interest, have not permeated these reports to any significant extent. The following changes would improve these reportings: Reports providing costs relative to non-financial accomplishments; removing the traditional 'revenue' disclosure; disclosing non-financial as well as financial resources and obligations; providing further disaggregation in the reports; disclosing budgetary information and valuing assets alternatively. Implications of the lens used for the analysis are also considered.     

Following the leader? The relevance of the Fed funds rate for inflation targeting countries

In a New-Keynesian model for a small open economy, we derive a CPI inflation-based Taylor rule that implements the flexible price allocation. We conclude that, in this rule, the natural rate of interest should be linked to the foreign interest rate and to domestic productivity shocks. This rule ensures that the CPI real rate moves in order to induce movements in consumption that are coherent with the flexible price allocation. The empirical evidence shows that inflation-targeting central banks respond to movements in the Fed funds rate, besides reacting to expected CPI inflation and to the domestic output gap. This is true for developed and emerging economies. Furthermore, we find that in emerging countries the response to foreign variables is not different from zero, as suggested by theory, when domestic inflation, rather than CPI inflation, is introduced in the policy rule.     

The housing price boom of the late 1990s: Did inflation targeting matter?

The recent boom in the housing markets of most developed economies has spurred criticism that inflation targeting central banks may have neglected the build-up of financial imbalances. This paper provides a formal empirical test of such claims, using a standard program evaluation methodology to control for a possible bias due to self-selection into inflation targeting. We consider 17 industrial economies over the period 1980–2007, among which nine countries have targeted inflation at some point. We find robust evidence of a significant positive effect of inflation targeting on real house price growth and on the house price-to-rent ratio.     

Are equities good inflation hedges? A frequency domain perspective

By using industry level data, we examine the relation between equity returns and inflation in a frequency dependent framework. Our analysis shows that a positive relation in fact exists between equity returns and high frequency inflation shocks for commodity and technology related industries. Since higher frequency shocks are independent from trend and are transitory in nature, our findings imply a positive relation between stock returns and the unexpected component of inflation. Furthermore, we show that the results are robust to firm-level data by using a sample from the oil industry. Hence, our study provides a new look at the impact of inflation on equities by showing the sensitivity of conclusions in prior work to frequency dependence in data.     

Which bank is the “central” bank?

Liquidity flows through a financial network cannot be accurately described using external processing constraints alone. Behavioral aspects of participants also matter. A method similar to Google's PageRank procedure is used to produce a ranking of participants in the Canadian Large Value Transfer System in terms of their daily liquidity holdings. Accounting for differences in banks’ processing speeds is essential for explaining why observed distributions of liquidity differ from the initial distributions, which are determined by the credit limits selected by banks. Delay tendencies of banks are unobservable in the data and are estimated using a Markov model.     

IPSAS or IFRS as the Framework for Public Sector Financial Reporting? New Zealand Preparers’ Perspectives

The last 30 years have seen public sector accounting in many countries undergo considerable change. More recently, some governments adopted accrual accounting and International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), some adopted modified International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) while others continued with cash‐based accounting. New Zealand (NZ) has, for more than two decades, followed a sector neutral approach to financial reporting and standard setting where the same accounting standards were applied to all entities in all sectors: for‐profit, not‐for‐profit and the public sector. This period included the adoption of IFRS by for‐profit entities with minor modifications for the public sector. The suitability of IFRS for the public sector has been questioned and, recently, standard setters in NZ decided to adopt a sector‐specific standard‐setting approach with multiple tiers for each sector. The for‐profit sector will continue to follow IFRS but reporting standards for the public sector will be based on IPSAS. In this period of change we sought the views of preparers of public sector financial reports regarding the users of such reports and their preferences for the public sector reporting framework. We also sought the views of the preparers regarding the usefulness of each financial statement for users, and whether the benefits of reporting by their organisations exceeds the costs. The findings indicate support for maintaining IFRS as a basis for reporting in the NZ public sector. However, IPSAS modified to NZ conditions is also perceived as an acceptable option by respondents in this study. The income statement is, in the opinion of the respondents in this study, the most useful statement while cash flows appear to hold little value. A high proportion of respondents believe that the benefits of reporting exceed the costs, which contradicts the view that such reports are mainly compliance documents that provide little value. This finding contributes to the continuing debate on costs versus benefits on the recent introduction of IPSAS as the reporting framework for the public sector and the perceived appropriateness of IPSAS in public sector reporting.     

Is gold a hedge against inflation? A wavelet time-scale perspective

Among the many presumed characteristics of gold, the ability to act as an enduring store of value is frequently noted. In this paper, the ability of gold to dynamically hedge against inflation is examined for various holding periods using the continuous wavelet transformation. Gold is first established as both a short- and long-term hedge against realized inflation for a number of developed economies. Dynamic analysis demonstrates that these hedging properties are not limited to a single historical cohort. Next, gold is shown to comove with unexpected inflation across all countries examined, albeit with some variation in the direction of the relationship. Finally, the capacity of both gold futures and gold stocks to act as a hedge against inflation is demonstrated.     

Does the “Bund” dominate price discovery in Euro bond futures? Examining information shares

This paper examines the relative information shares of the Bund, i.e. the 10-year Euro bond future contract on German sovereign debt, versus two futures with shorter maturity. We find that the Bund is most important but does not dominate price discovery. The other contracts also have relevant - and at many days even higher - information shares. In examining determinants of information shares, we add order flow measures to market state variables and macroeconomic news. More order flow in a contract consistently increases this contract’s information share.