HUMAN RESOURCE ACCOUNTING: A CRITIQUE OF RESEARCH OBJECTIVES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCE ACCOUNTING MODELS

This paper attempts to place a broad perspective on the problems of HRA by arguing that its objectives are wider than appear to have been admitted. Such is the importance of HRA for problems as disparate as economic efficiency, organisational effectiveness, and social effectiveness that it must become a subject in its own right with its own methodology and measurements. Many conceptual and measurement problems have not yet been adequately treated. The imediate objective of research should be a rigorous testing of the validity of the assumptions that have hitherto been relied on. Ce papier cherche à donner une vision globale des difficultés que rencontre la ‘Comptabilités des Ressources Humaines’, tout en désmontrant que les objectifs de celle-ci sont plus éstendus qu'on a voulu le reconnaftre. Face à des problèmes aussi divers que le rendement économique, l'harmonie des structures et le bien-être social, la ‘Comptabilités des Ressources Humaines’ prend une telle ampleur qu'elle ne peut que devenir une branche spéscifique revendiquant alors sa propre mésthodologie et ses unités de mesure. De nombreux problèmes concernant concepts et ésvaluations n'ont pas encore été traités de manière appropriée. Le premier objectif des recherches devrait consister en un examen profond de la validité des hypothèses sur lesquelles on s'est appuyées jusqu'ici. Dieser Beitrag versucht eine breite Perspektive auf die Probleme von Human Resource Accounting (HRA) zu werfen, indem behauptet wird, dass ihre Ziele weitreichender sind als scheinbar anerkannt worden ist. Die Wichtigkeit der HRA bezüglich Problemen, die so verschiedenartig wie ökonomische, organisatorische und soziale Leistungsfähigkeiten sind, spricht für die Entwicklung einer neuen, ganz selbstständigen Disziplin mit ihrer eigenen Methodik, Masse und Messungen. Viele begriffliche und Messungsprobleme sind noch nicht ausreichend behandelt worden. Das nächstliegende Forschungsziel solte eine strenge Prüfung der Gültigkeit der Annahmen sein, auf die man sich bisher verlassen hat.     

CONTRACTING FOR VALUE: EVA AND THE ECONOMICS OF ORGANIZATIONS

EVA becomes more difficult to apply the farther down in the company you go, especially in organizations with more traditional “functional” designs. Because centralized functions are not independent self-contained entities with direct control over their own revenues, costs, and capital, the performance measures used to evaluate them are necessarily incomplete; they reveal only part of the picture. For example, Marketing may increase sales and operating income—the measures on which it is evaluated—but at the same time drive excessive use of capital in the Manufacturing plants. Manufacturing may reduce unit cost through long production runs, thereby minimizing changeovers and setups, but create excess inventory in the process. Costreducing measures could also lead to declining quality and customer satisfaction, ultimately eroding the company's reputation. In short, each critical function influences results in other parts of the company, and focusing only on activities under a manager's direct control can result in myopic and misleading measures of performance. In organizing key processes as internal EVA Centers, joint costs and benefits shared by different corporate functions or business units can be built into financial measures in a way that encourages collaboration. As one example, a firm can attempt to replicate market forces internally by requiring each marketing region to contract for capacity with the internal manufacturing group. In a traditional management system, Marketing reserves (and relinquishes) manufacturing capacity at no cost; the consequence is excessive demand for resources. An internal pricing mechanism that requires Marketing to pay a fee for capacity will force its managers to assess trade-offs as if it were contracting with an outside party. Such a system effectively requires that functional managers take a more company-wide view of their responsibilities. By including the cost of capital, it forces managers to define costs more carefully. By including the impacts on other functions, it also forces a broader definition of costs. And by using multi-year contracts among different divisions, the framework extends the time horizon over which costs and benefits matter.     

商业银行资源结构调整与可持续发展

我国金融业特别是国有商业银行及其分支机构的内部资源配置情况存在着结构不合理问题,要想实现可持续发展,必须加快资源的结构调整.实施银行资源结构性调整要把握6个重点,即坚持把银行内部各种资产、负债、财产、机构和人员等视为稀缺性金融资源去精心经营;注重系统性,追求整体效能的发挥;以准确的财务分析为基础;有长期的思想准备;审慎地运作,减少不必要的震动;以市场为参照物、依据和目标.根据经济形势发展变化、客户需求意愿、市场走向三个依据,调整资产结构、负债结构、组织结构和财务结构,使国有商业银行分支机构合理地使用资源,全面提高银行业的整体竞争能力.     

“黑土地”的企盼——访全国人大代表、人行哈尔滨中心支行行长周逢民

＂作为一名黑龙江代表,要为涉及国家发展战略的本省经济工作尽一己之力,做一些调研和意见征求,提交一些建议。＂一句朴实的话语,道出了全国人大代表、中国人民银行哈尔滨中心支行行长周逢民的心声。在记者细数周逢民的19项建议后,发现其中近一半与＂农业、农村、农民＂发展有关,     

THE ECONOMICS OF MALARIA CONTROL

Ideally, in devising and assessing policies to control disease,the rules and reasoning of economics should be combined withcomprehensive epidemiological information to arrive at the bestdecisions. Simple economic concepts can be of great practicalassistance to policymakers in disease control. This articledescribes the economic principles to be applied and the kindof information needed to make informed choices about the optionsfor controlling malaria. In this context, the article surveysthe research on the costs that malaria imposes on people andeconomies, discusses how to assess the costs and effects ofinterventions used to combat the problem, and identifies theconceptual difficulties and gaps in information that must bebridged before the marriage of the two disciplines can be effectivelyconsummated.      

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS OF ACCOUNTING FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR

This paper offers a review of the conceptual framework projects that have been done by, or on behalf of, accounting standard-setting bodies, and that have concerned themselves with public sector accounting. Developments since 1966 in North America are the primary focus, although the UK and New Zealand are also explicitly addressed. The major theme identified is the ubiquity of the user/user needs approach, despite the continuing lack of evidence about user needs. The paper tries to explain this and concludes that standard-setting bodies have used these conceptual frameworks to establish their own legitimacy, by appealing to the public interest.     

娱乐产业的“经济学”

文化事业中的许多机构实体和制作团队将开始尝试市场化融资-对于投资机构而言,如何判断这些文化项目的价值、市场空间、风险,是需要学习的全新课程。娱乐产业包括媒体娱乐产业和现场娱乐产业两大类,前者包括电影、电视制作、广播电视、音乐、出版、媒体、玩具和游戏等产业,而后者涵盖了博彩业、体育运动、表演艺术和文化、游乐园和主题公园等。娱乐产业在美国、目本、法国等国家的经济中占有极大的比重。     

工商银行开展投资银行业务的市场定位研究

中国工商银行如何介入投资银行业务领域是当前需要着重思考的战略性课题,本文主要从四个层面对有关市场定位问题进行了分析和论述:首先,简要介绍了商业银行开展投资银行业务的基本情况;其次,就工商银行开展投资银行业务的外部环境、自身优劣条件进行了多角度的分析,廓清业务发展的现实条件;第三,立足比较优势展开具体论述,合理确定工商银行开展投资银行业务的市场定位(包括近期业务定位和中长期业务定位)和客户定位;最后,从转变观念、培养人才、构筑业务体系、建立管理机制、创新业务品种、强化营销和加强合作等七个方面提出现阶段相应的对策建议.     

THE ECONOMICS OF THE GOVERNMENT BUDGET CONSTRAINT

This article summarizes the simple analytics of the macroeconomiceffects of government budget deficits. The presentation is organizedaround three key relationships: the national income accountsbudget deficit identity, the deficit financing identity, andthe dynamic equation for the evolution of the ratio of publicdebt to gross national product. The national income accountsidentity highlights the effect of the deficit on domestic savingand investment and the current account. Examining the financingof the deficit brings to light the different kinds of macroeconomicimbalance the deficit can cause—as a first approximation,printing money excessively shows up as inflation, excessiveuse of foreign reserves leads to crises in the balance of payments,high foreign borrowing leads to a debt crisis, and too muchdomestic borrowing leads to high real interest rates and crowdingout of private investment. The debt dynamics equation is usedto show the long-run constraints on fiscal policy.      

THE ECONOMICS OF AN AUDIT FIRM: THE BENEFITS OF PARTNERSHIP GOVERNANCE

Audit firms have been given the option to incorporate only within the last 5 years. Since then, audit firms have chosen to change legal form, switching from partnerships to corporations. This paper investigates the governance effects of both the partnership and corporation form. I argue that although audit firms may adopt the legal form of corporation, the organizational characteristics of partnerships will be efficient in the current audit market and will be largely retained when firms switch legal forms. Some propositions are derived based on incomplete contracting theory that outlines complementary attributes of each organizational form. These propositions are illustrated by an in-depth case study of KPMG in the Netherlands, an audit firm that has recently made the transition.     

THE ECONOMICS OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE

This article examines the generation and management of municipalsolid waste through the lens of economics. The authors estimatethat the global burden of municipal solid waste amounted to1.3 billion metric tons in 1990, or two-thirds of a kilogramof waste per person per day. Industrial countries account fora disproportionately high share of the world's waste relativeto their share of world population, while developing countriesaccount for a disproportionately high share of the world's wasterelative to their share of world income. Analyses across countriesand over time reveal that the generation of municipal solidwaste is positively related to variations in per capita incomeand that the generation of municipal solid waste per capitadoes not vary with population size among countries with comparableper capita income. Practices for collecting, processing, and disposing of municipalsolid waste vary widely across countries, generally in accordwith the nature of the waste stream and key environmental andeconomic features. The least efficient practices tend to befound in developing countries, creating serious threats to localenvironmental quality and public health. Although considerableevidence indicates that the generation and management of wasteis sensitive to income and price variables, natural incentivesto overuse common property and the presence of inter- generationalexternalities both suggest that private economic behavior willnot yield socially optimal outcomes in this area. Communityintervention may be needed to promote the social good, withevidence accumulating in support of arrangements involving theparticipation of private firms. The authors' calculations alsosuggest that improvements made now in the handling of hazardouswaste will be far less expensive in discounted terms than undoingin the future the damage being caused by current practices.Addressing these issues from a rational societal perspectivewill become increasingly urgent in the future, especially inthe developing countries, where the authors project that municipalsolid waste will increase at an annual rate of 2.7 percent throughthe year 2010.      

贵金属业务对银行中间业务发展的价值

中国金融业经过几十年的发展正逐步与国际接轨,黄金投资市场改革发展步伐也在明显加快。同时,中国经济的高速发展也带动了国内市场对黄金的强劲需求。黄金交易量的不断提升、黄金期货交易持续活跃、黄金信托形式的多样化、金条供不应求等现象都表明了国内黄金市场已进入高速发展的“快车道”,发展空间巨大。这为银行业拓展业务空间提供了良好契机。     

ACCOUNTING FOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: THE ISSUES

Development projects are a major means of enhancing the economic capacity of developing countries, and of channelling multilateral and bilateral funds to them. While many aspects of development projects are covered by extensive literatures, their accounts are not. The accounts and financial management of development projects have been the subject of extensive criticism. This paper reviews the special characteristics of development projects which give rise to problems and discusses ways of overcoming them.