High-Frequency Changes in Shopping Behaviours,Promotions and the Measurement of Inflation: Evidence from the Great Lockdown*

We use real-time scanner data in Great Britain during the COVID-19 pandemic to investigate the drivers of the inflationary spike at the beginning of lockdown and to quantify the impact of high-frequency changes in shopping behaviours and promotions on inflation measurement. Although changes in product-level expenditure shares were unusually high during lockdown, we find that the induced bias in price indices that do not account for expenditure switching is not larger than in prior years. We also document substantial consumer switching towards online shopping and across retailers, but show this was not a key driver of the inflationary spike. In contrast, a reduction in price and quantity promotions was key to driving higher inflation, and lower use of promotions by low-income consumers explains why they experienced moderately lower inflation. Overall, changes in shopping behaviours played only a minor role in driving higher inflation during lockdown; higher prices were the main cause, in particular through a reduced frequency of promotions.     

COVID-19 and Ethnic Inequalities in England and Wales*

The economic and public health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed existing inequalities between ethnic groups in England and Wales, as well as creating new ones. We draw on current mortality and case data, alongside pre-crisis labour force data, to investigate the relative vulnerability of different ethnic groups to adverse health and economic impacts. After accounting for differences in population structure and regional concentration, we show that most minority groups suffered excess mortality compared with the white British majority group. Differences in underlying health conditions such as diabetes may play a role; so too may occupational exposure to the virus, given the very different labour market profiles of ethnic groups. Distinctive patterns of occupational concentration also highlight the vulnerability of some groups to the economic consequences of social distancing measures, with Bangladeshi and Pakistani men particularly likely to be employed in occupations directly affected by the UK's ‘lockdown’. We show that differences in household structures and inequalities in access to savings mean that a number of minority groups are also less able to weather short-term shocks to their income. Documenting these immediate consequences of the crisis reveals the potential for inequalities to become entrenched in the longer term.     

Gender bias in the spending of child benefits: evidence from a natural policy reform

We examine the causal relationship between child benefits and household spending on child and adult goods. In particular, we examine whether it matters if it is the husband or wife who controls this income transfer. We exploit the introduction of child benefits to families with at least four children. The law assigned the mother as the beneficiary but, when asked who collected the amount, one-third of beneficiary families reported the father as the recipient. We use the propensity score matching approach to assess the issue of possible self-selection of beneficiary families into answering who was the recipient parent and the results favour common support. We apply the difference-in-difference approach and find evidence in favour of a gender bias in the spending of child benefits. On average, after the reform, recipient families’ spending on child clothing, food and tobacco was significantly different from that of non-recipient families. Further analysis suggests that recipient families with the mother (father) in control of the amount spent more on child clothing and food (tobacco) relative to non-recipient families. The evidence has implications on the design of welfare programmes to benefit the children.     

Geographic Inequality in Income and Mortality in Germany*

We use data from the German Federal Statistical Office on population counts, births, deaths and income to study the development of socio‐economic inequality in mortality rates from 1990 to 2015 for different age groups and both genders. Ranking the 401 German districts by average disposable income per capita, we observe large inequalities in district‐level mortality rates in 1990, which had almost disappeared, or at least been flattened considerably, by 2015 particularly for infants, children and the very old. The most important driver of this reduction in inequality is German reunification in 1990. As indicated by more detailed analyses comparing districts in the former East and the former West, even five years after reunification there was a large gap in disposable income, with all Eastern districts considerably poorer than the poorest district in the West. At the same time, mortality rates were higher for all age groups and both genders in the East. Income has caught up, to the extent that there are equally poor districts in the East and West in most recent years (although the West is still much richer on average). Mortality rates in the East have improved considerably and are even below mortality rates for similarly poor districts in the West in the most recent data.     

自我信贷配给、农村家庭财务能力与非正规借贷——基于江苏省495户农村家庭的调查

通过建立分位数回归模型,分析了自我信贷配给农村家庭财务能力水平与其非正规借贷规模之间的关系,实证结果显示:具有自我信贷配给特征的农村家庭,家庭财务能力与非正规借贷数量显著正相关;其中财务能力较低组农村家庭,其财务能力与借贷规模呈显著负相关关系;财务能力中等组农村家庭,其借贷规模受到财务能力的正向影响;财务能力较高组农村家庭,其借贷规模受到财务能力的正向影响越大.从而验证了我国农村“越穷越借,越借越穷”与“量入为出,不愿负债”并存的现象.因此,加强农村金融知识培训与普及、引导农村居民形成理性财务思维,提高农村家庭财务能力将有助于农村家庭更好地通过使用非正规借贷优化家庭财务效用.     

Vulnerability of financial markets in India: The contagious effect of COVID-19

This study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on financial markets, using emerging market data. Specifically, panel data regression is applied on 3200 observations for daily market returns during lockdown in India. The event study methodology is adopted to show abnormal returns registered in the lockdown period. A contrasting breakdown effect of COVID-19 on various Indian industries has been observed through sectoral analysis. The study also provides empirical evidence for lockdown measures taken by the government on stock market returns and post lockdown impact of COVID-19 on daily market returns for over 6550 observations.     

Asset pricing during pandemic lockdown

This paper examines the implications of lockdown policies during early stages of pandemics for asset prices. We build a simple susceptible-infected-recovered model with microeconomic foundations, which allows us to obtain qualitative results with economic implications. In our model, lockdown policies reduce (i) labour income by decreasing working hours and (ii) precautionary savings by decreasing susceptible agents’ probability of getting infected in the future. We qualitatively show that strengthening lockdown measures negatively impacts asset prices at the time of implementation. Our empirical analysis using data from advanced countries supports this finding. Depending on parameter values, our numerical analysis displays a V-shaped recovery of asset prices and an L-shaped recession of consumption. The rapid recovery of asset prices occurs only if the lockdown policies are insufficiently stringent to reduce the number of new periodic cases. This finding implies the possibility that lenient lockdowns have contributed to rapid stock market recovery at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Educational inequality: the widening socio‐economic gap

In this paper, we consider research on links between higher education and family background, focusing particularly on the experiences of two cohorts of individuals born in 1958 and 1970. The findings point to a rise in educational inequality during the period relevant to these two cohorts. Specifically, links between educational achievement and parental income / social class strengthened during this period. Furthermore, a person's actual (measured) ability became a poorer predictor of whether they would get a degree than was previously the case. The expansion of higher education in the UK during this period appears to have disproportionately benefited children from richer families rather than the most able. Furthermore, the labour market success or failure of individuals became more closely connected to their parents' income, revealing a fall in the extent of intergenerational mobility over time.     

The Global Financial Crisis,Family Control,and Dividend Policy

Using newly collected data on the ultimate ownership structure of publicly traded firms in nine East Asian economies, we find that family control is negatively related to the dividend payout ratio. Family firms are less (more) likely to increase (omit) dividends than non‐family firms. These negative associations between family firms and dividend policy are more pronounced during the recent global financial crisis, suggesting that controlling families have incentives to expropriate more firm resources during crises than in normal times.     

The relationship between motivation,learning approaches,academic performance and time spent

Previous literature calls for further investigation in terms of precedents and consequences of learning approaches (deep learning and surface learning). Motivation as precedent and time spent and academic performance as consequences are addressed in this paper. The study is administered in a first-year undergraduate course. Results show that the accounting students have a slightly higher score for deep learning compared to surface learning. Moreover, high intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation have a significant positive influence on deep learning. Next, deep learning leads to higher academic performance; surface learning on the other hand leads to lower academic performance. The effect of deep learning on performance still holds, when we control for time spent, gender and ability. Consequently we can conclude that a deep learning approach is much more than ‘simply’ spending a lot of time on studying.     

Use of credit and arrears on debt among low‐income families in the United Kingdom

Household accumulation of debt and arrears on debt, especially among low‐income families, is an extremely topical issue in the UK media and in policy circles. This paper utilises data from the UK's Survey of Low Income Families in order to examine use of credit, and default and arrears, among low‐income families with children. It shows how credit use and accumulation of arrears differ between single parents and couples with children, and also between homeowners and renters. It also briefly examines the persistence of arrears on specific forms of credit using the panel element of the data‐set, now named the Families and Children Survey.     

The impact of Covid-19 on G7 stock markets volatility: Evidence from a ST-HAR model

We investigate the impact of Covid-19 on stock markets across G7 countries and their business sectors. We highlight the synchronicity and severity of this unprecedented crisis. We find strong transition evidence to a crisis regime in all countries and sectors, yet crisis intensity and timings vary. The Health Care and Consumer services sectors were the most severely affected; a reflection of the Covid-19 drug-race and international travel restrictions. The Technology sector was hit the latest and least severely, as imposed lockdown measures forced people to explore various web-based entertainment and distraction options. Country-wise the UK and the US were the most affected with the highest heterogeneity in their business sectors' response; a possible reflection of the ambiguity in the initial response and adoption of lockdown measures. Financial markets' response to Covid-19 is akin to response in previous financial crisis rather than previous pandemics. A series of robustness checks confirms our findings.     

Accounting students access to social media related resources and the risk of tacit social exclusion

ABSTRACT

The use of social media platforms to facilitate teaching and learning requires resources (hardware and Internet access) to enable active student participation. Limited access to these resources may impair students’ learning and, should the students consequently fail to graduate, tacitly contribute to their social exclusion. The results of a survey amongst students at a South African university, identified statistically significant differences relating to hardware and Internet access between more affluent students, and lower income students. Using social media may, therefore, be countering the objective of widening the admissions to universities in South Africa as an attempt to address past exclusionary practices. This study raises awareness with instructors and administrators globally, about the risk of tacit social exclusion, as a result of the tools selected to facilitate learning.     

Financial reporting quality in international settings: A comparative study of the USA, Japan, Thailand, France and Germany

The purpose of this study is to show the importance of the business contexts of individual countries to understand corporate accounting practices in international settings. Using data from five countries, we show that while agency theory constructs are effective in explaining accounting practices in corporate settings that have a strong agency orientation, such as that of the United States, it is necessary to go beyond such constructs to understand accounting practices in other corporate settings. Given the variety of international business settings, we use a generic theory, institutional theory. To conduct this examination into cross-country accounting practices, we focus on an earnings quality measure based on accrual accounting practices, the abnormal accruals component of accounting earnings. We provide evidence to support the view that with varying business settings we are likely to see diversity in accounting practices that result in different levels of accruals or accruals based earnings quality.     

Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Impacts of High-Ability Peers in Early Years*

The sorting of students into ability groups is one of the most common, controversial and long-examined educational practices. Ability grouping also mechanically changes peer groups. We provide novel evidence on the cognitive and non-cognitive impacts in early years, of being exposed to higher-ability classroom peers through being assigned to the top within-class ability group. We exploit panel data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, which allows us to construct trajectories of the cognitive and non-cognitive development of children from birth to entry into primary school. The data also record school grouping policies and the specific within-class group assignment of each child, by subject. We combine these rich data with an instrumental variable design using child-level variation in group assignment due to month of birth, in order to measure the local average treatment effect (LATE) of being assigned to the highest-ability peer group. We find that if a marginal student is assigned higher-ability peers, this significantly reduces their cognitive achievement in mathematics, and has no impact on literacy. There are countervailing impacts on non-cognitive outcomes for the marginal student assigned higher-ability peers: although they are more motivated to study and parents respond with an improved home learning environment, these children have more study-related difficulties and their relations with their peers significantly worsen. These findings have important policy implications for the use and design of within-class ability grouping in early years.     

COVID-19 and Inequalities*

This paper brings together evidence from various data sources and the most recent studies to describe what we know so far about the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on inequalities across several key domains of life, including employment and ability to earn, family life and health. We show how these new fissures interact with existing inequalities along various key dimensions, including socio-economic status, education, age, gender, ethnicity and geography. We find that the deep underlying inequalities and policy challenges that we already had are crucial in understanding the complex impacts of the pandemic itself and our response to it, and that the crisis does in itself have the potential to exacerbate some of these pre-existing inequalities fairly directly. Moreover, it seems likely that the current crisis will leave legacies that will impact inequalities in the long term. These possibilities are not all disequalising, but many are.     

A Tale of Two Runs: Depositor Responses to Bank Solvency Risk

We examine heterogeneity in depositor responses to solvency risk using depositor‐level data for a bank that faced two different runs. We find that depositors with loans and bank staff are less likely to run than others during a low‐solvency‐risk shock, but are more likely to run during a high‐solvency‐risk shock. Uninsured depositors are also sensitive to bank solvency. In contrast, depositors with older accounts run less, and those with frequent past transactions run more, irrespective of the underlying risk. Our results show that the fragility of a bank depends on the composition of its deposit base.     

The Impact of Financial Crises on Labor Markets, Household Incomes, and Poverty: A Review of Evidence

The 1990s have witnessed several financial crises, of whichthe East Asia and Mexico tequila crises are perhaps the mostwell known. What impact have these crises had on labor markets,household incomes, and poverty? Total employment fell by muchless than production declines and even increased in some cases.However, these aggregates mask considerable churning in employmentacross sectors, employment status, and location. Economies thatexperienced the sharpest currency depreciations suffered thedeepest cuts in real wages, though deeper cuts in real wagesrelative to GDP were associated with smaller rises in unemployment.To some extent, families smoothed their incomes through increasedlabor force participation and private transfers, though thelimited evidence available suggests that wealthier familieswere better able to smooth consumption. The initial impact ofthe crises was on the urban corporate sector, but rural householdswere affected as well and in some instances suffered deeperlosses than did urban families. School enrollment declined,especially among poorer families, as did use of health facilities,but he impact on children's nutrition levels appears to vary.Crises have typically proved short-lived, but whether householdsplunged into poverty during a crisis are able to recover asthe economy does remains an open question.      

Is international accounting education delivering pedagogical value?

This paper examines whether universities are delivering pedagogical value to international accounting students commensurate with the costs of studying abroad. The paper uses survey and interview methods to explore the extent to which Chinese Learners (CLs) in an Australian postgraduate accounting subject have distinct learning needs. The paper then reviews universities’ responses to these needs, especially in light of funding and resource pressures. The paper reinforces findings that CLs have different learning approaches to local students, but not inferior or ‘shallow’ approaches. However, since CLs face distinctive financial and social pressures to achieve high results, their learning practices may be more sensitive to changes in teaching and assessment, such that cost constraints on educational resources might disproportionately affect their learning. This suggests that a paradoxical result of the funding pressures on many universities may be to encourage large international student cohorts while constraining available resources to meet their learning needs.     

The Role of Visual Attention in the Managerial Judgment of Balanced‐Scorecard Performance Evaluation: Insights from Using an Eye‐Tracking Device

This paper investigates the role of visual attention in managerial judgments during balanced‐scorecard performance evaluations. Using the Locarna eye tracker to establish the amount of time managers spent focused on visual cues, we found that managers who look more at strategically linked performance measures are more likely to make decisions consistent with the achievement of their subordinates’ strategic objectives. When aware of strategy, managers focused more on strategically linked performance measures than on nonlinked measures. The presentation format of the strategy information did not significantly affect this focus. Our findings indicate that awareness of strategically linked performance measures, but not their presentation, appears to be important in helping managers to make better decisions. This study contributes to the management accounting literature by generating useful insights into the impact of visual attention on judgments and decision‐making processes.