Analysis of the emergency service applying the queueing theory

Those responsible for the decision-making in hospitals are becoming more aware of the need to efficiently manage hospital systems. One option is the queueing models. In this work, the Emergency service of a public hospital is analyzed by applying the concepts and relations of queues. Based on the results of the model, it is concluded that the Emergency area does not count with the minimum number of doctors necessary for a constant flow of patients. The minimum number of doctors necessary to satisfy the current and future service demand, with the same service times and service disciplines, is calculated using the model. The analytical models allow to directly understand the existing relations between service demand, number of doctors and the attention priority of the patient seen as a system of queues. The work is of use to managers and those responsible for the management of hospital systems.     

分层制度提升新三板流动性了吗?——来自多维断点回归的经验证据

本文通过多维断点回归设计,研究了在分层制度的三套不同标准下,新三板挂牌企业由基础层进入创新层对股票流动性的影响。经过一系列稳健性检验后发现:(1)通过盈利标准进入创新层的股票,Amihud价格冲击指标和换手率分别提升了74.1%和45.1%,成长标准存在操纵报表进入创新层的情形,通过做市标准进入创新层的股票流动性未能得到显著提升。(2)做市商制度对分层制度的流动性提升效应不明显;相比于协议转让,做市转让的股票流动性更低,对于做市转让的股票,其流动性与做市商数量正相关。本文对新三板分层标准的逐步调整和做市商制度与分层制度的协调配合具有积极的借鉴意义。     

Barbados Spirits Inc.

This case focuses on the audit of a subsidiary in Barbados of a Multi‐National Entity (“MNE”), a distiller in Toronto. The MNE is a large and important international client to the accounting firm. The firm provides both tax advisory and audit services to the MNE. The MNE, following advice of the accounting firm, has utilized an offshore related party to structure transactions that avoid taxes in Barbados. These related party transactions are a detriment to the interests of critical users of the financial statements, namely the minority shareholders and the tax authorities of Barbados. The auditor is now faced with evaluating the adequacy of the related party note disclosure and the completeness of the income tax provision. Independence issues of a self‐interest threat (importance of the client) and self‐review threat (evaluating the adequacy of the income tax provision based on tax advice provided by the firm) are explored.     

Multiple Dimensions of Accounting in the Development of GAAP

The phrase 'accepted accounting principles' underlying financial statements is a forerunner of today's accounting standards. Here, it is argued that history shows that the term 'principles' is often most vague in debates on the development of those standards. The reasons for and consequences of that vague use are varied and complex. This article provides insights not highlighted in earlier analyses of the periods reviewed. While debates like the rule- versus principle-based standards are set up as two-dimensional, the many dimensions of accounting often allow argument to be easily diverted. The debate/argument thus remains unresolved. For progress to be achieved in the establishment of accounting standards the many dimensions of accounting must be acknowledged and attempts to divert debate minimized. Those with a stake in the development of accounting standards need to consider the total scene of the related accounting. In a particular debate, dimensions under scrutiny must be stated, with any others in that total scene being acknowledged even if kept constant.     

Semi-quantitative risk assessment of groundwater resources for emergency water supply

The submitted paper proposes the possible use of integrated semi-quantitative risk assessment of groundwater resources. There are risks resulting from both natural and anthropogenic hazard sources. Activation of these types of hazard sources can cause damage to, or destruction of, particular hydrogeological structures and technological equipment of selected groundwater resources suitable for the emergency drinking water supply of the population. The process of risk assessment is based on the described register of hazards, including semi-quantitative assessment of the frequency with which the assessed sources of hazards are activated, the register of sensitivity together with the semi-quantitative sensitivity assessment of selected threatened elements of the assessed water resource and the determination of their criticality. The semi-quantitative risk assessment should become one of the important criteria for classifying groundwater resources which have been proposed for emergency water supply. The classification carried out on the basis of the above-mentioned principle can contribute to faster selection and effective use of groundwater resources, as well as to the enhancement of emergency and crisis planning systems when the public system is either damaged or destroyed.     

The objectives of financial reporting: a historical survey and analysis

This article is a survey and analysis of the succession of writings on the objectives of financial reporting during the past 90 years. Its aim is to contribute towards an understanding of the origins, significance, and limitations of conceptual frameworks. The article begins with a review of the extensive literature, including the series of recommended and approved conceptual frameworks, in the USA and then proceeds to examine the corresponding literatures in Great Britain, Canada, and Australia, followed by a discussion of the framework issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee in 1989 and Chapters 1 and 3 of the framework issued by the International Accounting Standards Board and Financial Accounting Standards Board in 2010. Summary remarks about Continental Europe conclude the survey. Attention is drawn to the criticisms of the objectives approach as well as to its possible perverse consequences for the remainder of the framework. In the course of the survey, there is an attempt to trace the evolution of stewardship and conservatism, or prudence, in the series of frameworks.     

Regulation of securitisation in China: Learning from the US experience

With the issuance of the latest adjustment on the Chinese securitisation regulatory framework, the originating institution only needs to hold 5% capital for each class of the securitised assets. Previously, the originating institution needed to hold a certain percentage of the lowest class of the securitised assets in one single securitisation deal, and the percentage in principal, should not be less than 5% of the entire term of the securitisation deal. This adjustment of the reduction of the minimum risk retention (MRR) requirement has to large extent, addressed the limitation of financing in participating in securitisation for Chinese banks. However, it has increased the risk of securitisation failure or even a crisis in the Chinese banking sector compared with the previous regulatory framework.In the light of the potential risks of this latest adjustment, the study critically examined the effectiveness of the regulatory framework of the current Chinese securitisation market drawing from the US experience during the global financial crisis (GFC). Overall, we evaluated the regulations on the current Chinese securitisation market as relatively effective, whilst we also raised concerns on the future of the regulations and thereby provided suggestions for improvements.     

Spanish credit institutions: do efficiency and solvency support the first decisions on bank restructuring from a financial point of view 2008-2012?

The restructuring processes of the Spanish financial entities over the last years has led us to analyze financially how efficiency and solvency of banks and savings banks explain the decisions of incorporation and control of these entities. We analyze 51 Spanish financial entities for the period 2008-2012. The results show higher solvency and efficiency of banks over savings banks. On the other hand, after the first integrations it is observed that it is still early for these ratios to improve on the results obtained by the entities before the integrations. However, from the financial point of view, these integrations do explain how correct the start-up and intensification of the restructuring processes were. There are some exceptions to the global criteria, which are explained by the size, strength and structure of the business and the closeness of its financial management scope to the area and business structure of the bigger banking groups.     

加征关税如何影响美国贸易逆差及全球福利——基于美元本位下两国动态一般均衡框架的分析

本文构建了一个包含美元本位特征的两国模型,在此基础上分析了美国加征关税及引发的贸易摩擦对美国贸易逆差和全球福利的影响,并详细探讨了相关传导机制。在基准模型设定下,美国单方面加征20%关税会使得美国贸易逆差占GDP比重小幅缩小约0.40个百分点,美国长期稳态GDP下降约2.50%,其他国家GDP下降约1.10%,美国居民福利上升约0.60%,其他国家居民福利下降约1.20%。美国单方面加征关税在抑制全球贸易和生产的同时,会通过更加不公平的国际贸易恶化全球福利分配。当其他国家采取报复性措施时,其他国家自身福利并不会进一步恶化,但美国福利会大幅下滑,同时美国贸易逆差相对规模变化不大。贸易摩擦博弈的“囚徒困境”特征在一定程度上能够解释贸易战的发生。削弱美元本位地位能促进国际贸易公平性的提升,进而能减弱贸易摩擦带来的负面影响、提升全球福利水平,并能有效缩窄美国贸易逆差。     

The rise and rise of the share premium account

Share premiums now constitute a substantial proportion of UK company equity but rarely featured on nineteenth century company balance sheets. This paper discusses when and why this changed and why the definition of the share premium account as company capital took nearly a century to reach the statute books. From 1855 to 1948 any surplus above par on issued shares could be treated at the directors' discretion, including appropriation for the payment of dividends. This freedom was removed in the Companies Act 1948 (s. 56), after the Cohen Committee recommended that share premiums should normally be treated as share capital and employed in a very limited range of transactions. The paper outlines the accounting and legal history of the share premium account and argues that the growth of share premiums was due to a tax avoidance loophole, open from 1889 to 1973, which permanently changed company practice on share issues after 1920. The effect of legal restrictions on the use of the share premium account is also addressed. One possible future consequence of the loss of economic significance of the nominal value of a share is the total abolition of both this and the share premium account by adoption of no par value (npv) shares, a change which has recently been adopted in Australia and is again under consideration in the UK.     

Moments of Compound Mixed Poisson Distributions

Recursive formulae are derived for the evaluation of the moments and the descending factorial moments about a point n of mixed Poisson and compound mixed Poisson distributions, in the case where the derivative of the logarithm of the mixing density can be written as a ratio of polynomials. As byproduct, we also obtain recursive formulae for the evaluation of the moments about the origin, central moments, descending and ascending factorial moments of these distributions. Examples are also presented for a number of mixing densities.     

进口与企业员工收入——以中国制造业企业为例

进口企业的职工工资直接关系到企业员工的民生福祉和劳动力市场的就业稳定性。本文基于中国制造业微观企业数据,就进口贸易对企业职工收入的影响进行深入考察,结果表明:(1)进口有利于提高企业职工的平均工资水平,不过这种正向的“工资提升”效应在长期不具有持续性。(2)中介效应检验表明,进口通过竞争效应和激励效应作用于企业的工资水平。进一步使用倍差法、工具变量法等的估计结果也证实了上述结论的稳健性。(3)进口对企业工资水平的影响因企业所有制、是否出口、进口产品类型以及进口来源国的不同而具有显著的异质性。(4)引入劳动收入份额的分析表明,进口显著降低了企业的劳动收入份额。具体地,进口的“生产率提升效应”影响超过了“工资提升效应”影响。     

The designing of corporate accounting law in Japan after the Second World War

After the Second World War, during the neutralization of the controlled economy of wartime Japan, a design for a Corporate Accounting Law was elaborated by the Investigation Committee on the Business Accounting System. The Investigation Committee tried to establish not only new business accounting standards but also a central and independent administrative organ of corporate accounting regulation on the basis of the Corporate Accounting Law. The Corporate Accounting Law was expected to lay the legal foundation of the new corporate accounting regulation regime in Japan. Nevertheless, even though the original design of the fundamental accounting law was never realized, it should be considered the starting point for our understanding of external accounting history in post-war Japan.     

Assessing the maintenance of savings sufficiency over the first decade of retirement

The goal of securing adequate resources in retirement dominates the ongoing debate regarding social security reforms designed to accommodate the demographic transformation and to provide minimum income security to retired workers. Policy proposals concerned with the implication of future public sector costs emphasize greater individual responsibility for meeting retirement resource goals. Proposals seeking minimum living standards imply expansion of public fiscal liabilities. We contribute to this discussion by examining the extent to which a cohort of US retirees were able to meet resource adequacy standards at the time of retirement, and to maintain initial levels of resources over the first decade of retirement. We compare annuitized wealth, including social security and pension wealth, to two adequacy standards—a household’s preretirement earnings (reflecting the goal of maintaining preretirement consumption) and the US poverty threshold (reflecting the goal of meeting minimum consumption standards). We analyze the relationship of individual characteristics to changes in resource adequacy over time, and identify the characteristics of those who gain and lose resources over the first decade of retirement. Finally, we simulate the effects on adequacy and public sector benefit costs of four social insurance policy proposals. This research was partially supported by a grant from the Social Security Administration. Additional support was provided by the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Graduate School and the Center for Demography and Ecology all at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Conclusions represent those of the authors alone and not of the funding agencies.     

Proposal of a coefficient to evaluate the management of the internal control

The objective of this article is to propose a management index for the Internal Control of care entities. This was conceived following the multicriteria modeling guidelines in conjunction with the detection of weaknesses through the Petri networks. For this purpose, the order of importance and compliance of the internal control components were determined, and the lack of reliability of the critical processes in the entity subject to the practical implementation was identified. Derived from its humanitarian mission – lending quality health care to the population – it is necessary to decrease the emergence of events that could infringe upon the physical and psychological integrity of the patients in hospitals. One of the strategies to consider to overcome this challenge is the adequate implementation of the Internal Control System, which guarantees the sustainability of the insurers through the increase in the efficiency of the care of the people, feasible only within a care model that quantifies the control over the population already identified and cared for.     

Design museum futures: Catalysts for education

Taking the ambitious educational programmes and global collecting practices of 19th century industrial arts museums as case studies, this article analyses the role of design in shaping the future. The article examines the historical dynamics behind the construction of futures knowledge and futures expertise on the one hand, and current futures construction within design museum collections on the other. It tests strategic drivers and trends for the imagination and design of futures in the museum within the context of wider debates about the value of museums as sites of transdisciplinary practical learning. In this way the article also considers how cultural value is articulated through changing concepts of time and temporality embodied in material form. The final section examines the potential for social agency and activism within the design museum to foster critical reflection on the methods by which social institutions signal and shape directions of change. The article finds that in providing tools for the sharing as well as shaping of visions of the future, wider debates about the designed object in the museum have much to contribute to futures agency and literacy across disciplinary and professional boundaries.     

Audit Quality and the Market Valuation of Banks’ Allowance for Loan Losses*

The recent banking crisis has led market participants to focus on the adequacy and quality of banks’ balance sheet items such as the allowance for loan losses. Beaver and Engel (1996) document that the capital market prices the nondiscretionary component of loan loss allowance negatively and the discretionary component less negatively. Using data from the pre‐crisis period and three measures of audit quality, auditor type (i.e., Big 5 versus non–Big 5), auditor industry specialization/expertise, and audit and nonaudit fees paid to auditors, we examine the effect of audit quality on the market valuation of the discretionary component of the allowance for loan losses. We find that, relative to the nondiscretionary component, the market valuation of the discretionary component of loan loss allowance is higher for banks audited by Big 5 auditors than for banks audited by non–Big 5 auditors. We also find that the relative market valuation of the discretionary component of loan loss allowance is increasing in auditor expertise. Regarding the impact of fees paid to auditors, we find that banks paying higher audit fees have higher relative market valuation of the discretionary component of the allowance for loan losses, but banks that pay higher nonaudit fees do not.     

Gibrat's law test on Brazilian commercial banks

In recent years, Brazil has been one of the countries with the biggest changes in the banking sector. The process of deregulation that began in 2002 has entailed the increase of the presence of foreign banking and the increase of competition, among other aspects. In this context, the objective of this study consists in contrasting Gibrat's Law in the Brazilian commercial banking during the period of 2002–2013 with the objective of contributing with evidence for the construction of a growth model for banking that will guide the financial policy of the country. For this, the quartile regression methodology is utilized, since we consider that it analyzes the relation between growth and the size of the entities more thoroughly than the empirical contrasts given by previous empirical evidence. The results obtained indicate that there is a non-linear relation in an inverted U form between growth and size in the Brazilian commercial banking. These results allow us to affirm that the relative dispersion of the sizes of the financial entities will tend to decrease in time and with this, the concentration of the sector.     

气候风险对中国农业经济发展的影响——异质性及机制分析

科学评估气候风险的经济影响是管理气候风险的第一步。本文利用气象站数据和各地区农业经济数据,实证分析了气候风险对我国农业经济发展的影响,并重点分析了该影响的异质性和相关机制。结果显示,气候风险较高地区的农业经济发展要显著慢于其它地区,且该结果在多种模型设定下以及不同衡量变量下都保持一致。异质性分析表明,气候风险对同一地理区域内人均收入水平较低地区的影响更加显著;对农业保险保障水平较高或农业现代化水平较高地区的影响则较小,说明农业保险的发展和农业现代化水平的提高可以降低气候风险对农业经济的负面影响。机制分析表明,从农业投入和产出关系来看,气候风险直接作用于农业经济产出,而非通过影响投入再作用于产出;从气候风险和自然灾害关系来看,气候风险会通过增加自然灾害严重程度对农业经济发展产生不利影响,同时也会直接对农业经济造成负面影响。本文研究为管理气候风险、促进现代农业经济发展和保障粮食供给安全提供了有益启示。