Uncertainty Associated with Future Environmental Costs and the Market's Differential Response to Earnings Information

This study examines whether the uncertainty arising from a firm's exposure to future environmental costs (environmental uncertainty) affects the market's price sensitivity to reported earnings. Specifically, when environmental uncertainty is significantly high, are investors more responsive to reported earnings released by 'high-polluting' firms than reported earnings announced by 'low-polluting' firms within the same industry? The initial impact of Title IV (the acid rain provisions) of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (1990 CAAA) on the US electric utility industry provides the research setting required to isolate the effects of environmental uncertainty while addressing this question. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find that the earnings response coefficients (ERCs) of high-polluting electric utilities are significantly greater than those of their low-polluting counterparts during a predicted period of elevated environmental uncertainty. In adjoining sample years associated with lower environmental uncertainty, we observe no statistical difference in the magnitude of the ERCs between these two groups. In addition, the study's findings suggest that the magnitude of the ERC is increasing in the firm's exposure to future environmental costs, after controlling for other factors that potentially affect ERCs.     

Governance and firm value: The effect of a recession

This paper examines the relationship between the firm's governance structure and its value during different economic conditions. We show that both relative industry turnover and CEO entrenchment increase during economic downturns. We also find that relative industry turnover and managerial entrenchment have opposite impacts on the value of the firm throughout the recessionary period. While industry turnover leads to an appreciation in firm value, managerial entrenchment reduces shareholders’ wealth. The negative impact of managerial entrenchment on firm value, however, outweighs the positive impact of industry turnover. Accordingly, we propose that a recession provides managers with a good opportunity to camouflage their behavior and extract more private benefits and, thus, blame the poor performance on bad economic conditions.     

A possible solution to tropical troubles? : Debt-for-nature swaps

Two major problems spurred the development of debt-for-nature swaps —the high rate of destruction of tropical forests and the heavy debts accumulated by these countries. Debt-for-nature agreements are part of a new wave of thinking about the links between the environment and debt. With funds procured through conservation organizations, debt-for-nature swaps and funds have been arranged in several developing countries. This article examines myriad proposals to reduce the debt burden, identifies the link between debt, development and the environment, and clarifies the conceptual framework of the debt-for-nature swaps approach. Debt-for-nature swaps are analysed in terms of sovereignty, socioeconomic impacts and policy implications. It is concluded that the debt-for-nature swaps approach is not intended to provide debt relief on any significant scale nor resolve the debt crisis. Their nominal impact on the debt situation does not imply failure: they improve the management of natural resources. It is a strategy in which a number of goals converge for different groups in developing as well as developed countries.     

New development: High speed rail in Great Britain—its rationale and purpose

The HS2 rail route proposed for Great Britain mirrors an international trend towards creating new high speed rail services. Yet its rapid evolution in Great Britain remains controversial. Arguments for improved north-south travel and large economic benefits are being countered with concerns over its high costs, its transformational qualities and opposition to its environmental impacts. This article sets out some principles and criteria for developing high speed rail in Great Britain across a number of fields: economic, environmental, railway strategy, and spatial planning. The authors support high speed rail development but, reflecting experience in continental Europe, identify proper rationale and purpose as essential to its acceptance.     

Uncertainty,growth controls,and the efficiency of development patterns

This article examines the regulation of real estate development patterns from the perspective of the suburban household. Employing concepts of efficiency developed in the financial economics literature, it argues that uncertainty about future growth impacts, coupled with transactions costs, contributes to the motivation to enact growth controls. The article concludes by suggesting that in an information-efficient environment an alternative pricing policy, rather than regulatory intervention, is a Pareto-preferred response.     

The third world and the new world order in the 1990s

This article examines how well the developing countries fared at the end of the 1980s; identifies contemporary constraints on growth and development in developing formations; and makes projections on the future of Third World economies in view of the developments discussed.     

Bioregional planning in central Georgia, USA

Human influences in the five-county region around Fort Benning, Georgia, USA, have been long and intense. Only 4% of the native longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forest remains intact. Besides the loss of species, habitats, and ecosystem services associated with longleaf pine forests, the environmental concerns of the region include air, water, and noise pollution. The mix of federal and private ownership in this region leads to complicated land-management issues that will likely become even more difficult as the city of Columbus continues its projected growth along the northern border of Fort Benning. To understand how anthropogenic developments affect the environment, we are developing a Regional Simulator (RSim) to project future developments and their impacts on environmental conditions. Using RSim, we can identify the potential effects of growth on noise and air pollution, water-borne nutrients, and habitats for focal species. Noise impacts are already large in the areas of current and projected urban growth for the region. This knowledge of potential futures allows options for environmental protection to be considered. A key lesson from this analysis is that regional simulation models are a cost-effective way to assess the long-term environmental implications of anthropogenic growth and development.     

Sustainable technologies and the innovation–regulation paradox

This article examines the paradox between innovation and regulation and its implication for the adoption of sustainable technologies in the domestic sector of the construction industry. The case of UK is examined, where progress towards the inclusion of social and environmental considerations has been slow. Recent change in attitude in the private sector, combined with government initiatives, has prompted a more sustainable agenda in construction. With significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions required to meet climate change targets, the case for a particular energy-saving technology—natural thermal insulation materials for cavity wall insulation—suitable for widespread use in residential buildings, is assessed. In addition to the inherent conservatism in the construction industry, additional barriers inhibiting the uptake of new sustainable thermal insulation technologies include capital costs, the failure of the market to account for social and environmental costs and savings and their perceived cost-effectiveness and performance over a 50-year lifetime. Policy implications are drawn from the analysis.     

Energy efficiency complexities: A technical and managerial investigation

Increased concern about sustainability issues has been voiced in the accounting literature. Although environmental performance is only one dimension of sustainability, it is nevertheless a key factor, especially in sectors such as the process industry, which consume substantial volumes of materials and energy. Energy itself is important because its production is a major cause of carbon emissions. Hence efforts to reduce its use are important, and here energy efficiency measurement and management play a key role.Although the conceptual challenges posed by energy efficiency measurement are well known in the technical literature, there has been little discussion of energy efficiency management. This paper examines the complexities involved in the measurement and management of energy efficiency. In particular, it examines how these complexities impede effective use of management control systems to impact the ability and motivation of employees to work toward the goals of sustainable development. The study is a cross-disciplinary one, and combines technical energy efficiency research and environmental management accounting research in performance management. The study provides practical knowledge of what happens in organizations pursuing sustainable development, in this case environmental performance. The paper demonstrates a performance indicator that does not allow proper energy efficiency performance management because it is still technically underdeveloped. Setting targets for the indicator is especially problematic.     

德国利率市场化改革的特点与其金融业发展

利率市场化是指金融机构在货币市场经营融资的利率由市场供求来决定,它包括利率决定、利率传导、利率结构和利率管理的市场化。文章考察了德国利率市场化改革的特点及其对金融业发展的积极影响。德国利率市场化改革分步骤平稳推进。改革后,在全能银行模式下德国金融业没有出现象美、英那样的银行集中倒闭危机;银行贷款在非金融部门融资中仍居于主导地位,而住户部门的金融资产结构发生显著变化;德国的货币政策主要是通过改变银行的流动性来影响金融市场利率,进而间接影响银行信贷政策以及实体经济。     

Who Manages Risk? An Empirical Examination of Risk Management Practices in the Gold Mining Industry

This article examines a new database that details corporate risk management activity in the North American gold mining industry. I find little empirical support for the predictive power of theories that view risk management as a means to maximize shareholder value. However, firms whose managers hold more options manage less gold price risk, and firms whose managers hold more stock manage more gold price risk, suggesting that managerial risk aversion may affect corporate risk management policy. Further, risk management is negatively associated with the tenure of firms' CFOs, perhaps reflecting managerial interests, skills, or preferences.     

公共压力与公司环境信息披露——基于“松花江事件”的经验研究

年度报告中的环境信息披露可能会影响资本市场参与者对上市公司会计盈余和现金流量的评价。本文以"松花江事件"的肇事者"吉林化工"所属化工行业的79家A股公司为样本,探讨重大环境事故对相关行业的公司股价和环境信息披露行为的影响。结果表明,松花江事件发生后,吉林化工和样本公司的股票累积超常收益率显著为负,样本公司后2年的环境信息披露相比前2年显著增加,但是,我们没有发现前2年的环境信息披露情况与股票累积超常收益率之间存在显著的关联性。因此,股票市场对公司的正当性受到威胁和未来可能承担更大的管制成本作出了负面反应,公司的环境信息披露取决于时期和事件,基本上可以解释为一种为生存"正当性"辩护的自利行为,是对公共压力作出的反应。我们建议资本市场监管部门尽快制定和颁布上市公司环境信息披露监管制度,促使公司披露更有用、更具信息含量的环境信息。     

ENTREPRENEURS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN AFRICA

The article examines the widespread belief that indigenous entrepreneurshipis less well represented in African countries than in otherparts of the developing world. The evidence shows no dearthof ability among Africans to identify business opportunitiesand to act upon them—the two quintessential characteristicsof entrepreneurship. But the management problems these businesseshave sometimes encountered suggest that there may be a continuingrole for expatriates, provided the industries are fundamentallysound. Small businesses appear to have a better chance of successand are more viable than some of the heavily protected and subsidizedtransnational enterprises. The article finds that successful industrial entrepreneurs havecome from a variety of religious, cultural, and educationalorigins. It casts doubt on the efficacy of training programsto teach entrepreneurial skill and argues instead that a liberaleconomic regime is more likely to encourage entrepreneurship.Equally important is a well-grounded and widely dispersed growthof income, especially among small-scale cultivators, which leadsto a growth of demand for what small businesses produce.      

Forecasting Medical Net Discount Rates

Determining the present value of future medical costs is an important issue for a variety of public and private entities. This article examines the time‐series properties of medical net discount rates and considers the implications for forecasting. The article provides evidence that the standard autoregressive moving average forecasting model may be improved by modeling the time‐varying volatility characteristics of the medical net discount rates.     

Disclosure responses to mining accidents: South African evidence

Mining activities generate significant social concerns in terms of employee safety and stakeholder scrutiny has increased considerably in recent years. Social and environmental accounting research is largely dedicated to environmental issues and the study of other components of social accounting is limited. This study examines safety disclosures in the annual reports, sustainability reports, and reactive corporate press releases of South African mining organisations following two major mining accidents occurring at Harmony Gold and Gold Fields’ mines. Results show that organisations react to perceived legitimacy threats through increased safety disclosures. The entire mining industry evidences an increase in disclosure levels after the incidents, suggesting that organisations do respond to increased stakeholder scrutiny threatening their legitimacy. Furthermore, our results provide evidence of an association between safety disclosure levels and firm size, social performance, risk, and number of fatalities, while the media attention devoted to mining accidents appears to be unrelated to safety disclosure levels. It is possible that stakeholder pressure, which motivates corporate social disclosures according to legitimacy and stakeholder theories, consists of various factors, which combined form the motivation to report. Media attention, therefore, cannot be considered in isolation as a driver of disclosure. Rather, a combination of variables such as size, social responsibility performance, number of fatalities, risk, and media attention could serve as a proxy for social pressure.     

Africa's dilemma in the transition to the new information and communication technologies

The emergence of the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) has dramatically altered theoretical and practical assumptions about the role of the communication media in socioeconomic development. Today, the role of ICTs in developed and developing societies remains a subject of debate, and Africa has been caught in the middle of this debate. Advocates of ICTs, for instance, point to how the West experienced the impact of industrial technology and found it to be an indispensable tool for development. If the new technologies are good for the West, will the same hold true for the developing world? For Africa, the question is a difficult one: will the new information and communication technologies launch Africa on the path of socioeconomic development or will they subject Africa to a new form of dependence? This article argues that the communication technology which will be adopted by Africans, irrespective of how the West moves, will be the one that is easily accessible and which poses no challenge to sociocultural practices. That communication technology of the future will be the telephone.     

Industry Expertise,Information Leakage and the Choice of M&A Advisors

This paper examines the impacts of M&A advisors’ industry expertise on firms’ choice of advisors in mergers and acquisitions. We show that an investment bank's expertise in merger parties’ industries increases its likelihood of being chosen as an advisor, especially when the acquisition is more complex, and when a firm in M&A has less information about the merger counterparty. However, due to the concerns about information leakage to industry rivals through M&A advisors, acquirers are reluctant to share advisors with rival firms in the same industry, and they are more likely to switch to new advisors if their former advisors have advisory relationship with their industry rivals. In addition, we document that advisors with more industry expertise earn higher advisory fees and increase the likelihood of deal completion.     

澳大利亚银行业国际化及其启示

澳大利亚银行业的国际化历程开始于19世纪,但一直在国际银行业市场上所占份额较少。考察澳大利亚银行业国际化的历程、区位分布、国际化动机和路径依赖,分析澳大利亚银行业国际化的成功与失败,对中国银行业有着积极的借鉴意义。     

Location of hazardous materials plants in Israel

The study described in this article examines the distribution of hazardous materials plants in Israel during 2002–2010. In particular, it focuses on densely populated areas destined for future urban expansion, areas in proximity to rivers and water sources, and main transportation arteries. The survey identified certain hazardous materials plants (representing 10% of all such plants in Israel) as highly dangerous owing to the kinds of substances they contain, the nature of their industrial activities, and potential environmental hazards. The location of hazardous plants showed a correlation between population density and industry, with the highest concentration of plants found in Tel Aviv (30%), Haifa and adjacent industrial areas (25%), and Ashdod (12%). Significant concentrations of hazardous plants were also found in Ramat Hovav, Netanya, and Acre (Akko). From 2000 to 2010, the number of hazardous materials plants known to the Ministry of Environmental Protection increased by 62%, with most of the increase concentrated in such coastal cities as Haifa and Tel Aviv, the rest in Israel’s northern and southern (Negev) regions. Further analysis of these data revealed problems resulting from the proximity of these sites to potable and irrigation water sources and to transportation arteries. The main purposes of the study were, first, to develop a geo-tool for informed decision-making regarding the location of hazardous materials plants, and, second, to examine the distribution of such plants in Israel in order to prevent future industrial accidents. This article is part of a comprehensive study on the role of environmental policy in the planning of hazardous materials plants in Israel.