A note on videos and accounting education

Doctoral students are often uncomfortable making oral presentations before their peers and the instructor. This paper describes a recent innovation employed in the doctoral programme of a major university which we feel has been useful not only in increasing the communication skills of our doctoral students, but has also enhancing the quality of doctoral students' dissertations as well as the teaching and presentation skill of staff involved in the programme.     

From Central Research to Local Practice: Identifying and Addressing Repeat Victimization

This article describes the action taken by a central government research group to ensure the implementation of recommendations for both policy and practice, which arose from a major programme of research on the prevention of crime. The research, which demonstrated that significant reductions in a range of offences could be achieved by focusing on the protection of first-time victims, is used as an example of what needs to be done to ensure implementation. The article outlines the research findings and describes what the staff of the research group did to increase the likely uptake of these findings by policy-makers and practitioners.     

Tackling an accounting coursework assignment - action research on the student perspective

The study focused upon first year undergraduates' experiences and perceptions of a major coursework assignment in accounting. The context was a modular programme with several hundred students from many different courses taking a common first year, first semester introductory accounting module. In the role of a reflective practitioner, the author adopted an action research approach, and gathered various forms of evidence including in-depth interviews with four students at key points during and after completion of their courseworks. The main issues highlighted were: (1) the effect which the university, as a new environment, has on learning in the early weeks of a course, and the fractured nature of learning in a semesterized course; (2) the personal strategies which students adopt for scheduling time on coursework, and the way in which this may differ from the expectations of staff; (3) the variety of learning approaches represented within the student group. These issues are reflected upon and implications for both the author's practice and for other practitioners are considered.     

The Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer Programme on Consumption in Colombia*

This paper studies the impact of a conditional cash transfer programme in Colombia on the total consumption of very poor households and on its components. Our evaluation methodology involves comparing household expenditures in areas in which the programme was not implemented (control) and those in which it was (treated). We use a quasi‐experimental approach, as the Familias en Acción programme was not randomly assigned across localities, for political reasons. We condition on a large range of household‐ and municipality‐level characteristics, and also control for pre‐programme differences in the outcomes of interest using a differences‐indifferences methodology. We find that the programme has been effective at greatly increasing total consumption and its main component, food consumption, in both rural and urban areas. The programme has also contributed to improvements in the quality of food consumed, in particular of items rich in proteins (milk, meat and eggs) and of cereals. Furthermore, the programme has created redistributive effects in favour of children through expenditure on education and children's clothing, while it has not significantly affected consumption of adult goods such as alcohol and tobacco or adults’clothing.     

Effects of Temporary In‐Work Benefits for Welfare Recipients: Examination of the Australian Working Credit Programme*

We investigate the impact of ‘Working Credit’, a nationally‐implemented programme which created increased incentives for welfare recipients to undertake temporary work. Highlighting the difficulties in identifying programme effects in the absence of a randomised controlled trial or a natural experiment, we produce estimates of impacts under alternative identifying assumptions and also undertake various robustness checks. Unconditional and regression‐adjusted difference‐in‐difference estimates suggest that the introduction of the Working Credit programme increased employment rates, earnings and exits for those on income support, but matching methods and various robustness checks provide conflicting evidence on the impact on movements from welfare to work for unemployment benefit recipients. Moreover, estimated effects on earnings while on benefits are sensitive to identifying assumptions. Notwithstanding our inability to conclusively identify causal effects of the programme, we note that our findings are broadly consistent with the incentive effects of the programme, with recipients making use of the credits to increase earnings while on benefits, but not increasing movements off welfare.     

有效履行工会职能 推动工作创新发展

不断创新工会工作方式,有效推进新形势下的工会工作,是当前摆在我们人民银行分支机构工会干部面前必须认真思考的一个问题。根据多年的工会工作实践,笔者认为要做好工会工作,必须围绕中心、服务大局;找准定位、有效履职;热爱本职、有为有位,才能不断开创工会工作的新局面。     

企业类全国会计领军(后备)人才培养项目效果研究——基于问卷调查的分析与建议

2005年12月财政部启动全国会计领军(后备)人才培养工程。全国会计领军(后备)人才培养工程从启动至今一直受到社会各界的广泛关注。7年来项目效果如何,是值得研究的重要课题。我们基于对企业类全国会计领军(后备)人才培养项目学员的问卷调查,进行了项目效果的跟踪研究。研究结果表明:企业类全国会计领军(后备)人才培养项目达到了预期效果,培养和造就了一批精通业务、善于管理、熟悉国际惯例、具有国际视野和战略思维的高素质、复合型会计人才,并且发挥了会计领军人才在强化会计职能、宣传会计政策、组织继续教育、研究实务问题等方面的组织推动和辐射作用。同时,本文根据问卷调查针对企业类全国会计领军(后备)人才培养项目需要进一步改进的地方,提出了一些改进建议。     

Encouraging group skills in accountancy students: an innovative apporach

This paper evalutes a three year programme in a UK university which recently won the Partnership Award from Cooper & Lybrand, Deloitte for innovation in higher education. The programme aims to encourage student to work in groups and to reflect upon the processes and the group dynamics involved. The first part of the paper provides the context for the paper and the context in which the programme runs. n example of a case study used in the programme is described in detail and the way in which it draws together subject areas within the degree is illustrated. Finally the programme is evaluted in terms of its successes and its problem areas.     

European futures in science and technology: FAST II at the mid-term

The FAST programme, launched by the European Communities in 1979, is aimed at developing and testing a tool for identifying long-term directions for R&D. The pursuit of these aims in FAST II (1984–1987) represents a true application of futures research on a European scale. The main orientation is towards the social and individual changes that are being brought about by the application of the new technologies. This mid-term report of the FAST II programme, directed by Riccardo Petrella, gives an assessment of the extent of results obtained in fields as diverse as: uses generated by new information technologies; the deep change in the nature of service activities; and the evolution of agricultural techniques and food processing. The programme brings together researchers, national administrations and industries in a futures-oriented research programme: it should provide the basis for outlining concrete proposals for developing European Community strategies.     

The effect of inspections,rotations and client preferences on staffing decisions

With increased regulatory focus on audits and concerns about whether audit regulation is achieving its stated aims, it is timely to investigate how regulator inspection of audit files and partner rotations may be affecting staffing decisions. This is an important issue, which affects all audits, as the calibre of staff allocated across engagements impacts the quality of audit work delivered. This study reports the results of an experiment where auditor participants allocate staff across two audits, where regulation anticipated (none, inspection, rotation) and a client request for the best staff (absent, present) are manipulated between‐subjects. We find that auditors allocate lower calibre staff when neither an inspection nor rotation is anticipated than when either is anticipated. When an inspection is anticipated, auditors allocate staff with more knowledge and compliance skills. When a rotation is anticipated, auditors allocate staff with more people skills. A client request for the best staff only has an effect when a partner is due to be rotated, where auditors allocate staff with more people skills in response to the client request. Our findings provide greater understanding of staffing decisions, which may affect audit quality if concerns around audit inspections and partner rotations are perceived by auditors as more important than the underlying risk or complexity of an engagement when allocating staff.     

商业银行员工满意度管理的问题与对策

目前我国商业银行在员工满意度方面的主要问题表现为薪酬机制不合理、员工职业生涯规划方式方法落后、培训方法培训理念还有待提高,应该从努力提高银行发展质量,为员工提供成长的机会,注重员工素质的改善,完善薪酬系统和提供员工帮助计划几方面来提高我国商业银行员工满意度。     

SEC Rule 14a-8 shareholder proposals: No-action requests,determinants, and the role of SEC staff

Under SEC Rule 14a-8, shareholders can petition management to include a topic for vote on the annual proxy statement. In response, management may request no-action relief from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff to exclude unwelcome proposals. Using a sample of 3,040 no-action letters from the SEC between 2008 and 2019, I examine the determinants of the SEC staff’s decision to grant no-action relief. I find that legal characteristics, pressures on the staff, and proposal attributes have a statistically significant association with the SEC’s decision. Beyond these factors, I find evidence individual SEC staff members differ in the likelihood that they grant no-action relief. On average, these staff members appear to add value, as evidenced by a positive market response to their decisions, but this favorable valuation effect is concentrated among relatively more experienced staff.     

Targeted Interventions in Healthcare: The Role of Facility Placement*

Adequate targeting is a primary concern in the design of any social programme that attempts to reach a specific group in society. This paper studies the targeting of a healthcare‐centre programme aimed at the poor that relies on household self‐selection into the programme at the local level. We find that a key variable in determining utilisation of the health centres is location. Households living near a centre are substantially more likely to use it than households living further away. This points to the importance of facility placement in targeting self‐selected health programmes to the poor.     

Public—Private Partnerships in Ireland: Policy and Practice

Ireland's National Development Plan 2000–2006 includes a significant programme of public—private partnerships (PPPs). The Irish Government's policy on PPPs has been shaped to ensure that capital investments under PPP are not included when calculating key fiscal aggregates. This article traces the origins of Ireland's PPP programme and outlines the extent of PPP activity to date. It details how the PPP programme has failed to make an impact in terms of addressing Ireland's infrastructure deficit and examines three particular cases where the PPP model has been applied.     

Devolving Skills: The Case of the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers*

One rationale for devolution is that local decision makers may be well placed to adapt national policies to the local context. We test whether such adaptation helps meet programme objectives in the case of the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers. Originally a national programme, aimed at incentivising employers to take on apprentices, reforms a few years into operation gave some Local Authorities negotiated flexibilities in how the scheme operated. We consider the impact of the national scheme and then use a difference-in-differences approach to test whether flexibility led to an increase in the number of apprenticeship starts in devolved areas relative to control groups. We find that flexibility had zero effect. There is suggestive evidence that this is because flexibilities were negotiated on the wrong margins.     

我国民间组织工作人员社会保障的现状与政策建议——对青岛的个案调查

改革开放以来，我国民间组织发展迅速，但由于各种原因，民间组织工作人员社会保障现状很不令人满意。通过对青岛的个案调查，发现民间组织工作人员社会保障存在着一系列的问题，如法规不健全、不愿参保等。完善民间组织工作人员社会保障制度，既需要坚持政府主导、机制创新等原则，更要考虑到民间组织工作人员的特殊性。从模式选择上，应将民间组织工作人员与公务员、事业单位职工和企业单位职工一起考虑，建立一个统一的城镇社会保障制度。     

Public—Private Partnerships in Ireland: Policy and Practice

Ireland's National Development Plan 2000–2006 includes a significant programme of public—private partnerships (PPPs). The Irish Government's policy on PPPs has been shaped to ensure that capital investments under PPP are not included when calculating key fiscal aggregates. This article traces the origins of Ireland's PPP programme and outlines the extent of PPP activity to date. It details how the PPP programme has failed to make an impact in terms of addressing Ireland's infrastructure deficit and examines three particular cases where the PPP model has been applied.     

The role of biosolar technologies in future energy supply making scenarios for the Netherlands: Energy port and energy farm

This paper assesses the possible roles of biosolar energy systems in the Netherlands in the coming years. The appraisal is made in the light of EU Directives on renewable energy and reduction of CO₂ emissions, and the new Dutch Energy Agreement for Sustainable Growth. The assessment is made within the Dutch BioSolar Cells (BSCs) research programme on photosynthesis and its application in fuel production. Part of the programme is committed to societal debate by considering different options and uses of biosolar technology. To provide building blocks for these discussions, we conducted a comprehensive desk study supplemented with key expert interviews, and we identified and articulated the main drivers for the Dutch transition towards more sustainable energy supply. Next, these drivers were used to develop two futures: energy port and energy farm, representing institutional settings in which BSC technology could be implemented. Both represent fundamentally different types of innovation and are useful in assessing the effect of policies on future energy systems. Both scenarios were used in workshops with BSC researchers and policymakers. Their possible implications for the BSC programme itself, as well as the broader policy significance of the use of biosolar technologies in the Netherlands, are indicated.     

Developing public servants for the future

ABSTRACT

The majority of UK civil servants are ‘developed’ within a particular service or profession and there is frequently very little movement into other service areas. Many current leaders therefore have limited experiences in services and organizations other than their own. This paper presents a new graduate programme for the training and development of future public leaders in Wales. The programme is a leadership and development programme for civil and public servants, exposing them to a range of services. The intention is that, through these experiences, future leaders will approach problems from a multi-service perspective, will be better networked and ready to deal with complexity. Areas of good practice are highlighted, together with some of the challenges of developing leaders in this way.