Legal update

This update contains developments on United Kingdom charity law, as it pertains to fundraising and other marketing strategies. Later issues of the journal will consider United States and European law. If readers have any particular questions on charity law, please write to the Editor at the Publisher's offices, so that he can answer questions which are of general interest to readers.     

有关国家可再生能源促进政策及其启示

为应对能源短缺和环境问题,各国都高度重视可再生能源的发展,本文介绍了英国、德国和美国的可再生能源促进政策的最新进展。在党和政府的高度关注下,我国近年来可再生能源事业获得了巨大的发展,但仍存在一些限制性问题,学习国外的有关经验,对我国可再生能源促进政策的制定具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Share-ownership schemes for employees – proposals and prospects

Recent statutory and other developments in the United Kingdom seem to have stimulated the introduction of share-ownership schemes for employees. This article considers the merits of such schemes, and their potential role within companies. The article also points up some weaknesses in the 1978 Finance Act, and suggests the need for caution on the part of those in industry who might contemplate the introduction of share-ownership arrangements.     

Beyond TV: Viewdata & its potential for fund raising

Viewdata, a two-day information service that links computers with home TV sets, is likely to revolutionize American fund raising when it arrives in the U.S., claims the author. She presents the system's actual and possible applications for fund raising, drawing upon the experience of two charitable organizations in the United Kingdom that are already using viewdata with great success.     

Energy demand and interfuel substitution in the United Kingdom

This paper sets out to examine the demand for energy in the United Kingdom. All energy sources are demonstrated to be substitutable. Coal is the most price responsive with natural gas, oil and electrical energy following. Moreover, when the issue of stability is considered, the suggestion is that the demand for coal, oil, natural gas and electrical energy have remained virtually constant over the past three decades.     

A quantitative reassessment of the purchasing power parity hypothesis: Evidence from Norway and the United Kingdom

Annual data from Norway and the United Kingdom from 1874 to 1971 are used to reassess the empirical performance of the purchasing power parity (PPP) doctrine. The simple version of the PPP relationship is supported by the data only if different short-run dynamics during a floating-rate period 1914–1928 is allowed for. Two sets of factors were found to be important in amending the simple PPP model. These were short-run cyclical variables affecting the adjustment towards the PPP equilibrium relationship and long-run structural factors such as productivity and terms of trade. Within this expanded model the proportionality between the exchange rate and relative price levels could not be rejected.     

Institutional hypothesis of the long-run income velocity of money and parameter stability of the equilibrium relationship

It has recently been argued that when the conventional specification of M2 income velocity is extended to include proxies for two types of institutional change, as emphasized by Bordo and Jonung (1987, 1990), corresponding to the processes of monetization and increasing financial sophistication of financial developments, this extended model is stable in the sense that one can reject the null hypothesis of no cointegration against the alternative of a single cointegrating vector. There may be implications that such an equilibrium relation is a structural income velocity of money function. The evidence based on century-long data from 1880 to 1986 presented in this paper about parameter instability of the cointegrating vector of velocity with its determinants for Canada, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom casts doubt on this interpretation. The evidence is based on using formal stability tests. Moreover, it has an ‘eyeball’ support from the sequential estimates of various parameters of the cointegrating relationship including income and interest semi-elasticities.     

Urban/rural shift and the evaluation of regional policy

This paper is concerned with assessing the effect of the urban/rural shift of manufacturing industry in the United Kingdom on the evaluations which have been made of United Kingdom regional economic policy. The first part of the paper investigates the methodological issues which are evoked by the urban/rural shift and the second part is concerned with its quantitative importance on published estimates.     

Audit Quality in Practice A Critical Analysis of the Financial Reporting Council （FRC） Discussion Paper

The efforts by the Financial Reporting Council （FRC） in the United Kingdom （UK） to stimulate audit firms to improve audit quality manifest in its Discussion Paper： Promoting Audit Quality warrant further analysis. The discussion paper identified factors such as audit firm culture, the quality of people, the effectiveness of audit process, and outside factors such as management and audit committee （AC） which can affect level of audit quality in practice. Reporting upon the analysis of responses to the discussion paper, the objective of this study is to analyze views from the respondents about various issues related to audit quality. This study composes of how subject of audit quality is seen in practice, which contributes to our understanding of conditions, events, or processes that can affect audit quality in practice.     

Assessing the Value Relevance of Accounting Data After the Introduction of IFRS in Europe

Since 2005, European‐listed companies have been required to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We examine whether value relevance increased following the introduction of IFRS, using a sample of 3,721 companies listed on five European stock exchanges: Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris, London, and Milan. We find mixed evidence of an increase in value relevance. However, the influence of earnings on share price increased following the introduction of IFRS in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, while the influence of book value of equity decreased (except for the United Kingdom).     

国外社会物流评价指标的比较研究

采用实证研究的方法,对部分发达国家在社会物流领域已建立的评价指标进行分析和归纳,为建立适应我国社会物流系统的评价指标提供参考依据。研究的对象包括澳大利亚、美国、英国和日本。     

Determinants of Capital Structure: United Kingdom Versus Continental European Countries

In this paper, we analyze how country‐specific differences influence capital structure indirectly through firm‐specific variables. We apply a system Generalized Method of Moments technique to a panel data sample of companies from five countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) during the period 1998–2008. As the different financial systems of European economies (bank‐oriented or market‐oriented) may influence capital structure differently through firm‐specific variables, we first examine the determinants of capital structure for each country separately and we then analyze whether the observed differences between the United Kingdom and the continental European countries are relevant. The results show that there are substantial differences in the capital structure choices of firms across five major European countries. These differences are motivated by the type of financial systems of the countries (bank‐oriented and market‐oriented) and influence the capital structure indirectly through the firm‐specific variables. Overall, our results support the relevance of the differences in the capital structure choices of firms across five major European countries, and in particular, the singularity of the United Kingdom (a market‐oriented economy) as opposed to continental European countries (bank‐oriented economies).     

浅谈语境设置在英美概况课中的应用

本文通过了解语境这一概念以及语境设置的意义来分析语境的设置在大学英美概况课程中的应用,说明了语境的设置对英美概况教学中学生能力的培养具有非常重要的作用。     

Trade union membership trends in seven Western European countries 1950—1968

Post-War trade union membership developments have received relatively little academic attention, in view of the importance attributed to trades union organization in the collective bargaining system, in the social, political and economic fields, in the relationships between organized labour and governments and, in particular, in the efforts to devise institutional arrangements suitable for dealing with wage-price inflation. Union membership levels, the effective power of central federations and some of their individual affiliates, shifts in membership and the often concomitant changes in the political status of a union or unions and the degree of organization of a nation's labour force—are all important aspects of the potential role of trade union movements within the socio-economic and political life of a nation. The objects of this paper are to examine membership levels and changes, density of organization, membership concentration and the membership experiences of the six largest unions within the trades union movements of Austria, Denmark, Germany (Federal Republic), Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom over the postwar period.     

英国海洋可再生能源发展及其对中国的启示

在研究英国海洋可再生能源发展实践的基础上,结合对中国海洋可再生能源发展现状的分析,指出制约中国海洋可再生能源发展的因素和存在问题,进而通过英国海洋可再生能源发展的经验启示,提出发展中国海洋可再生能源,必须建立健全海洋可再生能源管理机构和法规、加强国际间技术合作和开辟多元化融资渠道,并配合实行配额制和税收改革,以实现海洋可再生能源的有效供给和市场吸收。     

Industrial innovation - Matching technological offering to customer need

The objective of Government in the United Kingdom in promoting industrial innovation is assumed to be to increase the competitiveness of British firms. The measure of achievement of this objective will be if U.K. firms and industries are able to take significant shares of world markets, and especially of those new markets that will be based on advanced or new technologies.The nature of firms technological offerings is discussed, and customer needs and the types of markets they create. A continuum of relationships between technological offerings and customers’ needs is described. This enables a classification and characterisation of different types of firms or businesses.On the basis of this classification, it is argued that firms generally should be encouraged to move towards offering ready-made products and/or aiming to satisfy customer needs in mass-markets. Second, it is suggested that the above objective of Government is unlikely to be achieved through the funding of technological developments alone. There should be an equal direction of funds to firms for customer research and the definition and development of markets.     

Why Exempt Doctors from the Market?

The medical profession in the United Kingdom is almost completely protected from the dissatisfaction of patients. Chris Charles, a solicitor, calls for the abolition of restrictive practices in the NHS and the re-establishment of consumer sovereignty.     

INTER‐CITY BUS SERVICES IN CANADA – TIME FOR DEREGULATION

The regulatory framework for inter‐city bus operators in Canada is facing multiple challenges with regard to productivity, consumer satisfaction and cost controls. In spite of government reports calling for deregulation, there has been little action by provincial governments to deregulate entry and pricing. As a result, Canadians are paying higher fares and service quality is lower than in the more deregulated markets of the United Kingdom and the United States.     

The empirics of granular origins: some challenges and solutions with an application to the UK

Journal of Productivity Analysis - We study the effects of firm-level microeconomic fluctuations on aggregate productivity in the United Kingdom. We show that a standard measure of residual...     

The Value Relevance of Foreign Income: an Australian, Canadian, and British Comparison

In this paper we examine the value relevance of geographical earnings disclosures for firms listed and domiciled in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. We find that foreign earnings in all three countries are valued differently than domestic earnings. The estimate of the association coefficient for foreign earnings changes with returns is positive in all three countries and statistically larger than the association coefficient for domestic earnings changes in Canada and the United Kingdom. Further tests show that this difference is related to relative growth opportunities of overseas operations to domestic operations. These findings are similar to results for foreign earnings association coefficients for American‐based multinationals found in Bodnar and Weintrop (1997). These results indicate that across countries the market perceives the results of foreign operations as value relevant and suggests that greater emphasis should be placed on the required disclosure of segmental data rather than on the concern that all countries prepare the segmental information using a common GAAP.