What you should know about the SHUR cost study

This article critically examines a study funded by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to estimate the cost of implementing the proposed System for Hospital Uniform Reporting (SHUR). Data for the study were gathered by Morris, Davis & Company who used field teams working with personnel in 50 test hospitals. The author states that the study findings do not reflect the real cost of implementing SHUR for the nation's hospitals. Rummer argues that the study sample included a greater percentage of hospitals in states which already had uniform reporting systems than is actually the case nationally, and that the study was done under tremendous time pressure which did not allow staff from participating hospitals to review and comment on the field teams' findings. On the basis of the SHUR Cost Study, HCFA has extrapolated the cost of reclassifying accounting and statistical information for all hospitals to be $65,648.011; the author estimates the true figure at over $100 million. She concludes that a new approach to meeting the government's information requirements will have to be designed.     

What every leader needs to know about followers

Countless studies, workshops, and books have focused on leaders--the charismatic ones, the retiring ones, even the crooked ones. Virtually no literature exists about followers, however, and the little that can be found tends to depict subordinates as an amorphous group or explain their behavior in the context of leaders' development. Some works even fail to sufficiently distinguish among varying types of followers--barely registering the fact that those who tag along mindlessly are a breed apart from those who are deeply devoted and consciously, actively involved. These distinctions have critical implications for the way leaders should lead and managers should manage, according to Kellerman, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Additionally, today's followers are influenced by a range of cultural and technological changes that have affected what they want and how they view and communicate with their ostensible leaders. In this article, Kellerman explores the evolving dynamic between leaders and subordinates and offers a typology that managers can use to determine and appreciate how their followers are different from one another. Using the level of engagement with a leader or group as a defining factor, the author segments followers into five types: Isolates are completely detached; they passively support the status quo with their inaction. Bystanders are free riders who are somewhat detached, depending on their self-interests. Participants are engaged enough to invest some of their own time and money to make an impact. Activists are very much engaged, heavily invested in people and process, and eager to demonstrate their support or opposition. And diehards are so engaged they're willing to go down with the ship--or throw the captain overboard.     

What do we know about audit quality?

This paper reviews empirical research over the past 25 years, mainly from the United States, in order to assess what we currently know about audit quality with respect to publicly listed companies. The evidence indicates that outright audit failure rates are infrequent, far less than 1% annually, and audit fees are quite small, less than 0.1% of aggregate client sales. This suggests there may be an acceptable level of audit quality at a relatively low cost. There is also evidence of voluntary differential audit quality (above the legal minimum) along a number of dimensions such as firm size, industry specialization, office characteristics, and cross-country differences in legal systems and auditor liability exposure. The evidence is very positive although there is some indication that audit quality may have declined in the 1990s, in which case there could be merit in recent reforms such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the US. However, we do not know from research the optimal level of audit quality and therefore whether we currently have ‘too little’ or ‘too much’ auditing? Despite this lacuna we are entering an era of more mandated auditing in response to high-profile corporate governance failures including the Enron–Andersen affair. Finally, while recent reforms have scaled back the scope of non-audit services due to independence concerns, a case can be made that audit quality will always be somewhat suspect if other services are provided that are perceived to potentially compromise the auditor's objectivity and skepticism. For this reason public confidence in audit quality may be increased by proscribing all non-audit services for audit clients. Recommendations are also proposed with respect to legal liability reform and changes in partner compensation arrangements.     

What the academic advisor needs to know about job placement

Job placement is one of the final, yet most important steps in a student's academic career. Often times, the student looks to a college professor for counsel before facing this final hurdle. The college professor can only help the student in this endeavor if the professor is aware of what the hiring community deems to be the necessary and important credentials of a job seeker.This paper reports the results of a mail questionnaire survey that was conducted of public accounting firms and Fortune 500 corporations to determine what are the most important credentials for successful job placement. These results indicated that performance in the job interview is one of the most important aspects that recruiters consider when hiring an accounting graduate.     

What we do and do not know about convertible bond financing

We review the literature on the issuance motives, shareholder wealth effects, and design of convertible bonds. Empirical studies on convertible debt issuance mainly focus on testing the predictions of four traditional theoretical models based on convertibles' potential to mitigate agency or adverse selection costs, and obtain mixed evidence. Recent studies on shareholder wealth effects of convertible bond issues highlight the need to control for arbitrage-related short selling and post-issuance risk changes. Studies on the determinants of convertible bond design uncover earnings management, as well as catering incentives to convertible arbitrage funds, as important determinants of innovations in convertible bond characteristics. Overall, our review indicates that recent empirical research on convertible debt provides valuable insights into issue motives and determinants of financial innovations, but also considers the broader question of how investor demand characteristics impact corporate finance decisions. We conclude with an overview of potential research questions to be addressed by future research on hybrid securities.     

Stop making plans; start making decisions

Many executives have grown skeptical of strategic planning. Is it any wonder? Despite all the time and energy that go into it, strategic planning most often acts as a barrier to good decision making and does little to influence strategy. Strategic planning fails because of two factors: It typically occurs annually, and it focuses on individual business units. As such, the process is completely at odds with the way executives actually make important strategy decisions, which are neither constrained by the calendar nor defined by unit boundaries. Thus, according to a survey of 156 large companies, senior executives often make strategic decisions outside the planning process, in an ad hoc fashion and without rigorous analysis or productive debate. But companies can fix the process if they attack its root problems. A few forward-looking firms have thrown out their calendar-driven, business-unit-focused planning procedures and replaced them with continuous, issues-focused decision making. In doing so, they rely on several basic principles: They separate, but integrate, decision making and plan making. They focus on a few key themes. And they structure strategy reviews to produce real decisions. When companies change the timing and focus of strategic planning, they also change the nature of senior management's discussions about strategy--from "review and approve" to "debate and decide," in which top executives actively think through every major decision and its implications for the company's performance and value. The authors have found that these companies make more than twice as many important strategic decisions per year as companies that follow the traditional planning model.     

你了解赤道原则吗？

新修订的赤道法则就整合社会和环境的影响以及评估和管理这些影响到融资的项目而言，已经向前迈出了一大步。新的原则包括对EPFIs和其借款人更强有力和更明确的要求     

What benefits managers should know about the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996

In consideration of the statutory requirements of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, the author stresses that benefits managers should consider three issues. First, the financial impact of the act should be minimal for most plans. Second, minimal compliance may require more extensive changes to the plan than originally anticipated. Finally, the process of compliance offers opportunity to examine broader issues of mental health coverage. The article explains what the act does and does not require. The article concludes with a presentation of a comparative analysis of the cost impact of the act on five prototype plan designs.     

What do economists know about the effect of rent control on housing maintenance?

Economists' views concerning the effect of rent control on the maintenance of controlled apartments are based on extremely simple models of housing markets and rent control ordinances and on casual empiricism. This paper shows that the models are seriously deficient in that they ignore essential features of actual rent control ordinances and important responses to them. When these features and responses are taken into account, the effect of rent control on maintenance of the controlled stock is theoretically ambiguous. The paper also shows that the few systematic empirical studies have serious flaws. Therefore, there is no basis for economists' strongly-held belief that rent control leads to worse maintenance.     

What your leader expects of you

The success of an executive team depends heavily on the relationships the boss has with his or her direct reports. Yet the leadership literature has had little to say about what is expected in those relationships-on either side. Larry Bossidy, formerly the chairman and CEO of Honeywell, and before that of AlliedSignal, shares what he calls "the CEO compact," detailing the behaviors a leader should look for in subordinates and what they should be able to expect in return. A CEO's best people, he says, know when a situation calls for them to get involved. They generate ideas-remembering that some of the best ones may sound crazy at first. They are willing to collaborate, putting the long-term good of the company above short-term goals of their divisions. They step up to lead initiatives, even if the outcome is uncertain. They develop leaders among their people, especially through direct involvement in performance appraisals. They stay current on world events and anticipate how those events may affect the company and its competition. They drive their own growth by exposing themselves to new people and ideas and by accepting demanding assignments. And they sustain these behaviors in bad times as well as good. On the other side of the compact, the boss should provide clarity of direction; set goals and objectives; give frequent, specific, and immediate feedback; be decisive and timely; demonstrate honesty and candor; and offer an equitable compensation plan. Executives who aren't lucky enough to have such a boss can create a compact with their own subordinates, Bossidy says, and demonstrate by example. The result will be to improve team and company performance and accelerate individual growth.     

发行公司债券,你要了解什么

近年来，我国企业债券市场进入了一个规范发展的黄金时期，发行公司债券成为许多优势公司募集中长期资本的重要方式，与其他债权融资方式比较，发行公司债券最明显的优势是可以锁定利率风险，特别是在一个利率水平相对较低的时期发行的长期债券，其利率水平一旦确定，一般不会予以调整，企业可以享受较大的财务成本收益并避免利率波动风险，但是，当你选择发行公司债券，仅仅了解债券的利率的优势是不够的，你还要了解更多     

If you wanted to know the future of small business what questions would you ask?

Small business is a relatively new economic category, which became politically necessary as economic activity flowed from owner-managed enterprises to managerial corporations. Historically, all business operated at a small scale and were centred on the individual artisan. Even now there are strong cultural affinities to individual enterprise. Over the centuries, business has emerged, legitimised by reflexive social notions of entrepreneurship and fuelled by regulated international free trade, competition, property rights and usury. In the process, society’s view of how this market structure serves the individual is increasingly depersonalised, demanding self-reliance and responsibility of the individual separate from the economic institutions that they work for. In this landscape, small businesses are increasingly important but relatively powerless. Questions concerning their future ultimately focus on the role they play in personal and social relationships.     

夹层融资是怎样一种方式

2009年6月16日澳大利亚最大的房地产信托公司Goodman Group发布公告：中国中投公司将对其投资2亿澳元,而Goodman将为中投提供购买其2.553亿股期权的选择权。这类融资模式就是夹层融资。那么,夹层融资具有哪些融资功能？有哪些特征？有哪些必须注意的问题呢？     

亚行专家：无需太多担忧通货膨胀

2009年,在强劲的扩张性财政和货币政策的推动下,中国经济呈现V字型复苏。但是,这种经济反弹能否转为持续平稳的发展？中国经济发展面临哪些风险？政府如何应对影响经济可持续发展的突出矛盾等问题,会不会发生通货膨胀？特别是对于房地产市场如何看待？是否存在泡沫？对此,专业各方解读不一。前不久,亚行召开了《2010亚洲发展展望》发布会,亚洲开发银行驻中国代表处首席代表罗伯特·魏图（Robert Wihtol）、经济部主任冯幽兰（Yolanda Fernandez Lommen）和高级经济学家庄健就后危机时代中国经济的发展发表了他们的看法。     

A case study demonstrates a democratic methodology for making risk-based decisions

Abstract

Risk is a subjective notion allowing the boundaries between the role of a risk practitioner and a decision-maker to become blurred. A belief that the public misunderstands risk and the need to control the risk assessment process are two barriers to effective engagement. A lack of engagement and the ability to enable citizens to decide their own future can contribute to the controversy we see in important public debates. In our study, we surveyed four stakeholder groups in the New Zealand to determine how they each rated the risks and benefits of a case study on the three biophysical impacts of the economy, environment and human health. Our survey methodology incorporated a continuous scale along three axes and this design enabled costs and benefits to be traded-off between individuals, giving them a representative voice. We used these results to investigate whether or not it would be feasible to use such an approach to make decisions. Our results indicate that public decision-making is possible, which in this case broadly reflected agreement between the public and the official decision. Such an approach holds promise for expanding the role of public engagement and input into the risk assessment process.