Incentive Effects of Assigned Goals and Compensation Schemes on Budgetary Performance

This study examines the combined effects of two management interventions, assigned goals and monetary compensation, on performance in a routine task. It investigates the effects of assigned goals (four goal levels: low, medium, high, impossible) and three types of compensation scheme (fixed-pay, piece-rate and budget-based). A laboratory experiment involving 180 undergraduate accounting students showed that, in some circumstances, assigned goals dominated performance effects while, in other circumstances, monetary incentives played a major role. Over medium to high levels of difficulty, assigned goals had a positive and dominating effect on performance, regardless of type of compensation. When the assigned goal was low, however, performance-contingent pay schemes had an additive effect on performance, while at an impossible goal level, budget-based incentives had a negative effect on performance. Of the interventions tested, the highest performance resulted from using incentive-based compensation when the budget (assigned goal) was relatively low (80% achievable).     

Ending Food Subsidies: Nutritional, Welfare, and Budgetary Effects

Governments faced with growing budget deficits are cutting manysocial expenditures, including costly food subsidy programsthat have provided benefits to the rich and poor alike. Becausethe poor spend a larger share of their income on food than dothe rich, however, such cuts usually have negative distributional,welfare and nutritional effects. This article discusses themethodological issues in estimating the effects of price andtax reforms in developing countries. I apply a model that Deaton(1988) developed to estimate price elasticities from cross-sectiondata, the only reliable and detailed data available in mostdeveloping countries. I use measures of both real income andnutrition to evaluate the effects of changes in the Moroccanfood subsidy program. The analysis suggests that subsidies oninferior foods not consumed by the wealthy would reduce thewelfare costs to the poor and limit the budgetary expendituresrequired.     

The Role of Profitability in Divisional Decision Making and Performance Evaluation

The use of profitability, typically in the form of return on investment, to assess divisional financial performance has been widely criticised, since it involves the allocation to divisions of central fixed costs. The measure is, however, extensively used. Prior surveys have indicated economic reasons for use of the measure, but the justification supplied has been incomplete. The survey reported in this paper found evidence for the same economic reasons, but it has also provided additional justification. The new finding is that the measure is widely used for making inter-division and inter-firm comparisons.     

Industrial Sickness, Primary and Secondary: The Effects of Exit Constraints on Industrial Performance

In an attempt to protect workers from unemployment, governmentsin some countries subsidize firms which would otherwise fail.This article examines the effects of such subsidies on output,prices, and welfare. It also briefly reviews the effects forvarying price elasticities of supply and demand, for nontradedand fully traded goods, and for firms in which wages exceedtheir free market level. If the firm produces a nontraded good,the "sickness" of one firm that is subsidized to maintain productioncan spread to other firms that would be viable in the absenceof the subsidies. The analysis shows that the exit constraintshave the most detrimental effect when the elasticity of demandis low and supply elasticity is high, and when the governmentweighs the welfare of the firm's workers and consumers lessthan that of the general taxpayers and the firm owners. Whenlabor costs are higher than their free market levels and outputis thus less than the optimal levels, the subsidies could havean effect similar to that of an optimal production subsidy.In practice, however, this possibility is likely to be outweighedby associated rent-seeking costs and other distortions.     

Performance Evaluation,Portfolio Selection,and HARA Utility

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The main goal of this work is the generalization of the approach of Jobson and Korkie for funds performance evaluation. Therefore, the paper considers the portfolio selection problem of an investor who faces short sales restrictions when choosing among F different investment funds and assumes the investor’s utility function to be of the HARA type. A performance measure is developed and its relationship to previously proposed measures is discussed. Particular attention is given to the special case of cubic utility implying skewness preferences. Findings are illustrated by an empirical example.     

Executive Compensation, Strategic Competition, and Relative Performance Evaluation: Theory and Evidence

We examine compensation contracts for managers in imperfectly competitive product markets. We show that strategic interactions among firms can explain the lack of relative performance-based incentives in which compensation decreases with rival firm performance. The need to soften product market competition generates an optimal compensation contract that places a positive weight on both own and rival performance. Firms in more competitive industries place greater weight on rival firm performance relative to own firm performance. We find empirical evidence of a positive sensitivity of compensation to rival firm performance that is increasing in the degree of competition in the industry.     

Performance of Private to Public MBOs: The Role of Venture Capital

Abstract:   Using a unique dataset, we examine financial performance, and venture capital involvement in 167 MBOs exiting through IPOs (MBO‐IPOs) on the London Stock Exchange, during the period 1964 –1997. VC backed MBOs seem to be more underpriced than MBOs without venture capital backing, based on average value‐weighted returns. MBOs backed by highly reputable VCs tend to be older companies, and exit earlier than MBOs backed by less reputable VCs. The results contradict 'certification' and 'grandstanding' hypotheses supported by US data ( Megginson and Weiss, 1991 ; and Gompers, 1996 , respectively). We found no evidence of either significant underperformance, or that VC backed MBOs perform better than their non‐VC backed counterparts in the long run. However, MBOs backed by highly reputable venture capital firms seem to be better long‐term investments as compared to those backed by less prestigious venture capitalist firms. The results remain robust after using different methods to measure performance, and after controlling for sample selectivity bias.     

Dealer Markets Under Stress: The Performance of NASDAQ Market Makers During the November 15, 1991, Market Break

The liquidity of the NASDAQ market was seriously undermined during the crash on October 19, 1987, when bid-ask spreads widened dramatically and dealers reputedly withdrew from market making. This paper studies the liquidity of 36 NASDAQ issues on November 15, 1991, when average prices fell over 4%, representing the first major correction in the post-crash era. We find that bid-ask spreads, the percentage of dealers posting inside quotes, and trading volume remained virtually unaffected. Effective spreads were also largely unaffected, except for trades in excess of 1,000 shares among issues whose market makers avoided odd-eighth quotes. Our evidence implies that, unlike October 1987, the liquidity of the NASDAQ market did not deteriorate appreciably during this episode of unusual market stress.     

公司治理 激励机制与业绩评价

本文强调公司治理、激励机制与业绩评价三者的联系对应关系,分析了在不同的公司治理模式下激励机制与业绩评价的特点和内涵。在此基础上,对当前公司治理的国际趋势及其给激励机制与业绩评价带来的影响做进一步展望。     

Mutual Fund Family Size and Mutual Fund Performance: The Role of Regulatory Changes

We examine whether the previously documented positive association between fund family size and fund performance is affected by significant regulatory changes (i.e., Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), the Global Settlement (GS), and increased scrutiny as a result of trading scandals) that have occurred in the last decade. Using Reg FD as a beginning point for these structural changes, we find that, while fund family size was positively associated with fund performance in the period prior to the regulatory changes, this advantage is significantly weaker in the period subsequent to the regulatory changes. Consistent with the weakened advantage of fund family size in fund performance, we find that the greater stock‐picking skill of larger fund families, measured using the earnings announcement returns of the stocks they trade, also weakened subsequent to the regulatory changes. Using narrower event windows around the regulatory changes, we find that the previously documented superior return of large fund families was partly attributable to selective disclosure. We also find that fund families implicated in the trading scandals experienced a decline in their performance during the scandal period. Finally, we examine the role of large investment banks in providing an advantage to large fund families. Family size was positively associated with the extent to which funds traded in the same direction as forecast revisions by analysts from large investment banks in the period prior to Reg FD and the GS and this association declined significantly after the two regulatory events.     

Alpha and Performance Measurement: The Effects of Investor Disagreement and Heterogeneity

The literature has not established that a positive alpha, as traditionally measured, means that an investor would want to buy a fund. When alpha is defined using the client's utility function, a positive alpha generally means the client would want to buy. When markets are incomplete, investors will disagree about the attractiveness of a fund. We provide bounds on the expected disagreement with a traditional alpha and study the cross‐sectional relation of disagreement and investor heterogeneity with the flow response to past fund alphas. The effects are both economically and statistically significant.     

很行绩效考核机制的转变趋势

经济资本作为当今国际银行业的风险管理文化和先进管理工具,正在受到国内商业银行的重视,各家银行的改革和转型无不将经济资本理念的引入和实务运作作为改革的一项核心工作.经济资本能够以推测的数值直观而比较准确地反映银行承担风险和覆盖风险的能力,能够通过经济增加值(EVA)以及风险调整资本收益率(RAROC)等量化指标反映银行不同机构部门、不同业务、不同产品、不同客户的价值创造能力.因此,经济资本不仅是银行科学风险管理体系的基础,更在绩效评价和考核体系中发挥着核心作用.     

Fiscal Decentralization,Budgetary Transparency,and Local Government Size in China

This article makes use of panel data for 31 provinces between 1985 and 2010 and specifies a dynamic panel model to investigate the determinants of local government size in China and achieved several conclusions: (1) the fiscal decentralization since TSS reform in 1994 has increased the local government size; (2) budgetary transparency has a U-shape nonlinear effect on local government size; (3) fiscal revenue is the important factor to drive the overexpansion of local government size in China; and (4) local government size has a strong dependence of past path.     

政府收支分类科目改革对预算会计的影响

财政部发布的《2007年政府收支分类科目》是对计划经济体制下形成的《政府预算收支科目》的重大改革.这要求预算会计作出相应调整.应从新的政府收支科目要求出发,从财政总预算会计、行政单位会计和事业单位会计三个方面对预算会计进行账务调整.     

大股东变更与高级管理人员更换:经营业绩的作用

本文分析了经营业绩在控股股东变更与高级管理人员更换之间关系中的作用。通过统计检验发现 ,高管人员的更换与控股股东的更换密切相关 ,但是不同经营业绩水平的公司在更换高管人员上有很大的差异 ,具体表现为经营业绩低劣的公司更容易更换高管人员。然而大股东的更换以及高管人员的更换并没有根本上改变公司的经营业绩 ,仅给企业带来了较为严重的盈余管理。     

Budgetary biasing in organizations: Theoretical framework and empirical evidence

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of budgetary biasing behaviour. The findings are of both a theoretical and empirical nature. The theoretical results provide a framework containing two major parts: an explanatory model of budgetary biasing at the individual level, and an organizational model for budgetary biasing. In the empirical part of the study an attempt is made to test the usability of the framework in a relatively large firm with several profit-centers. Biasing action is found to be a result of an interplay of various inter-related factors. Overall, the framework is considered to provide a valid basis for trying to understand and interpret the budgetary biasing behaviour in the firm studied.     

政策过程与预算过程的整合难题

在宏观调控中,政策与资金可以说是一种孪生兄弟的关系:政策制定后必然会形成资金要求,而资金供给又会影响政策的走向与力度。     

Perceptions and Attitudes of Different User-groups to the Role of the Budget,Budget Pressure and Budget Participation

This paper examines the perceptions and attitudes of three distinct user-groups to three important budget-related issues. The three user-groups are: accountants, senior non-financial managers and first line managers, each of which has direct contact with budget data in their normal work. The issues, which have been examined by questionnaire and interviews in thirteen medium or large UK companies, are: (a) the perception of the role of the budget in medium and large companies; (b) the use of the budget as a control device, the pressure that may be felt when this occurs and the behavioural consequences of such pressure; (c) the degree of participation in budget setting and whether there is any desire for increased participation. In some instances there were important differences between the user-groups; in particular concerning budget pressure and participation. The general textbook picture of the budget-setting process was not confirmed in certain important aspects. These results raise issues concerning the budgetary control process, including the effects of self-generated pressure, and the desire among accountants for greater participation in the budget process.     

Performance Evaluation with Transactions Data: The Stock Selection of Investment Newsletters

This paper analyzes the equity-portfolio recommendations made by investment newsletters. Overall, there is no significant evidence of superior stock-picking ability for this sample of 153 newsletters. Moreover, there is no evidence of abnormal short-run performance persistence (hot hands). The comprehensive and bias-free transactions database also allows for insights into the precision of performance evaluation. Using a measure of precision defined in the paper, a transactions-based approach yields a median improvement of 10 percent over a corresponding factor model. This compares favorably with the precision gained by adding factors to the CAPM.