The Columbia Space Shuttle Tragedy: Third-Party Liability Implications for the Insurance of Space Losses

Space flights are no longer rare events, but the commonplace is not necessarily safe. When disaster strikes, as in the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster of 2003, third parties as well as those directly involved are financially affected. This article considers how these issues are treated under international law. It also analyzes what products the insurance markets offer as protection against such third-party liabilities.     

基于随机前沿模型的中国西部地区碳排放效率评价研究

本文基于随机前沿模型,对中国西部地区2003—2011年的碳排放效率进行了测算,并根据计算结果对西部地区的碳排放效率进行分类。得出的主要结论是:(1)西部地区的碳排放效率在2003—2011年提升速度较慢,具有巨大的节能减排潜力。(2)西部地区的碳排放效率分类结果为:在2011年属于碳排放高效区的只有广西省;属于碳排放中效区的有4个省:四川、重庆、青海、云南;属于碳排放低效区的有6个省:陕西、新疆、甘肃、内蒙古、贵州、宁夏。最后根据分类提出了相应的政策建议。     

An empirical analysis of the supply of liquidity by locals in futures markets: Evidence from the Sydney Futures Exchange

Contrary to the received view of market makers in theoretical literature, this study provides direct evidence that locals on the Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE) do not trade exclusively as passive market participants. In fact, rather than act purely as market makers, locals as a group are almost as likely to demand as supply liquidity. Further, locals trading on the floor of the SFE are less likely to supply liquidity when bid–ask spreads, trading frequency and price volatility are high, as well as around information announcements. These findings are consistent with aggressive trading by locals on the basis of a short-lived information advantage. This study also documents considerable diversity in the propensity of locals to supply liquidity, finding that it is related to the quantity, frequency and average size of their trading activity.     

CEO political preference and credit ratings

This study investigates whether a CEO's personal political ideology, as captured by his or her political contributions, is associated with a firm's credit ratings. Republican CEOs, we find, are associated with higher credit ratings, especially when their firms are headquartered in conservative areas. In addition, the link between political ideology and credit rating is more pronounced in firms that exhibit high financial distress or weak corporate governance. Changes in political ideology are associated with changes in credit rating. Our results support the behavior consistency, upper echelon, and social identity theories, as well as the risk acceptance hypothesis, and are robust to a number of alternative specifications as well as when alternate approaches and measures of credit risk are introduced. Using Republican CEOs as a proxy for conservative CEOs, our evidence implies that credit rating agencies justifiably view a CEO's political ideology and conservatism as indicative of corporate policies and, therefore, as an important determinant of the firm's credit ratings.     

Integration problems and turnaround strategies in a cross-border merger A clinical examination of the Pharmacia-Upjohn merger

With the increasing globalization brought about by consolidation, crossborder mergers are growing increasingly popular as means of rapidly achieving size-related economies of scale and scope as well as global reach. However, integration issues such as culture clashes, which are problematic in domestic mergers, are often more severe when the merging companies are headquartered in separate countries with widely differing social mores. This study is an examination of one such merger—the 1995 merger between pharmaceutical companies Upjohn of the United States and Pharmacia of Sweden. The clinical study explores the many initial integration problems experienced in this merger and the turnaround strategy used to counteract the problems.     

An examination of managerial accounting practices as a process of mutual adjustment

Managerial accounting practices are organizational control mechanisms which serve to constrain decision-makers yet, themselves, are the outcomes of emergent resistance, force and bargaining. The contradictory nature of managerial accounting practices as a form of social control is illustrated by a study of one firm's accounting practices before and after a severe financial crisis. Here, managerial accounting is seen as a dynamic process of mutual adjustment, changing and being changed by the wider organization. Assessment of the process of mutual adjustment reveals an unfolding, reflexive decision-making process in which accounting strategies are designed to centralize the direction of resources and the monitoring of division performance. However, these accounting rules and procedures are neither neutral nor uncontested, as divisional controllers resist corporate decision-makers. New patterns of organizational autonomy and interdependency are highlighted and created by these accounting practices, as managerial interdependencies are more tightly woven around centralized corporate missions.     

An aggregation theorem for securities markets

Alternative sets of sufficient conditions are developed under which equilibrium security rates of return are determined as if there exist only identical individuals whose resources, beliefs, and tastes are a composite of the actual individuals in the economy. These conditions include as special cases all those previously examined in the literature (including conditions sufficient to produce the two-parameter mean-variance model), as well as others. Whenever such a composite individual exists it is shown that (1) valuation equations take a specific form and contain only exogenous parameters of the economy; (2) market exchange arrangements are Pareto-optimal; and (3) competitive value-maximizing firms make completely specified Pareto-optimal production decisions both over dates and states. These results rely on the observation that under popular homogeneity assumptions regarding beliefs and tastes, even though the securities market may be incomplete, equilibrium rates of return are determined as if there were an otherwise similar Arrow-Debreu economy.     

Personality types of accounting students and faculty: Comparisons and implications

This exploratory study presents and discusses differences found in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) types (personality preferences) of undergraduate and graduate accounting students, as well as accounting faculty members as they apply to two concerns. The first is the ability of today's accounting education programs to attract the types of students demanded by the profession. The second is the propensity of accounting faculty to expand traditional teaching modalities beyond those aimed at disseminating technical accounting knowledge. The results (using chi square tests) indicate significant differences in certain MBTI types among the groups, which have implications for accounting programs as they attempt to implement fundamental changes advocated by the profession and the Accounting Education Change Commission. The implications are discussed as they relate to accounting students who are predominantly extraverts, sensors, thinkers, and judgers, as well as to attracting and retaining a more diverse group of students. The implications of expected changes in teaching modalities are also discussed as they relate to accounting faculty who are predominantly introverts, sensors, thinkers, and judgers.     

Corporate dividend policy in practice: Evidence from an emerging market with a tax-free environment

Several theories have been proposed to explain why companies pay dividends. However, as of today, the dividend policy remains a puzzle as no convincing explanation has been given as to why firms pay cash dividends to their shareholders. This paper contributes to this debate by examining the dividend policy in an emerging market that has a tax-free environment. Specifically, we follow Brav et al. (2005) and examine this issue using survey and field interviews, in the particular context of the United Arab Emirates. Our results provide support for the proposition that dividend policy is conservative. We also find that dividends in the UAE are considered by managers as a residual cash flow, and are determined after investment decisions are made. When examining the determinants of dividend policy, we find that taxes are not important, that institutional investors are expected to play a role in disciplining managers, and that dividends may play a disciplinary role as well in controlling agency conflicts.     

The promotion of academic accountants

Using publicly available information, mainly the Hasselback directory, promotions of doctorally qualified U.S. academic accountants are examined for the 1980 to 1985 time period. The dependent variables considered are time to promotion from date of terminal degree and the likelihood that a move from one institution to another occurs at the time of promotion. The independent variables include personal characteristics such as degree concentration and interest area as well as characteristics of the school where the promotion occurs such as size and maximum degree offered. One finding of the study is that research-oriented institutions take longer to promote their faculty and are less likely to hire and promote simultaneously than are less research-oriented institutions     

Competition in Unit vs. Ad Valorem Taxes

This paper shows that in a standard model of tax competition, the Nash equilibrium in capital taxes depends on whether these taxes are unit (as assumed in the literature) or ad valorem (as in reality). In a symmetric version of the model, general results are established: taxes and public good provision are both higher, and residents in all countries are better off, when countries compete in unit taxes, as opposed to ad valorem taxes. However, the difference in equilibrium outcomes is negligible when the number of countries is large.     

A Special Breed?– A Longitudinal and Cross‐Sectional Study of Norwegian Budgeting and Financial Civil Servants

Abstract: This paper focuses on civil servants in the central Norwegian civil service whose main tasks are budgeting, supervision and accounting. The main research questions are: (a) What is their typical demographic profile? (b) How has their demographic profile changed over time? (c) What are the effects of having budgeting, supervising and accounting as a main task on civil servants’ attitudes and behaviour? The main findings are that they have a specific profile. There are significant differences between ministries and central agencies as well as changes over time and also marked differences with other civil servants regarding their attitudes and behavior.     

Innovation and Price Informativeness

We study whether the innovation decisions of a firm are improved as a result of information reflected in the firm's stock price. We show that firms with more informative stock prices, as measured by price nonsynchronicity, have better innovation outcomes, as measured by the number of patents and patent citations. Our results are not driven by managerial private information and are robust to various alternative specifications. We also find that price informativeness is more important to innovation when managers are less experienced or face greater uncertainty about the optimal innovation strategy, and that these effects are primarily observed in small‐ and mid‐sized firms where additional information may be of greater value. Our results are consistent with the notion that capital markets can have real effects on the economy.     

Rhetorical accounts of risk: interprofessional risk assessment in operational planning meetings

In the context of high-risk industries, risk assessment takes place not only through standardized methods for risk analysis, but is frequently negotiated and discussed as an integral part of operational decision-making. This is not least the case in the context of operational planning. Frequent changes in operations require ongoing assessment of risk as tasks are rescheduled and resources reallocated. The current study explores how professionals account for the presence or absence of risk in a setting in which risk analysis is not the primary objective. With data from the offshore petroleum industry, the rhetorical aspects of risk assessments are examined. A series of interprofessional planning meetings were video recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a rhetorical discourse analytic framework. The data are analyzed at a micro-interactional level in order to study how accounts of risk are presented and negotiated in this particular setting. The meaning and consequences of operational plan changes, and their implications for safety, are seen as negotiated discursively through interprofessional meeting talk. The analysis shows that accounts of risk are characterized by shifting rhetorical strategies that can be heard to echo established risk discourses often referred to as ‘technico-scientific’ and ‘contextualized’ conceptions of risk. Rhetorical devices are used interchangeably and strategically by the participants as they account for risk from their respective institutional positions and their specific areas of expertise and responsibility. The accounts are found to be increasingly persuasive and rhetorical in style as disagreements over risk and prioritizations surface. Accounts of risk, then, are not simply objective presentations of probability and consequence, but rather powerful tools for achieving specific professional outcomes. The study contributes to the understanding of risk assessment at its most concrete and practical level; as it takes place through professional interaction in an operational setting.     

VaR limits for pension funds: an evaluation

In a series of papers during the last ten years an interest rate theory with models which are driven by Lévy or more general processes has been developed. In this paper we derive explicit formulas for the correlations of interest rates as well as zero coupon bonds with different maturities. The models considered in this general setting are the forward rate (HJM), the forward process and the LIBOR model as well as the multicurrency extension of the latter. Specific subclasses of the class of generalized hyperbolic Lévy motions are studied as driving processes. Based on a data set of parametrized yield curves derived from German government bond prices we estimate correlations. In a second step the empirical correlations are used to calibrate the Lévy forward rate model. The superior performance of the Lévy driven models becomes obvious from the graphs.     

Equilibrium matching and termination

In an equilibrium model of the labor market with moral hazard, jobs are dynamic contracts, job separations are terminations of optimal dynamic contracts. Transitions from unemployment to new jobs are modeled as a process of random matching and Nash bargaining. Non-employed workers make consumption and saving decisions as in a standard growth model, as well as whether or not to participate in the labor market. The stationary equilibrium is characterized. The model is then calibrated to the U.S. labor market to study quantitatively the worker flows and distributions, the compensation dynamics, and the effects of UI system.     

The Changing Role of Nominal Government Bonds in Asset Allocation

The covariance between nominal bonds and stocks has varied considerably over recent decades and has even switched sign. It has been predominantly positive in periods such as the late 1970s and early 1980s when the economy has experienced supply shocks and the central bank has lacked credibility. It has been predominantly negative in periods such as the 2000s when investors have feared weak aggregate demand and deflation. Nominal bonds are attractive to short-term equity investors when these bonds are negatively correlated with stocks, as has been the case during the 2000s and especially during the downturn of 2007–2008. They are attractive to conservative long-term investors when long-term inflationary expectations are stable, for then these bonds are close substitutes for inflation-indexed bonds that are riskless in the long term.     

Capital accumulation and international trade

Capital accumulation is introduced into a version of Eaton–Kortum model of international trade, imposing period by period balanced trade. The effects of tariff changes on world steady states and transition dynamics are studied. A calibrated version of the model is used to assess the short- and long-run gains from a world-wide elimination of trade tariffs. The determinants and importance of convergence in world-wide capital as well as convergence on the relative capitals and incomes are analyzed. Positive and normative comparisons with an analogous static model are conducted, as well as comparisons steady state welfare comparisons vs full dynamic gains.     

The effect of CEO ownership on the information content of reported earnings

This paper examines the relation between capital market perceptions of earnings quality and CEO equity ownership. Using the earnings response coefficients (ERCs) from annual returns–earnings regressions as a proxy for investor perceptions of earnings quality, we find that ERCs first increase and then decline across higher levels of CEO ownership with an inflection point around 25% ownership. Using analyst behavior as another proxy for the perceptions of financial analysts, we find that earnings forecasts are more accurate as ownership increases, but once ownership levels reach about 25%, accuracy declines with further increases in ownership. Forecast dispersion, forecast revision volatility, and analyst following decline and then increase across increasing levels of CEO ownership. Our results suggest that, for low levels of CEO ownership, earnings are perceived as being more informative about future firm performance as ownership increases. However, once ownership levels are high, earnings are perceived as being less informative with further increases in ownership.     

Communicating the ‘migrant’ other as risk: space,EU and expanding borders

Forced migration and border spaces as fault lines posing risks to society through the notion of ‘Othering’, remain under-explored in risk literature. With Europe facing its biggest humanitarian crisis with forced migration and displacement due to conflict zones, the borders of the European Union have received renewed attention in media. Refugees and the displaced are often depicted as ‘migrants’ and are seen as transgressing borders as illegitimate entities. Although increasing attention has been paid to border patrol and issues of securitization since 9/11, the ‘migrant’ body as ‘risky body’ in political and policy discussions is under-conceptualized and theorized in risk literature. We examine political discourses of the UK Government to discern how the migrant and the expanding borders of the EU are framed as forms of societal and economic risk and equally how these are mitigated with and through the discourse of space and borders. We take a constructionist approach to the ‘migrant’ problem in the EU and UK where risk is socially constructed through political discourse.