12. Environmentalism: A la recherche du temps perdu — bien perdu?

Four themes are developed here. Pollution has occurred locally for many years and has been countered by social action and administrative and technical adaptation; extremely subjective responses to this problem are widespread and these have been used as a background by the model-builders who have ignored the evidence that such responses can be channelled into abating the hazards while permitting growth; crisis orientation is only partially justified yet this belief is being used to attack the idea of technological progress; and problems and local crises tend to be obscured by premature aggregation into a world model.     

Climate change, human genetics, and post-normality in the UK

Virtually intractable matters characterized by uncertainty over consequences, diverse and multiple engaged interests, conflicting knowledge claims, and high stakes, call for post-normal policy responses. This paper explores how two such responses have been implemented in the UK through the management of specific aspects of anthropogenic climate change and human genetics, which we argue can be described as “wicked” or post-normal issues. To address these, approaches require that a broader range of epistemic positions and worldviews be recognized as valid in the policy development process. We suggest that the concept of boundary organisations is well suited to examine some of the institutions that have been set up in the UK to deal with the two post-normal issues we consider here. This paper explores the extent to which the UK Climate Impacts Programme and the Human Genetics Commission respond to a post-normal policy approach and their achievements in overcoming epistemological boundaries and effecting integrated management responses. We conclude by considering the insights such an analysis offers into operationalising post-normal policy approaches. As intermediaries and facilitators, we suggest the two organisations can be considered forerunners in applying a post-normal approach to climate change adaptation and human genetics, respectively.     

Money demand interest elasticity and monetary policy effectiveness

This paper provides a theoretical basis for discretionary monetary policies being less effective as money demand is more sensitive to interest rates and less effective in checking recession than inflation. It cites speed of response as an important dimension of effectiveness in the policies, arguing that lagged responses diminish effectiveness by increasing prospects for destabilizing performances. It then illustrates how responses can be less rapid as money demand is more sensitive to interest rates and, providing that money demand interest sensitivity exceeds a threshold value, less rapid when the economy is short of full employment.     

Funder demands for quality management in the non-profit sector: challenges and responses in a non-profit infrastructure network

External pressure by funders can be a catalyst for a more proactive and strategic approach to quality management in the non-profit sector, however it can also lead to cynical responses which do little to promote learning and improvement. This case study of a national infrastructure organization that supports a network of local non-profit organizations provides insight into the attitudes and challenges that can arise from such external, top-down pressure.     

Accounting Students’ Planning,Writing, and Performance on a Time‐Constrained Case Analysis: Effects of Self‐Talk and Prior Achievement

When writing a case analysis, most students first allocate time to plan the content and structure of their response, and then proceed to write with differing degrees of urgency, the outcomes of which are case responses of differing quality. This study examines the extent to which planning time influences writing urgency and, ultimately, the quality of case responses in a time‐constrained setting. It also investigates whether these behaviors and outcomes depend on students’ frame of mind, by experimentally inducing differing types of pre‐examination self‐talk. Analyses show that planning time was negatively associated with writing urgency; students who spent more time planning subsequently wrote with less urgency. Writing urgency was positively associated with case response quality and, after controlling for differences in writing urgency, planning time was positively associated with response quality. Results indicate that different planning and writing behaviors can be induced by different forms of self‐talk prior to the writing task. Relative to interrogative self‐talk (“Will I …?”), exclamatory self‐talk (“I will …!”) caused higher‐achieving students to spend more time planning, but then write with less urgency and subsequently produce lower‐quality case responses. Conversely, after engaging in exclamatory rather than interrogative self‐talk, lower‐achieving students spent less time planning but then wrote with greater urgency and produced higher‐quality responses. These results indicate that (i) planning significantly affects writing and performance, (ii) students can influence their own planning behavior through pre‐task self‐talk, but (iii) pre‐task self‐talk can be beneficial or detrimental depending on students’ prior achievement.     

The value of fiscal discipline for oil-exporting countries

The value of fiscal discipline is assessed by analyzing the role of fiscal policy as a transmission mechanism of oil price shocks in oil-exporting small open economies. Fiscal policy is an important propagation channel. Taking policy as given by the data, the model can successfully explain the responses of key macroeconomic variables, but it is unable to explain these responses under counterfactual fiscal frameworks. Interestingly, fiscal policy also seems capable of regulating the size of pass-through. Furthermore, fiscal policies that insulate the economy from oil price shocks seem to be welfare improving over procyclical ones.     

Bank loan supply and monetary policy transmission in Germany: An assessment based on matching impulse responses

This paper addresses the credit channel in Germany by using aggregate data. We present a stylized model of the banking firm in which banks decide on their loan supply in the light of expectations about the future course of monetary policy. Applying a VAR model, we estimate the response of bank loans to a monetary policy shock taking account of the reaction of the output level and the loan rate. We estimate our model to evaluate the response of bank loans by matching the theoretical impulse responses with the empirical impulse responses to a monetary policy shock. Evidence in support of the credit channel can be reported.     

Managing the accountability–autonomy tensions in university research commercialisation

This article investigates organisational responses to emerging concerns about how accountability–autonomy tensions can be managed within the context of university research commercialisation. The findings suggest that changed expectations of university research practices, which result from the introduction of a commercialisation logic, can be managed via the homogenisation of research goals and strategies. The successful management of accountability–autonomy tensions also depends on utilising the various structures and cultural contexts that can be facilitated by decoupling and bridging strategies. Further, while adopting symbolic systems may enhance legitimacy, failure to implement material practices and provide the appropriate cultural context to manage conflicting relationships may put university commercialisation ambitions at risk.     

成交量和回报率对信息扰动的市场反应研究——以中国A股市场为例

用BVAR和BMAR模型及脉冲—响应分析方法来考察中国股票市场上成交量和回报率对信息扰动的动态反应情况得出,公共扰动和永久性扰动是回报率的主要决定因素,而非公共扰动和暂时性扰动则是成交量的主要决定因素。但是公共扰动和永久性扰动对成交量有明显影响;非公共扰动和暂时性扰动对回报率有明显影响。     

Measuring revenue responses to tax rate changes in multi-rate income tax systems: behavioural and structural factors

This paper shows how income changes in response to changes in marginal income tax rates (MTRs) translate into tax revenue changes for the familiar multi-step income tax function used in many countries. Previous literature has focused on the relatively straightforward case of a proportional income tax or the top MTR only. The paper examines revenue responses at both the individual and aggregate levels, and it is shown that for individual MTRs within a multi-rate regime, simple expressions for tax revenue responsiveness can be derived that nevertheless capture the various behavioural and structural responses to income tax reforms involving changes to multiple rates and thresholds. Illustrations are provided using changes to the New Zealand income tax structure in the 2010 budget. This reduced all marginal tax rates while leaving income thresholds unchanged.     

The market research encyclopedia

Market research can be a complicated and complex process nowadays, especially when it involves sophisticated techniques with names like probabilistic sampling, Box-Jenkins, or conjoint analysis. There is a need for a guide that will help managers determine the dimensions of the task, the resources that must be summoned, the data required, and other key elements. Here, from the head of market research at General Motors, is such a guide in outline form. Vincent P. Barabba walks the reader through the five major stages of the research effort. Each stage is represented in one table, and together the tables combine into a mammoth foldout for easy perusal. The stages are: 1. Assess the market information needs. 2. Measure the marketplace. 3. Store, retrieve, and display the data. 4. Describe and analyze market information. 5. Evaluate the research and assess its usefulness. Comprehensiveness is a hallmark of the "encyclopedia." In the second table, for example, one of the headings under "nonprobabilistic data" is "central location interviewing." Barabba lists the limitations of this kind of research: "Very expensive; responses in this artificial environment may not reflect responses in the market; complicated logistics; development of test product can be time consuming and expensive."     

Local authority education expenditure in 1982/83: A paper for the expenditure steering group ‐ Education

Central service departments of local authorities (such as personnel and legal services) have had to become more aware of direct service departments as ‘customers’. A proportion of these professional services will be subject to Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) over the next few years. These services have to adapt to being customer‐led, or face the possibility of losing business. One of the earliest responses to this new situation occurred in Newcastle City Council, where the Treasurer's Department undertook a ‘customer‐care’ initiative. This article describes an evaluation of the initiative, showing how the effects can be measured and revealing how clear feedback about areas that might otherwise be neglected can be obtained using survey methods.     

Announcement and Publication Decisions and the Use of Prediction Errors in Cross-Sectional Analysis: Evidence on Seasoned Equity Issues

An important concern for empirical analysis of market responses to public releases of information is whether the voluntary nature of announcement and publication decisions imparts a selectivity bias and, if so, how this bias affects empirical results. Using a database of SEC filings of equity issues, all related Wall Street Journal published announcements are identified. The published announcements are used to classify proposed issues into subsamples with homogeneous information structures. Announcement and WSJ publication decisions are found to be non-random but, for industrial firms, not significantly related to firm size or exchange listing. Coefficients estimated without controlling for selectivity are found not to be significantly biased for either industrial or utility issues. However, for industrial issues, significance levels are considerably lower when selectivity bias is controlled. The hypothesis common to other studies of new issue announcement effects that observations from different information structures can be pooled, with coefficient estimates restricted to be equal across information structures, is rejected. The results have implications for the methods used to study cross-sectional market responses     

Negotiating the credibility of performance auditing

This paper reports the results of a longitudinal field study of a performance audit which used in-depth interviews and observation to examine the process by which auditees and auditors in the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) negotiated their relationship. The findings enhance understanding of auditee reactions to both the practice of performance auditing and the auditors themselves and the impact that these have on the credibility of performance auditing. Using the lens of Oliver's typology of strategic responses, the study confirmed the prevalence of auditee responses to performance auditing by the ANAO which ranged from co-operative acquiescence and co-operation to confrontational defiance. The paper addresses recent and ongoing calls for more studies of public sector auditing in action to deepen our understanding of the responses or manoeuvring of auditors and auditees during the process of performance auditing. A key contribution of the paper is confirmation that performance auditing continues to be a contested activity and its credibility in practice remains uncertain. The empirical (and historical) evidence suggests that audits that are perceived as especially politically sensitive can provoke active forms of resistance, including avoidance and defiance.     

Negative behaviors that impede learning: Survey findings from award-winning accounting educators

A review of the education literature, both within and beyond accounting, indicates previous consideration of attributes of teaching “effectiveness.” This literature provides educators with an ability to model approaches and techniques to enhance their teaching. Largely absent from the literature, however, is any attempt to identify teaching attributes that impede the learning process. While it may be assumed that “the opposite of best practices” would constitute methods or behaviors to be avoided, very little evidence is available to support this view. Little is known, except anecdotally, about why and how behaviors other than those subsumed in “best practices” frameworks can produce unintended negative results. Generally absent from the literature as well are perspectives from exemplars; that is, award-winning educators. This paper responds to both of these voids and presents evidence of classroom behaviors to be avoided because of their perceived negative effect on student learning. Specifically, we report survey responses from a sample of 105 accounting educators who have been formally recognized for their teaching excellence. These teaching exemplars were asked to list, in their own words and in ranked order of importance, up to five responses to the following question: “what behaviors would you counsel other accounting educators to avoid?” We received 374 responses to this question. A content analysis of these responses suggests the following major factors (in decreasing order of importance): negative or uncaring attitudes about students and the class; improper preparation and organization; faulty or deficient course-delivery skills; assessment mistakes; and, inflexible/inaccessible demeanor. Our results should be relevant to accounting faculty interested in assessing and improving their own teaching as well as to senior faculty who are interested in mentoring junior faculty.     

Minimally altruistic wages and unemployment in a matching model with monopsony

A monopsony model with a symmetric equilibrium is developed where posting higher wages reduces employee departures. This monopsony implies that wage changes have small effects on profits so that employer altruism affects wages as well. Even selfish firms act altruistically if workers punish firms that fail to do so. If the marginal utility of income falls sharply with income, the model can explain modest responses of wages to shifts in labor demand. If there are fluctuations in the altruism required by workers, the low correlation of wages and employment and the sizes of the cyclical fluctuations in these two series can be rationalized.     

The Impact of Uncertainty Shocks under Measurement Error: A Proxy SVAR Approach

A growing literature considers the impact of uncertainty using SVAR models that include proxies for uncertainty shocks as endogenous variables. In this paper, we consider the impact of measurement error in these proxies on the estimated impulse responses. We show via a Monte Carlo experiment that measurement error can result in attenuation bias in impulse responses. In contrast, the proxy SVAR that uses the uncertainty shock proxy as an instrument does not suffer from this bias. Applying this latter method to the Bloom (2009) data set results in impulse responses to uncertainty shocks that are larger in magnitude and more persistent than those obtained from a recursive SVAR.     

Redistribution by insurance market regulation: Analyzing a ban on gender-based retirement annuities

We illustrate how equilibrium screening models can be used to evaluate the economic consequences of insurance market regulation. We calibrate and solve a model of the United Kingdom's compulsory annuity market and examine the impact of gender-based pricing restrictions. We find that the endogenous adjustment of annuity contract menus in response to such restrictions can undo up to half of the redistribution from men to women that would occur with exogenous Social Security-like annuity contracts. Our findings indicate the importance of endogenous contract responses and illustrate the feasibility of employing theoretical insurance market equilibrium models for quantitative policy analysis.