气候变化与中国的应对战略

进入2013年,全国多地持续的雾霾天气引起了国内外关注。期间,亚洲开发银行与世界资源研究所专家在京表示,雾霾天气的直接原因是汽车尾气的排放,而能源生产和工业生产已是中国空气污染物的主要来源。专家们是在亚行、清华大学、世界资源     

Squandering the future—Climate change,policy failure and the water crisis in Australia

Since European arrival (1788), statist developmentalism¹ has driven natural resource use in Australia. Despite evidence of a systematic decline in the quality of Australia's ecosystems, policy-making still reflects the exploitative paradigm upon which statist developmentalism relies. This paper will draw on recent policy changes within the water sector in Australia as a case study, allowing the authors to consider the types of social, economic and ecological consequences that can come from statist developmentalism. Fuelled by climate change, water availability is looming as an extremely serious problem for Australia. Despite this, recent policy changes within the water sector are not likely to achieve sustainable water use in the short-term, and may do little to subvert statist developmentalism as the dominant paradigm within natural resource use in Australia in the foreseeable future.     

UK social change through a wide-angle lens

This article examines long-term social change in the UK based largely on evidence derived from the Monitor programme's annual surveys. The Monitor has been conducted since 1973 and has proved to be much more than a tool for social research or for long-range planning. It provides an insightful view of the structure and dynamics of British society itself. From a discussion of major social value groups, the article examines the effects of changing values on British institutions, the nature of the transition during social paradigm shift, and briefly assesses the major political parties in this context.     

Disclosure on climate change: Analysing the UK ETS effects

The objective of this paper is to explore the nature of disclosure on climate change in annual and standalone reports of organisations who took part in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS). This article uses content analysis to codify disclosure in order to compare disclosure in different media as well as the possible effect that membership in an emissions trading scheme may have had on reporting. The results suggest the UK ETS was associated with differences in disclosure. This study contributes to the literature by providing a longitudinal study in two disclosure media in the UK ETS context.     

Climate change reporting and multinational companies: Insights from institutional theory and international business

Multinational companies (MNCs) have an important impact on climate change, but knowledge on the greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting practices of MNCs is limited. A theoretical framework is developed to provide an explanation of GHG emissions reporting by MNCs. The framework combines institutional theory with the notion of MNC typology from International Business and explains how institutional pressure acting on each typology of MNC influences standardization of reporting practices and GHG emissions data quality. Propositions are developed and empirically investigated using a case study. Global MNCs are predicted to have better quality GHG emissions reporting compared to multi-domestic or transnational MNCs.     

Practical cancer genetics, genomics and proteomics

Functional genomics is the science that defines the function of newly identified genes and translates this knowledge into related health and disease. Functional genomics is complex, involving multiple scientific disciplines including computational biology, genetics, physiology, structural biology, and molecular and cell biology. Due to its inherent complexity, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has termed functional genomics "the science of collaboration." This paper will review microarray gene expression analysis, proteomics, and the impact of molecular medical genetics on medical care.     

Taxes,dividend yields and returns in the UK equity market

The higher rate of taxation on dividend income relative to capital gains has been offered as an explanation for the positive relation between stock returns and dividend yields among US firms. In the UK the relative tax rates are the reverse of those in the US. Thus, UK data provides an independent test of the tax-based approach to explaining the relation between stock returns and dividend yields. We find that high yielding stocks earn positive risk adjusted returns, whereas low yielding stocks earn negative risk adjusted returns. We also detect evidence of non-linearity in the performance of zero-dividend stocks. Controlling for firm size, seasonality and market risk we find a significant positive relation between dividend yields and returns. We conclude that the evidence is inconsistent with a tax-based explanation.     

Board composition,grey directors and corporate failure in the UK

This study examines the effect of board composition on the likelihood of corporate failure in the UK. We consider both independent and non-independent (grey) non-executive directors (NEDs) to enhance our understanding of the impact of NEDs' personal or economic ties with the firm and its management on firm performance. We find that firms with a larger proportion of grey directors on their boards are less likely to fail. Furthermore, the probability of corporate failure is lower both when firms have a higher proportion of grey directors relative to executive directors and when they have a higher proportion of grey directors relative to independent directors. Conversely, there is a positive relationship between the likelihood of corporate failure and the proportion of independent directors on corporate boards. The findings discussed in this study support the collaborative board model and the view that corporate governance reform efforts may have over emphasised the monitoring function of independent directors and underestimated the benefits of NEDs' affiliations with the firm and its management.     

Venture Capitalists, Business Angels, and Performance of Entrepreneurial IPOs in the UK and France

Abstract:  Using a unique sample of 444 entrepreneurial IPOs in the UK and France, this paper analyses the investment patterns and the stock-market performance effects of two types of early stage investors: venture capitalists (VCs) and business angels (BAs). Extending existing research, we identify important endogeneity and institutional effects. Our findings indicate that UK IPOs have a higher retained ownership and lower participation ratio by BAs, but a lower retained ownership and participation ratio by VCs than in France. BA and VC investments are substitutes, and they are endogenously determined by a number of firm- and founder-related factors, such as founder ownership and external board 'interlocks', and underwriter reputation. UK VCs are effective third-party certifying agents who reduce underpricing in UK IPOs, whereas in French IPOs they increase it by appearing to engage in grandstanding. This certification effect is more significant in UK IPOs involving both high VC and BA ownership. Finally, underpricing increases with VC participation ratio, where the higher exit of VCs seems to increase the risk premium required by outside investors, in particular in the UK.     

Technological change, industry structure and the environment

This paper contributes towards the construction and application of a method to assess the long-term impact of the development of pervasive technologies on the environment. It seeks to integrate insights from studies of technology regarding long-term growth with questions of sustainability. Using a methodology based on long-wave theory and a sector classification based on technological characteristics, the likely effects of the three pervasive technologies (information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology) on the input-output structure of selected sectors and on the levels of emissions of industrial greenhouse gases are considered.     

英国、美国、德国的注册会计师考试制度比较

目前,注册会计师职业较为发达的国家均已建立了较为完备的考试制度,为注册会计师行业的专业人才建设提供了良好的制度保障。从世界范围来看,注册会计师考试制度目前已经形成了三种比较成型的模式,即英国模式、美国模式和德法模式。英国模式英国模式的特点是不依赖学校教育,以协会自己组织专门教育为主。考生报名时不要求具备较高的学历,而由浅入深地设置较多的考试科目,主要侧重于成为协会会员的专门培养。英格兰及威尔士特许会计师协会(ICAEW)组织的考试是英国模式的典型代表。以下以ICAEW的考试为主,介绍英国模式的主要特征。(一)考试…     

Accounting, post-productivism and corporate power in UK food and agriculture

‘In modern capitalism purchase and sale of manufactured foods is as fundamental to social existence as the exchange of a whole gamut of other commodities’ [Giddens, A. The constitution of society. US: University of California Press; 1984, p. 259]. Behind the production of food are networks of people, transactions and accounting that have rarely been examined by accounting researchers. The ‘agri-food’ sector is conflict-ridden and affects all but a very few of the world's population. This paper examines one segment of the industry – the UK – and explores certain elements that impact on the accounting environment of that industry. These are the move towards so-called post-productivist approaches by agricultural businesses and the considerable, yet not always obvious, influence of large agri-food corporations. The shifting asymmetries of power in the sector, which covers farmers, Government and an extensive service sector as well as corporations, are explored using aspects of domination in structuration theory, to elucidate the difficulties faced by farmers that force them to engage with accounting.     

Strategic foresight in public policy: Reviewing the experiences of the UK, Singapore, and the Netherlands

In an interdependent and complex world, only few public policy challenges can be confined to one particular policy area anymore. Many governments have realized that a single-issue focus is often insufficient in dealing with emerging threats and opportunities. They have therefore started to experiment with strategic foresight that deliberately cuts across the traditional boundaries of policy areas and government departments. This article reviews the foresight activities of three countries that have been at the forefront of this trend: the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the Netherlands. To this end, the article discusses the concept of strategic foresight and explains the two distinct ways in which it contributes to public policy-making: on the one hand, it informs policy by providing more systematic knowledge about relevant trends and developments in an organization's environments; on the other hand, it acts as a driver of reflexive mutual social learning processes among policy-makers that stimulate the generation of common public policy visions. The article concludes by drawing lessons with regard to the key success factors allowing strategic foresight to make an effective contribution to public policy-making.     

Price Linkages Between the US,Japan and UK Stock Markets

This study presents an empirical analysis of the short- and long-term relationships among stock prices in the US, Japan and the UK. We re-examine the evidence of market linkages and cointegration between S&P 500, Nikkei 225 and FTSE-100 stock indices. The results suggest that mature markets are cointegrated, indicating a stationary long-run relationship. Furthermore, Granger causality tests show a bi-directional causality between Nikkei 225–FTSE-100, and unidirectional causalities between S&P 500–FTSE-100 and S&P 500–Nikkei 225. These findings suggest that the potential for diversifying risk by investing in mature markets is limited.     

Pharmaceutical Policy in the UK

For many years drug price regulation posed few public management problems. However, the overall NHS drugs budget has been increasing by almost 9% per annum over the past decade. Governments in the 1990s tried to control this growth by introducing new pharmaceutical policy instruments. This has led to an element of instability in the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, which is affecting NHS financial programming, as well as R&D investment decisions by companies. This article recommends the creation of an office for drug regulation (an 'OFDRUG') to reintroduce stability into pharmaceutical policy.