Ownership structure and performance: Evidence from the public float in IPOs

We investigate whether the post-IPO market performance of IPO stocks is related to the percentage of shares issued to the public, namely, the public float. We demonstrate that a non-linear relation exists between the public float and post-IPO returns. Specifically, as public float increases, long-run returns decrease for low levels of public float and increase for high levels of public float. This relation persists even after controlling for various firm characteristics. The best long-term performers are firms that sell either very little or sell most of their stock in the IPO. We suggest that the choice of public float level creates a trade-off between incentives to insiders and power granted to outsiders. This trade-off determines the non-linear relation found between the public float and long-run returns.     

Sustainability: The search for the integral worldview

The sustainability problem is described as a process of recurrent destabilization of societal value orientations or worldviews. These worldviews represent both value orientations with respect to ‘quality of life’ and mental maps about the surrounding world. The many different worldviews which shape society appear to be part of an overall integral worldview which can be deduced from societal enquiries and from the experiences of history and philosophy over many centuries. This integral worldview is defined by the vertical contrast between idealism and materialism and the horizontal contrast between uniformity and diversity. Due to a number of societal and psychological centrifugal forces, worldviews become one-sided and finally end in fundamentalist value orientations which are synonym with overshoot, collapse and crisis. Examples are religious fundamentalism and related wars, communism, nazism, the ecological crisis as well as the recent financial crisis.The solution to these sustainability problems has to be found in the timely recognition and compensation of the destabilizing centrifugal forces. The resulting integral worldview is synonym with ‘human dignity’. The thus defined time independent notion of human dignity defines a new ethical framework and solves the paradox between the needs of present and future generations in Brundtland's original definition of sustainable development.     

Precautionary Reserves and the Interbank Market

Extreme disruptions in the interbank market severely hampered the broader financial system during the 2007–08 financial crisis. We use Fedwire data to estimate fed funds trades and track banks’ intraday balances. We show empirical evidence of banks’ precautionary holding of reserves and reluctance to lend linked to documented extreme fed funds rate volatility, including the fed funds rate spiking above the discount rate and crashing to zero. We develop a model of constrained banks that makes new predictions and provides a unified explanation for the stark anomalies during the crisis, our empirical findings, and previous stylized facts from normal times.     

The Demand for Borrowed Reserves: A Switching Regression Model

A microeconomic model of bank demand for borrowed reserves from the Federal Reserve is developed based upon constrained cost minimization. The derived demand function was found to correspond to behavior appropriate to the unknown switchpoint switching regression problem. When estimated, parameters generally conformed to theoretical expectations. The model was also tested for existence of switching regression behavior against a model similar to Goldfeld and Kane [12]. Significance exceeded 99% in all cases. With the advent of reserve intermediate targeting, it appears especially necessary to reinvestigate the behavior determining this important source of reserves.     

China's search for the future: A genealogical approach

This paper is a dialectical inquiry, presenting a genealogy of, China futures discourses and visions from ancient times through to the, present. It uses both structural and macrohistorical based approaches. The identified worldviews are placed in their broader historical, epistemes; asked why change has occurred, how it fits within patterns of, history and what kind of futures are offered. It is unique in that I use, the futures triangle methodology to discuss the “pulls” of the future in, each historical era with the corresponding “pushes” of the present and, “weights” of the past. The article concludes with a theory of futures in, Chinese history and looks at which philosophies are likely to play a role, in the possible futures of China. The aim is to highlight which visions, and images have been victorious is affecting the present and influencing, the future.     

IFACnet——一个属于全球职业会计师的专用搜索引擎

IFACnet是国际会计师联合会(IFAC)及其13个成员组织于2006年10月发起设立的一个全球会计职业搜索引擎,网址为www.ifacnet.com。     

Regulating managed care firms: the Connecticut plan

Virtually every state in the country, as well as the federal government, is either considering or has recently considered legislation to regulate utilization review/managed care companies. Despite the magnitude of this issue, few legislative bodies have expended the resources to study the form that regulation should take. Recently, Connecticut, which has seen considerable growth in utilization review within managed care programs that insure Connecticut residents, funded such a study. This article, authored by two of the study's participants, reviews the issues and explains the study's recommendations.     

Accounting case search: A web-based search tool for finding published accounting cases

The creation of the Accounting Case Search website was motivated by the Pathways Commission Report and inspired by the frustration felt in trying to find cases for courses we have had to develop over the past 17 years. The site updates and extends previously published case search resources such as Weinstein (2005), Lipe (2006), and Miller et al. (2014), as well as resources available at the Management Accounting Section (MAS) and ATA Section sites on the American Accounting Association (AAA) website. The site currently includes all cases published to date in the Journal of Accounting Education, Issues in Accounting Education and the IMA Educational Case Journal (492 cases). Searching for cases at the site is based primarily on courses (course title), which can then be narrowed by keywords (Accounting Topics). This website will be updated by the authors as new cases are published. The authors will also expand the set of source journals. The website address is http://www.cases.ndacct.com/.     

Interest in the future: A search for useable measures

The author examines the reasons for researching into society's interest in the future and considers several indicators. Two main types of indicators emerge—which relate either to professional or to popular interest in the future. From a content analysis of periodical literature over the past 75 years the author is able to plot the increasing interest in the future and the cycles imposed on that trend. These findings raise a number of questions : eg what are the reasons for the variations and, in particular, for the recent decline in interest in the early 1970s. The author forecasts that interest in the future will revive again over the next decade.     

Regulating health insurance: the challenges of managed networks

The role of the regulator in health insurance is examined in the context of the change in nature of regulatory oversight necessary to monitor the activities of the regulated parties. Health insurance to this point has been largely regulated by insurance departments that have historically focused on monitoring the solvency and meeting the contractually required reimbursements for indemnity carriers. Now as the indemnity carrier has either migrated to managed care or faced a declining book of business, the historic role of regulation must change to match the new environment. This article examines the role of the health insurance/managed care regulator department under this new paradigm and identifies where and how the regulator can exert influence in such a system.     

Intangibles and accounting classifications: in search of a classification strategy

The present paper is concerned with classification of ‘intangibles’ and what classification theory can teach us about a ‘good classification’. The present study led to three conclusions about the classification of intangibles. One is that the value of classification lies in its function as a heuristic device, i.e. as a help construction. Accounting becomes the art of background design. Another conclusion is that if we choose to account for intangibles it does not need to change the transaction base of financial accounting. Rather, it is an issue how to classify and label a universe of transactions. Finally, the dichotomy tangible–intangible should not be acknowledged as a supposition. Depending on perspective, purpose and type of financial accounting model, other concepts may do a better job in classifying the accounting world.     

Efficiency with costly information: a reinterpretation of evidence from managed portfolios

We investigate the informational efficiency of mutual fund performancefor the period 1965-84. Results are shown to be sensitive tothe measurement of performance chosen. We find that returnson S&P stocks, returns on non-S&P stocks, and returnson bonds are significant factors in performance assessment.Once we correct for the impact of non-S&P assets on mutualfund returns, we find that mutual funds do not earn returnsthat justify their information acquisition costs. This is consistentwith results for prior periods.     

The search for meaning in a changing work context

The nature of work is currently undergoing a complete transformation. In response to economic pressures organizations are reshaping themselves into totally new forms. Information technology is underpinning this transformation by providing the backbone for new organizational structures and new ways of working. The implications of this transformation are far reaching, particularly as the entire concept of work changes. The boundaries which have traditionally existed between organizations, individuals, family, home life and community will disappear as work increasingly becomes situation-independent and centred in the home. Our current understanding of the meaning of work will become increasingly obsolete and therefore will force individuals to search for new meanings of work in their lives. As a result work will take on an entirely different meaning. This article explores the problems of the meaning of work in a context of change. We look forward to a future in which the nature of work as we know it now will have changed beyond recognition. The question we address is this: what will work mean to us in the future?     

Flexible benefits and managed care: making it work

The concept of integrating flexible benefits and managed care may seem contradictory. Flexible benefits seek to maximize choice, while managed care attempts to restrict choice. Can these two disciplines be intertwined without delivering conflicting messages to employees? The answer is definitely yes. By following some basic ground rules in design, flexible benefits and managed care can be combined effectively in a way that is attractive to both employers and employees. This article presents some general guidelines for designing a successful "managed flex" program and raises other issues as well, including financial, administrative and communication concerns.