Exploring the effectiveness of peer mentoring of accounting and finance students in higher education

This article explores the effectiveness of peer mentoring with accounting and finance students at the University of Dundee. The motives of such a mentoring scheme are to improve the participants' academic performance and to develop their transferable skills. In the context of this study, peer mentoring comprises third year students (mentors) mentoring first year students (mentees). Using a semi-formal tutorial setting and meetings during the latter part of the academic year, mentoring groups address issues such as academic writing skills, study techniques and examination preparation. The effects of mentoring are measured by a comparison of the pre- and post-mentoring examination performance of the mentees. In addition, focus group interviews are used to gather the opinions of the mentees and the mentors as to their impressions about the success of the project. The empirical results suggest that mentoring has had a positive effect on the academic performance of the mentees. The focus group interviews found that both the mentors and the mentees claimed to benefit significantly from their involvement in the project.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of exchange rate bands in reducing inflation

This paper contributes to the debate between the intermediate option and the corner solution through evaluating effectiveness of exchange rate bands (target zone and crawling band) in retaining inflation. I employ propensity score matching methods, based on the conditional independence assumption (CIA), to overcome the selection bias and problem of functional form in a sample covering observations from 88 countries from 1998 to 2005. The result suggests countries with target zones experienced significantly lower inflation rates than those with floating exchange rates. I use the sensitivity analysis for matching estimators, which highlights that the result is robust to specific failures of the CIA. Meanwhile, no significant evidence has been found that crawling bands offer a counter- inflationary benefit. It might be explained by the possibility that frequent exchange rate realignments could weaken the role of a nominal anchor and raise inflationary expectations.     

An examination of the peer review process in accounting journals

An anonymous survey of university accounting faculty was conducted to assess current perceptions of the peer review process in accounting journals. The responses revealed that (a) most respondents are fairly positive about the peer review process, especially the process being fair/unbiased and improving the quality of research; (b) the most serious perceived threats to review process integrity involve reviewer misconduct (e.g., delaying reviews for self-interest or rejecting papers for revenge); (c) editors allowing excessive delays in the process and institutional favoritism by editors are seen as the most prevalent issues; (d) editors/associate editors of high-level or top-tier journals are most positive about the review process, while assistant professors, those at doctoral-granting institutions, and those submitting to top-tier journals are least positive; and (e) respondents’ suggestions for improving the review process emphasize improving timeliness, reducing favoritism, and reconsidering the notion of blind reviews (some consider blind reviews to be impossible, but others want to ensure that reviews are blind). Based on the results and other sources, we offer a proposed starting point for a peer review code of conduct for accounting journals.     

Current practices in the external peer review process for promotion and tenure decisions

This study extends previous work by Schwartz and Schroeder [Schwartz, B. N., & Schroeder, R. G. (1997). External reviews: what is being done? Journal of Accounting Education, 15, 531–547] regarding the use of external peer reviews in the promotion and tenure process. Specifically, we examine issues raised by Schwartz and Schroeder's (1997) survey respondents related to guidance provided by institutions to external reviewers. Using information collected from 35 responding institutions, we detail current practices in accounting in the following guidance areas: (1) benchmarks for evaluating the candidate; (2) specific evaluation criteria for research, teaching, and service; and (3) candidate and institutional materials sent to the reviewer to assist in the evaluation. We find considerable diversity in current practice, with some institutions listing multiple, detailed criteria to guide reviewers and others providing little or no guidance. Using our findings and insights from prior literature (primarily outside accounting), we identify potential strengths and weaknesses in current practice and make recommendations for improvement in the peer review process. The recommendations contained herein should be helpful to schools currently dissatisfied with their external review process, to schools considering revising the way they solicit external reviews, and to schools considering using external reviews in the future.     

Thinking practice: Iteration,peer review,and policy analysis in a governmental accounting class

All accounting graduates need strong critical thinking skills to succeed. However, possessing these critical thinking skills upon graduation is particularly crucial for new accountants working in the field of governmental accounting. As public servants at the local, state, and federal levels, they may face both short-term budget constraints and long-term sustainability concerns that cannot be solved with technical skills alone. Due to the proliferation of standards and technical practices across the accounting profession, governmental accounting educators may find it difficult to incorporate critical thinking instruction into their courses. In response to these concerns, this paper presents a project developed for inclusion in a governmental and nonprofit accounting course. Over the course of one semester, students choose a governmental policy topic of interest, conduct background research, evaluate the costs and benefits associated with a policy issue, and prepare recommendations in a written format addressed to the appropriate legislative committee. The project also incorporates review and iterative components that allow students to revise their written work based on feedback from the instructor and classmates. We report results of pre- and post-surveys that suggest that the project offers promise as a vehicle for promoting critical thinking skills among governmental accounting students.     

Discussion of adoption of Just-in-Time and Electronic Data Interchange systems and perceptions of Cost Management Systems effectiveness

Cost Management Systems (CMS) are often prescribed to assist in cost planning and control in manufacturing organizations. This study draws connections between the efficacy of these systems and the technologies and environmental factors affecting their use. A survey of 107 manufacturing firms demonstrates the importance of Just-in-Time (JIT) manufacturing, and to a lesser extent, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technologies. This critique examines the research in detail, and focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of the study. Strengths of the paper are the elaborate and well-supported study design and development, the innovative and thorough sampling technique, the creative analytical approach, and the lengthy discussion. Weaknesses focus on presentation length, construct operationalization, and the interpretation of results.     

The credibility of self-regulation: Evidence from the accounting profession's peer review program

Following the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, self-regulated peer reviews at accounting firms were replaced by independent inspections conducted by the Public Company Accounting and Oversight Board. Critics of self-regulation had argued that the peer review program lacked credibility. This paper tests whether the opinions issued by the peer reviewers provided credible information to clients about audit firm quality. We find audit firms gained clients after receiving clean opinions from their reviewers and lost clients after receiving modified or adverse opinions. This suggests peer review opinions provided credible information about quality differences between audit firms.     

成本核算和成本管理的回顾与思考——从我国注册会计师考试增加成本核算内容谈起

本文通过回顾我国注册会计师考试增设成本核算内容的历史事件及新中国成本核算和成本管理制度的发展过程,指出了成本管理的重要意义,分析了企业成本核算与管理的难点,特别是对间接费用分配这一成本核算顽疾进行了深入剖析,进而提出了未来成本核算和成本管理理论与实践应该进一步关注的话题。     

Heterogeneity and peer effects in mutual fund proxy voting

This paper studies voting in corporate director elections. We construct a comprehensive data set of 2,058,788 mutual fund votes over a two-year period. We find systematic heterogeneity in voting: some funds are consistently more management-friendly than others. We also establish the presence of peer effects: a fund is more likely to oppose management when other funds are more likely to oppose it, all else being equal. We estimate a voting model whose supermodular structure allows us to compute social multipliers due to peer effects. Heterogeneity and peer effects are as important in shaping voting outcomes as firm and director characteristics.     

The role of underwriter peer networks in IPOs

This study examines how various aspects of underwriter peer network affect IPOs. We use different network measures to capture underwriter centrality in the global network, cohesion and diversity within network, and prior industry experience of network partners. Our results show that IPOs underwritten by book managers with more central and cohesive networks and partners with previous industry experience are associated with a higher likelihood of an offer price revision and larger price revisions. We also find book managers with more central networks and partners with previous industry experience are associated with higher short-run stock returns, while book managers that maintain more reciprocated peer relationships tend to underprice more. These results indicate that underwriters use peer networks to produce information and place securities, and network structure and characteristics have implications for the quantity and quality of information and the level of cooperative efforts shared among underwriters.     

资本成本与资金成本的区别探讨

资本成本是一个财务学概念,体现的是健全的公司治理机制和对资本风险报酬的尊重。而资金成本仅仅是一个会计学概念,未能反映出公司制的真谛。但理论界却将二者混为一谈。为了使我国的财务理论能够指导投资决策,就必须与国际接轨,全面接受资本成本理念。     

Incentives and cost containment in primary care physician reimbursement

The goal of capitation is to place gatekeepers at financial risk for the services the deliver. However, third party payers should provide gatekeepers with some type of protection against random and systematic risk transfer. Gatekeeper physicians' other alternative is to reduce this risk on their own by actively marketing services to healthier individuals and creating barriers to care for their sicker patients. Thus, the proper balance of risk transfer will result in the most cost-efficient, quality gatekeeper networks. However, even with the right balance of risk transfer, capitation may provide incentive for some physicians to withhold necessary services to further increase their profit margins-making quality of care a key concern. Thus, practice guidelines should be developed to ensure quality is not affected. These guidelines afford explicit criteria on how gatekeepers should respond in specific clinical situations.     

Extended peer communities and the ascendance of post-normal politics

This paper describes an approach to the operationalisation of extended peer communities that deploys uncertainty, ignorance and indeterminacy, and examines the crucial role of trust. Trust underwrites both the dialogue central to extended peer communities and the functional utility of the knowledge so created, because when “facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high … and the framing of the problem involves politics and values as much as science” (Ravetz J. Knowledge in an uncertain world. New Scientist 1990;127:2) the taken-for-granted trust in ‘normal' science is no longer assured, necessitating the cultivation of trust by other means. It is argued that extended peer communities provide a focus for the ascendant politics of the post-normal realm, in resonance with recently articulated insights into broader social theory.“… we continue to believe in the sciences, but instead of taking in their objectivity, their truth, their coldness, their extraterritoriality … we retain what has always been most interesting about them: their daring, their experimentation, their uncertainty, their warmth, their incongruous blend of hybrids, their crazy ability to reconstitute the social bond. We take away from them only the mystery of their birth and the danger their clandestineness posed to democracy” (Latour B. We have never been modern. Hemel Hempstead (UK): Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993:142).     

Policy uncertainty and peer effects: Evidence from corporate investment in China

This study investigates whether economic policy uncertainty (EPU) magnifies peer effects in corporate investment in China and the economic mechanisms through which EPU may act upon this property. We examine this relationship by analysing a large sample of publicly listed companies in China for the period of 2009–2019, adopting the peer-firm-average idiosyncratic stock return to capture exogenous variations in peer firms’ investment activities. We demonstrate that peer effects are stronger when EPU is increasing in intensity. We also find that high EPU magnifies peer effects by decreasing the accuracy of firms’ signals regarding their investment opportunities, asymmetrically impacting their capacity to acquire information and exacerbating managers’ career concerns. We further show that increased EPU magnifies peer effects only for underinvesting firms, causing underinvestment to persist and retarding recovery from an economic downturn. Our investigation provides original evidence of how EPU influences corporate investment decisions through peer effects, contributing to the continuing debate on the role of EPU and corporate investment efficiency by establishing that the adoption of consistent and transparent economic policies optimize returns on a company’s investments, especially during an economic downturn.     

Cost structures in multinational and domestic banking

Prior research on international banking has proposed many reasons for the multinationalization of U.S. banks but provided little empirical support for its propositions. Using a pooled-time series data set from 1987 to 1990, this study analyzes the ray and expansion path scale economies and expansion path subadditivity of U.S. based multinational banks (MNBs), both at the firm and the plant levels. It also measures and analyzes inefficiencies for these banks. Inefficiencies are measured relative to a ‘thick frontier’ cost function. A similar analysis is conducted for domestic banks (DBs) for comparison purposes. No support is found for the prior belief that similar cost structures exist for MNBs and DBs. In general, we find that MNBs are able to fully exploit economies of scale, and face lesser diseconomies from joint production and lower inefficiencies than DBs.     

Use of active peer benchmarks in assessing UK mutual fund performance and performance persistence

The majority of UK style-specific mutual funds either report a broad market index as their prospectus benchmark or give no benchmark at all – a practice that may be (a) strategic, or (b) cultural and attributable to the lack of UK style-specific indices (e.g. mid-cap-growth, small-cap-value). The choice of a broad market index as a benchmark can bias the inferences of a fund’s performance and performance persistence. This study is the first to provide an alternative to style-specific indices in the UK, and suggests the use style-specific peer group benchmarks, following [Hunter, D., E. Kandel, S. Kandel, and R. Wermers. 2014. “Mutual Fund Performance Evaluation with Active Peer Benchmarks.” Journal of Financial Economics 112 (1): 1–29]. Our sample comprises of 817 active UK long-only equity mutual funds allocated to nine Morningstar style categories (peer groups) during the period 1992–2016. We show that the funds with the most significant positive peer-group-adjusted alphas continue to perform well one year ahead, in terms of both parametric and non-parametric measures of persistence in performance. Moreover, persistence in performance is driven by both winner and loser funds. The results within each peer group are by and large consistent with these findings.     

规范管理 积极稳妥推进新型农村合作医疗试点

新型农村合作医疗制度是由政府组织、引导和支持，农民自愿参加，个人、集体和政府多方筹资，以大病统筹为主的农民医疗互助共济制度。建立新型农村合作医疗制度，对提高农民健康水平，促进农村经济发展，维护社会稳定具有重要意义，是党中央、国务院落实科学发展观和构建社会主义和谐社会的重大决策，是解决“三农”问题，促进城乡协调发展，全面建设小康社会的重要举措。根据《中共河北省委河北省人民政府关于进一步加强农村卫生工作的决定》和国务院办公厅转发卫生部等部门《关于建立新型农村合作医疗制度的意见》，我省于2003年7月正式出台了《河北省新型农村合作医疗管理办法》，并于当年8月开始在迁安、曲周和枣强三县试点。     

Segment Disclosure and Cost of Capital

We investigate whether segment disclosure influences cost of capital. Improved segment reporting is expected to decrease cost of capital by reducing estimation risk. However, in a competitive environment segment disclosure may also generate uncertainties about future prospects and lead to a larger cost of capital. Asset‐pricing tests confirm that segment disclosure is a priced risk factor. Also, segment disclosure reduces ex‐ante estimates of cost of equity capital and other measures connected to risk. These results suggest a negative relation between segment disclosure and cost of capital. Our results also show that competition reduces, but does not eliminate, the previous relationship.