MYTH AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE AMERICAN ACCOUNTING PROFESSION

The American accounting profession attempts to provide the public with efficient and effective financial reports; but to succeed, it must satisfy an environment of diverse, often conflicting, institutions. This article critically interprets the profession's development, arguing that it displays an interplay of myth and technology. This interplay generates structural flaws in the profession as well as a bias against reform.     

ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF ORDER STATISTICS FOR A RANDOM SAMPLE SIZE

The distributions of the life lengths of a parallel and of a series system with a random number of components have been studied in reliability theory. In this paper we obtain the distributions of the i'th order statistics and the range, assuming the sample size to be random, with a generalized negative binomial, a generalized Poisson and a generalized logarithmic series distribution. The results of Raghunandanan and Patil (1972) follow immediately from our results.     

ON THE DISTRIBUTIONS OF ORDER STATISTICS FOR A RANDOM SAMPLE SIZE*

The probability distribution of the i –th and j–th order statistics and of the range R of a sample of size n, taken from a population with probability density function f (x) have been obtained when the sample size n is a random variable N and has: (i) a generalized Poisson distribution; and (ii) a generalized negative bonimial distribution. Specific results are then obtained; (a) when f (x) is uniform over (0,1); and (b) when f(x) is exponential. All the results for N, being a Poisson, binomial and negative binomial rv follow as special cases.     

ARE THE OUTPUT EFFECTS OF MONETARY POLICY ASYMMETRIC? EVIDENCE FROM A SAMPLE OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

ABSTRACT This paper examines whether the effects of monetary policy on output in Europe are asymmetric. Data from the 1953–90 period are used to identify money-supply shocks and their effects on output for a panel of 18 European countries. Many different specifications and estimation methods strongly support asymmetry: negative money-supply shocks are shown to have a statistically significant effect on output, whereas the effect of positive shocks is statistically insignificant. A similar asymmetry governs the output effects of interest rate changes. The sources of these asymmetries are traced to similar behavior for consumption and investment. These findings imply that positive money-supply shocks may be an ineffective anti-recession policy, and more generally, that the monetary component of the optimal stabilization policy should be less activist than generally thought.     

JOB EVALUATION AS INSTITUTIONAL MYTH

This article argues that the real function of job evaluation technique lies not in the rational claims upheld in the managerialist literature but rather in the more diffuse area of meaning management. the argument is based on an intensive case-survey analysis of the introduction of a formal job evaluation plan to one of Canada's ten provincial governments. From the complementary perspectives of social construction theory and institutional theory, job evaluation is ultimately defined as a rationalized institutional myth. First of all, job evaluation is rationalized because it takes the form of rules, specifying the procedures necessary to accomplish the end goal of determining an internally equitable and externally competitive pay structure. Job evaluation is institutional because actions are repeated and given similar meanings by the custodians of the system and those who fall under its administration. the set of meanings which evolves from job evaluation is expressed in a belief (ideology), an activity (norms and rituals), language and other symbolic forms through which the members of an organization both create and sustain views and images about the value of one job over another. Job evaluation is a myth because it is a process based on widely held beliefs that cannot be tested objectively. Despite a number of unexamined assumptions, the technique is accepted as ‘true’because it is believed.     

SOME SMALL–SAMPLE NON–PROPORTIONAL HAZARDS RESULIS FOR THE KAPLAN–MEIER ESTIMATOR

CHEN, HOLLANDER and LANGBERG (1982) presented exact small–sample results for the KAPLAN–MEIER (1958) estimator under the proportional hazards model. We present simulation results for the same estimator for small samples in a number of cases where the hazard rates are not proportional. These suggest that the proportional hazards results, especially with regard to the Mean Square Error, are typical for a fairly large variety of "non–proportionalities" that may be encountered in practice. Thus the MSE of the KAPLAN–MEIER estimator appears to be rather robust against deviations from proportionality of the survival and censoring hazard rates. We illustrate the practical importance of this property by two examples.     

AN INTERPRETATION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SECOND BATTLE OF WATERLOO

Good governance is a pre-condition for economic development. Good governance, in turn, requires peace. The second Battle of Waterloo, in Sierra Leone, showed what the West can do in this regard. A small military intervention, not hemmed in by the typical restrictions on what 'peacekeepers' can do, made a huge difference to the development prospects of the country. This has important implications for the use of external military forces as part of the overall strategy for poverty reduction in Africa.     

THE FUTURE OF THE SEABED

Increased commodity prices and improved technology have combined to increase the incentives to exploit natural resources located under the seas. However, an international seabed regime under the auspices of the United Nations presents dangers for free markets, sovereignty and security. Alternative institutional arrangements based on privatisation would produce better outcomes.     

THE EFFECTS OF EXPANDING THE GENEROSITY OF THE STATUTORY SICKNESS INSURANCE SYSTEM

This article evaluates an expansion of employer‐mandated sick leave from 80% to 100% of forgone gross wages in Germany. We employ and compare parametric difference‐in‐difference (DID), matching DID and mixed approaches. Overall workplace absences increased by at least 10% or 1 day per worker per year. We show that taking partial compliance into account increases coefficient estimates. Further, heterogeneity in response behavior was of great importance. There is no evidence that the increase in sick leave improved employee health, a finding that supports a shirking explanation. Finally, we provide evidence on potential labor market adjustments to the reform. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.