资本账户开放迎来机遇期

人民币国际化正处于难得的战略机遇期,推动国际化不可避免地要逐步放开资本项目,在人民币国际化平稳推进的进程中,逐步放松资本项目下的严格管制是可以预期的。未来资本项目开放应与各项人民币跨境业务的开展相结合,两者将呈现同步进行、相互促进的格局。     

NEW CHALLENGES FOR MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING: ISSUES IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES

Social legislation from 1988 to 1990 significantly changed the old managerial framework in the field of social policy. It comprehensively split the previously fused functions of finance and provision. State agencies became purchasers of health, education and social care. Agencies providing these services were given devolved budgets or a completely independent and competing existence. These changes are a real challenge to management accounting as well as to managers. For these changes to produce an efficient outcome, much turns on the quality of the information on prices and costs, on the nature of the contracts and the quality of the contract compliance procedures and measures of performance. All are completely new to those working in the services. There are also inherent dangers that competition will take place on the basis of excluding the costly or needy groups. These are major technical and moral issues for the profession.     

THE ACCOUNTING SERVICES MARKET: THEORY AND EVIDENCE: A REPLY

David J. Williams and Keith D. Turpie criticize the methodology used by the present authors in the original paper (Pound and Francis, 1981). Part of this criticism is specious because it rests on the untested assertion that an alternative approach would be superior. The remainder of their Comment, however, does indicate that the exact purpose of the statistical tests was not explained as clearly as it should have been. Some elaboration is provided here concerning the tests and the manner in which the tests relate to the oligopolistic nature of the Australian accounting services market for publically traded corporations.     

THE ACCOUNTING SERVICES MARKET: THEORY AND EVIDENCE: A COMMENT

This Comment discusses tests on the extent of oligopolistic pricing and product differentiation in the accounting services market made by Pound and Francis recently in this journal. It is argued that the results obtained from that study are misleading, primarily because the testing does not include data on price mark-ups.     

"入世"带给国有商业银行的机遇与挑战

本文从宏观与微观分析相结合的视角出发,指出国有商业银行不仅会在增量业务领域面临外资银行对优质客户、业务和人才的强力竞争,而且由于外部经营环境的变化,目前重点支持的优质客户有可能在未来的竞争中失利,从而威胁国有商业银行存量资产的安全.但竞争也能促使国有商业银行积极应战,以集约化理性竞争替代粗放型非理性竞争,变政府推动的被动式改革为银行自主设计的主动改革;经营环境、理念氛围也将向着有利于银行商业化改革的方向发展.文章对国有商业银行在中期内的竞争目标、形势、外部条件等作出简要判断,并就国有商业银行的经营体制、方式的改革提出具体建议.     

TELLING STORIES ABOUT ACCOUNTING HISTORY

The state of relations between traditional and critical (or “new”) accounting historians has itself become an issue as the renewal of interest in accounting history continues. This note highlights the dialogic move within the accounting history community and develops a number of stories in support of it. In particular it explores whether the historical narrative, itself the subject of renewed interest in the human sciences, can foster community relations.     

CAPITAL ACCOUNTING IN MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS 1884-1914: THEORY AND PRACTICE

Municipal corporations wielded a vast amount of economic power throughout the period covered by this paper and, as a result, they were the subject of envy, suspicion and criticism. The question of whether depreciation should be charged could not be dismissed as a mere matter of book-keeping. The inclusion of a charge involved the earmarking of an equivalent amount of money for future use, and the matter was therefore regarded as of fundamental importance for current levels of local taxation and long term financial stability. Public and private sector based accountants, municipal officers, town councillors, ratepayers and academics engaged in a debate which, although stirring strong emotions, was thoughtful, wide ranging and constructive. This paper examines the discourse and its outcomes.     

ACCOUNTING CHOICE AND A THEORY OF CRISIS: THE CASES OF POST-PRIVATIZATION BRITISH TELECOM AND BRITISH GAS

In examining the accounting choices of two UK utilities, it is argued that positive accounting theory is devoid of explanatory power. In its place the paper proposes a neo-Marxist theory of crisis management, largely based on the work of Habermas. It analyses the financial statements of British Telecom and British Gas, and shows how their accounting choices may be more satisfactorily explained as responses to avoid crises that otherwise might be faced by these two entities in the general context of crisis tendencies in the UK socio-economic system. © 1997 Published by Elsevier Science LtdEditorial Note. Since preparing this version of the paper, Tony Puxty has died. Prior to his death, the paper had been sent back for relatively minor revisions. Although these were not undertaken, the reviewers and myself think that the paper should be published. We do this hoping that it will serve to remind us of a serious and thoughtful scholar of accounting whose wisdom and contributions are very much missed.     

GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF ACCOUNTING HISTORY: A REPLY TO KEENAN

Keenan's methodological criticisms of “Genealogies of Calculation” are shown to be either innocuous or invalid. His sketch of a nonteleological evolutionary explanation of the transition from charge and discharge accounting to double-entry in nineteenth century Britain is criticized, and an alternative genealogical sketch is provided.     

ACCRUAL ACCOUNTING AND CASH ACCOUNTING: RELATIVE MERITS OF DERIVED ACCOUNTING INDICATOR NUMBERS

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative merits of performance indicators derived from either an income statement and a balance sheet both based on accrual accounting, or cash flow accounting. The balance sheet number showed lower variability and a higher persistency than the cash flow accounting and the income statement numbers. This phenomenon was attributed to an income smoothing distortion and a selective market response hypothesis. One implication for the standard setting bodies may be to favour an asset/liability view of earnings rather than either a revenue/expense or cash flow view.     

ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTING HISTORY: THE CASE OF CENTRAL ESTABLISHMENT CHARGES

During the municipal trading debate, which was the first major privatisation debate in this country, local government accounting was very controversial. The variety of treatments of central establishment charges was an important part of the controversy. In essence, the debate was a confrontation between the policy imperative, which required uniform accounting, including complete allocation, of central establishment charges across trading undertakings, with the theoretical doubts that this was unattainable. One aspect of the context of the debate was that policy-makers did not have (and/or did not choose to have) the power to enforce their policies.