Taxpayers' Prepayment Positions and Tax Return Preparation Fees*

Individuals who have their tax returns professionally prepared often overpay estimated income taxes, effectively giving the government an interest‐free loan. To understand why tax professionals may place their clients in positive prepayment positions, we draw on mental accounting theory. Mental accounting theory suggests that by placing taxpayers in positive prepayment positions, tax professionals induce a favorable mental representation of tax return preparation fees, perhaps allowing them to collect larger fractions of billable time and costs incurred on taxpayers' behalves. Thus, we hypothesize that tax return preparation fees are higher for taxpayers in positive prepayment positions than for taxpayers in negative prepayment positions. Regression results using tax return data for 68,736 taxpayers provide strong support for this hypothesis. To more fully understand the general nature of the relationship between taxpayers' prepayment positions and tax return preparation fees, we adapt the prospect theory value function to the tax domain and formulate three additional hypotheses. Consistent with theory, regression results indicate that the relation between taxpayers' prepayment positions and tax return preparation fees is (1) positive, (2) stronger for taxpayers who receive refunds that are less than fees than it is for taxpayers who receive refunds that are greater than fees, and (3) stronger for taxpayers in negative prepayment positions than for taxpayers in positive prepayment positions.     

Public Choice and Accounting Standard Setting in New Zealand: An Exploratory Study

Recent studies in accounting regulation have used either the capture argument or the pluralistic notion to describe the enactment of accounting regulations. This paper explores the nature of the impact of public choice in accounting standard setting in New Zealand using the pluralistic notion. To provide an insight into the standard-setting process, this paper involves an examination of the establishment, withdrawal and re-establishment of New Zealand's most controversial standard after current cost accounting — the standard on investment property accounting (SSAP 17). The investigation considers the nature of public choice in the agenda entrance, demand and supply factors influencing standard setting in New Zealand. The results indicate that the New Zealand accounting standard-setting process is pluralistic in a limited way. Like most other English-speaking countries, the scope of participation for certain groups has been institutionalized on the supply side by way of membership of standard-setting committees of the New Zealand Society of Accountants. On the demand side, however, consumers of accounting have been provided with only limited scope for participating in the formal process of standard setting. Nevertheless, other means (i.e., exogenous and informal ones) may be used to influence the process. Overall, from both the demand and supply perspectives of regulation, the Big-8 accounting firms (as they were previously known) followed by the preparers of financial statements, seem to have greater participatory capacity in the New Zealand standard-setting process.     

The Dynamics of Local Markets: A Case Study of Cameras

Longitudinal data on the availability and prices of two related products in a local market are used to assess the dynamic performance of the markets for these products. Consistent with prior research, a large degree of price dispersion was found for both products. There was some evidence of a modest reduction in price dispersion over time, and of the lowest quality models to “drop out” of the market. Store quality differences and likely search costs did not appear to explain the remaining dispersion.     

A Further Look at the Propagation of Monetary Policy Shocks in HANK

We provide quantitative guidance on whether and to what extent different elements of Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian (HANK) models amplify or dampen the response of aggregate consumption to a monetary policy shock. We emphasize four findings. First, the introduction of capital adjustment costs does not affect the aggregate response, but does change the transmission mechanism so that a larger share of indirect effects originates from equity prices rather than from labor income. Second, incorporating estimated unequal incidence functions for aggregate labor income fluctuations leads to either amplification or dampening, depending on the data and estimation methods. Third, distribution rules for monopoly profits that allocate a larger share to liquid assets lead to greater amplification. Fourth, assumptions about the fiscal reaction to a monetary policy shock have a stronger effect on the aggregate consumption response than any of the other three elements.     

Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Neil Davidson, Discovering the Scottish Revolution 1692–1746 .
Benno Teschke, The Myth of 1648. Class, Politics and the Making of Modern International Relations .
Amanda Hammar, Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business: Rethinking Land, State and Nation in the Context of Crisis .
Yunxiang Yan, Private Life Under Socialism: Love, Intimacy and Family Change in a Chinese Village, 1949–1999 .
A. E. Luloff and R. S. Krannich (eds), Persistence and Change in Rural Communities: A 50 Year Follow Up to Six Classic Studies .     

STRATEGIC GROUPS AND RIVALROUS FIRM BEHAVIOR: TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION

This research examines the question of whether rivalry is greater between or within strategic groups by utilizing more direct, dynamic and fine-grained measures of rivalry. Examining the competitive actions of firms in different strategic groups to determine if competitive responses were more likely to occur from firms in the same strategic group, or from firms in different strategic groups, the research found that competitive responses cannot be predicted by strategic group membership. Importantly, however, strategic group membership is a predictor of the manner by which firms compete with one another, or the frequency with which they undertake competitive actions, cut prices, instigate warfare and imitate rivals. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Bayesian Approach for Analyzing the Services of Banking Institutions

This study illustrates an adaptive Bayesian framework for examining consumers' perceptions of the services of banking institutions in a target market. The approach uses multiple-measures data to estimate the significant determinants of consumers' preferences for competing banks in the market. This is accomplished essentially by incorporating prior structural information into analyses, information that is used to obtain a stabilized version of the observed predictor-criterion covariance matrix. Bayesian structural regression estimates are shown to provide a banking institution with reliable information for use in positioning itself in its financial marketplace. The paper also provides a number of implications for the use of the methodology practical marketing response applications.