The Making of Oil-backed Indigenous Capitalism in Nigeria

There has been considerable growth in the past few years in the number and size of Nigerian companies providing services to the oil and gas industry. The capacity of these companies, enhanced by local content policy, will not only create economic development in the industry, but will also likely boost the development of Nigeria's manufacturing and service economies. While ‘Nigerian content’ faces many challenges in terms of implementation, it has made and will continue to make a significant impact on the economy of Nigeria and may also be making a significant impact on the political economy. Powerful interests have helped ensure that the Nigerian elite will be the primary beneficiaries of Nigerian content. Through interviews and case studies, this article argues that by embracing Nigerian content as a new strategy of accumulation, the elite are creating more capitalistic social relations of production in Nigeria.     

Weekly Variation in Audience Delivery of TV Advertising Schedules

Individual TV advertising spots may vary as much as five rating points from one week to the next which implies that summary measures of audience delivery of TV advertising schedules composed of multiple spots could vary quite drastically. Obviously this would have a marked effect of cost per thousand calculations which is a common criterion for choosing between alternate TV advertising schedules. Based upon examination on a large number of TV advertising schedules, however, this study reports that weekly changes in audience ratings of individual spots comprising an advertising schedule tend to cancel out so that total schedule audience delivery and cost per thousand estimates are not greatly affected over a two week period.     

The Accounting Profession: Substantive Change and/or Image Management

The accounting profession’s image and reputation is built upon the members of the profession acting with the “highest sense of integrity” in “the public interest” (AICPA, 2003, www.aicpa.org/about). The Enron debacle initiated the latest crisis facing the profession regarding its image and reputation. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the largest professional body representing the accounting profession and the one to which regulators have looked in establishing and upholding professional standards relating to the public practice of accounting and auditing. One of the AICPA’s responsibilities is to “promote public awareness and confidence in the integrity, objectivity, competence and professionalism of CPAs ....” (AICPA, 2003, www.aicpa.org/about). We analyze the public statements issued by the AICPA (i.e., press releases, speeches of officers, testimony, published articles) during this ethical and identity crisis beginning with the AICPA’s first public statement on the Enron debacle (AIPCA 2001) and concluding with the AICPA recognizing the need for a “new accounting culture” (Melancon 2002). In order to better understand the public discourse, we use image restoration theory (Benoit, 1995), because it provides a typology of strategies for dealing with the public face of crises. We identify the three most common strategies the AICPA employs during this period. Proposals for taking corrective action represent the most commonly employed strategy, but the analysis also indicates an attempt to evade responsibility by claiming defeasibility and to reduce the offensiveness of the situation by employing a bolstering strategy. A second analysis using DICTION, a software package useful in revealing latent dimensions in a text, indicates that early statements tend to use language related to accomplishing specific action while the later statements tend more toward general language that relates to peoples’ everyday lives. The findings raise questions as to substantive nature of the changes proposed by the AICPA, and thus, the extent to which the public interest is being served by them.     

Ethical Audit Decisions: A Structuration Perspective

The public accounting profession has long relied on its reputation for integrity and veracity as justification for its professional status and monopoly privilege predicated on claims of acting in the public interest. If such status and privilege are to be justified and sustained, serious consideration of what constitutes ethical behavior, how such behavior is motivated as well as an explicit recognition of the rights and interests of affected parties constitutes an ethical imperative for the profession. Traditionally, work on ethics and auditing is quite narrow, failing to recognize the social context of individual actions, failing to identify the relevant constituencies of the profession, and failing to articulate processes through which the constituencies interests can be identified. Generally, the accounting literature has taken a cognitive perspective on ethical decision making which views the resolution of ethical dilemmas as primarily a function of the moral makeup of the actor responding within the context of the Code of Professional Conduct. The purpose of this paper is to broaden the theoretical base of ethical research, specifically within the area of professional accounting and more generally in the area of business. We propose the application of structuration theory in conjunction with stakeholder theory and a responsibility ethic. The application of stakeholder theory is a means for identifying affected constituencies. A responsibility ethic recognizes the situatedness of an individual within an ongoing professional community. Structuration theory provides a theoretical framework for articulating and investigating both the structures within which action is carried out as well as the interaction between the social structures and the actors. Taken together, the theories allow for an enhanced ability to define ethical behavior within a business context and to understand the contextual antecedents and consequences of ethical acts.     

Cost-effectiveness of aripiprazole once-monthly compared with paliperidone palmitate once-monthly injectable for the treatment of schizophrenia in the United States

Objective:

To develop a decision-analytic model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of initiating maintenance treatment with aripiprazole once-monthly (AOM) vs paliperidone long-acting injectable (PLAI) once-monthly among patients with schizophrenia in the US.

Methods:

A decision-analytic model was developed to evaluate a hypothetical cohort of patients initiating maintenance treatment with AOM or PLAI. Rates of relapse, adverse events (AEs), and direct medical costs were estimated for 1 year. Patients either remained on initial treatment or discontinued treatment due to lack of efficacy, AEs, or other reasons, including non-adherence. Data from placebo-controlled pivotal trials and product prescribing information (PI) were used to estimate treatment efficacy and AEs. Analyses were performed assuming dosing of clinical trials, real-world practice, PIs, and highest therapeutic dose available, because of variation in practice settings. The main outcome of interest was incremental cost per schizophrenia hospitalization averted with AOM vs PLAI.

Results:

Based on placebo-controlled pivotal trials’ dosing, AOM improved clinical outcomes by reducing schizophrenia relapses vs PLAI (0.181 vs 0.277 per person per year [pppy]) at an additional cost of US$1276 pppy, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of US$13,280/relapse averted. When PI dosing was assumed, this ICER increased to US$19,968/relapse averted. When real-world dosing and highest available dosing were assumed, AOM was associated with fewer relapses and lower overall treatment costs vs PLAI.

Conclusions:

AOM consistently provided favorable clinical benefits. Under various dosing scenarios, AOM results indicated fewer relapses at lower overall costs or a reasonable cost-effectiveness threshold (i.e., less than the cost of a hospitalization relapse) vs PLAI. Given the heterogeneous nature of schizophrenia and variability in treatment response, health plans may consider open access for treatments like AOM. Since model inputs were based on data from separate placebo-controlled trials, generalization of results to the real-world setting is limited.     

选择代表:自然资源管理分权管理的机构及其权力

论述了有效的分权管理的中心条件——代表制。代表性是分权管理公式的关键,将代表性分为反应性和问责性是非常有用的。分权管理的结果似乎是代表性的功能和管理动机。为了评价选择的地方机构是否能够形成有效的分权管理,关键的问题是选择的机构是否对他们管理范围内的人民负责。许多国家缺乏可持续的具有代表性的地方政府。不管有或没有代表性的地方政府,也不管是哪个权威掌握对环境的权力,问责性措施都可以培育政府一定程度的向下的责任。选举并不是达到这样的问责制的唯一形式。分权管理改革的安全性和可持续性,大部分取决于中央政府向其它实体转移权力时采用的方式。制度转移是最安全的也是最具可持续性的。分权管理的有效和公正的潜力取决于地方机构的代表性。但是在几种情况下,选择民主负责的地方机构然后赋予其民主权力。     

自然资源的民主分权:民众参与的制度化

自然资源在当地民众的生计中具有决定性的作用,他们理应参与当地自然资源的管理和决策。分权改变了当地自然资源管理的制度框架,而民主分权是分权的最有效形式。概述了全球自然资源分权改革的实施情况,并对改革效果进行了评价。认为建立民主的地方机构将成为民主分权的主要机制,而责任、自行决定权和安全性是民主分权的3个基本问题,分权过程中中央政府需要有效的分权配套办法,并发挥重要作用。     

Contents of Volume 36

Volume Contents

Contents of Volume 36