The use of microcomputers in accounting education

Developments in the microcomputer industry promise to revolutionize American business. Recent projections show 1983 retail sales to be almost 8 billion dollars.Four years ago Brigham Young University began using microcomputers to assist in accounting education. This article explains how the micro is used in a variety of undergraduate and graduate classes and for administrative purposes.The micro is a very powerful tool that has many future uses in accounting education. Examples include: accounting and data base packages and as an auditing or research tool.The use of the micro, however, is not without problems. For example: funding, training, student assistance, and quality teaching materials.Accounting educators must train their students in the use of the microcomputer since failure to do so would result in their missing one of the most significant trends in American business.     

Can Costs of Consumption Adjustment Explain Asset Pricing Puzzles?

We investigate Grossman and Laroque's (1990) conjecture that costs of adjusting consumption can account, in part, for the empirical failure of the consumption-based capital asset pricing model (CCAPM). We incorporate small fixed costs of consumption adjustment into a CCAPM with heterogeneous agents. We find that undetectably small consumption adjustment costs can account for much of the discrepancy between the observed variance of nondurable aggregate consumption growth and the predictions of the CCAPM, and can partially reconcile nondurable consumption data with the observed equity premium. We conclude that the CCAPM's implications are nonrobust to extremely small adjustment costs.     

Are trading bans effective? Exchange regulation and corporate insider transactions around earnings announcements

There is considerable controversy on the role of corporate insider trading in the financial markets. However, there appears to be a consensus view that some form of regulation concerning their activities should be imposed. One such constraint involves a trading ban in periods when corporate insiders are expected to be advantaged vis-à-vis the information flow. This paper directly tests whether constraints of this kind are effective in curtailing insider activity through a study of the trading characteristics of UK company directors. The London Stock Exchange Model Code (1977) imposes a two-month close period prior to company earnings announcements. We find that although the close period affects the timing of director trades, it is unable to affect their performance or distribution. Directors consistently earn abnormal returns irrespective of the period in which they trade. They tend to buy after abnormally bad earnings news and sell after abnormally good earnings news. Moreover, there are systematic differences in the trading patterns of directors surrounding interim and final earnings announcements. It appears that many corporate insiders have private information and exploit this in their trading activities. As a result, one can conclude that trading bans do not impose significant opportunity costs on the trading of corporate insiders.     

What states are doing to control health insurance costs

Like other employers, state governments are struggling with continued health care cost increases. A 50-state survey reveals that these large public employers are actively attempting to control the cost of their plans while ensuring quality and a commitment to their employees' overall good health.     

Applications of computer-assisted tax research in academic tax programs

The use of computer-assisted tax research by students and faculty has begun to increase rapidly after being available for over 15 years. Factors contributing to this increased usage include accessibility to the data bases by microcomputers, transmission technology improvements, the emergence of new competitors, and the growth of specialized tax programs. The purpose of this research was to determine the nature and extent of the use of computer-assisted tax research in academic tax programs. A survey was conducted of all schools with American Taxation Association members, AACSB accreditation, and/or graduate tax programs. Current users project increased use while the 71% of respondents who are nonusers overwhelmingly cite cost constraints as the deterrent, with pessimism about the possibility of adopting CATR in the near future.     

A theoretical and empirical analysis of the length of residency discount in the rental housing market

We present an analysis of occupancy discounts and suggest a decomposition of the discount into two components, a “sit” discount and a length of residency discount. Data from the national longitudinal survey of the Annual Housing Survey in which 75,000 housing units from around the United States were followed from 1974 to 1977 are used to obtain consistent and efficient estimates of those discounts. The econometric models account for censoring in the data by endogenously treating the tenant's staying decision. The estimation indicates that neither discount is significant. This result is contrary to the commonly accepted result in the urban literature that landlords offer discounts to their current tenants when contracts are renegotiated.     

Business Students' Perceptions of Potential Ethical Dilemmas Faced by Faculty

Because students' ethical behavior may be modified through socialization contact with faculty, the perspectives of students relating to faculty ethics is an important topic. Prior research on business schools and ethics has not included students' perceptions of ethical dilemmas that often confront faculties of business schools. Student questionnaire data provides two important insights into students' perceptions of the ethics of faculty behavior. In the aggregate, students viewed 29 potential ethical issues as more serious than did faculty. Based on students' perceptions, four factors of ethical dilemmas were isolated: Regulations, Academic Job Performance, Dating, and Personal Benefits.     

Why Can't I Trade? Exchange Discretion in Calling Halts*,†

Stock exchanges are important intermediaries in how firm information enters price. Trading halts are a key tool, often exercised at the exchanges' discretion, to prevent extraordinary price volatility when new information arrives. We investigate how exchanges use discretion and whether the discretion alters the effectiveness of the halts. We provide evidence consistent with halts reflecting the preferences of listed firms rather than the stated exchange objectives (i.e., minimizing excess volatility and off-equilibrium trades). Furthermore, when exchanges exercise more discretion (unexplained by firm and information characteristics), the halts are less effective. Specifically, halts with more discretion are less likely to resume trading with efficient prices and are more likely to have been called unnecessarily (i.e., little to no price movement during the halt). These findings are consistent with exchanges using halts to cater to listed firms rather than to meet exchange objectives such as minimizing excess volatility or avoiding trades at off-equilibrium prices.     

Student Ethical Perceptions and Ethical Action Propensities: An Analysis of Situation Familiarity

Recently McCuddy and Peery (1996) have suggested that business students may not respond the same way to unfamiliar business ethical dilemmas as they would to more familiar academic ethical dilemmas. The purpose of this study was to present the same students with both unfamiliar business dilemmas as well as possibly more familiar academic dilemmas in order to examine this issue.Findings of the study revealed that students did not exhibit different perceptions of the unethical actions performed in the academic and accounting/business ethical vignettes. However, the students indicated that both they and their peers would be more likely to act unethically to resolve the dilemmas in the accounting/business cases than in the academic cases. This finding is troubling in that it suggests that students either feel less compelled to act ethically in business, or that they perceive that ethical standards in the business world are generally low when compared to their current educational environment. In addition, the students in the study maintained the same halo effect (i.e., the difference between an individual's perception of their likelihood of performing an unethical action compared to their perception of their peers' likelihood to perform the same unethical action) across the two types of ethical dilemma.