Discrimination and the Occupational Progress of Blacks since 1950

A bstract . Previous research found that the relative occupational position of Blacks in the North and South between 1910 and 1950 showed little change. Utilizing an index of occupational position, which was the fixed weighted averages of the proportion of Blacks or Whites in different skill categories, it was found that the occupational position of Blacks relative to Whites showed substantial improvement between 1950 and 1980 in both the North and South and the United States as a whole. Using an index of occupational position based on variable weights as well as an index of occupational standing provided additional support for this finding. The hypothesis that best explained the relative occupational progress of Blacks since 1950 was that it was achieved by public policy. Antidscriminatory measures enacted in the sixties increased the cost of discriminating and concomitantly decreased the desire or ability to discriminate.     

Exploring individual and institutional drivers of proactive environmentalism in the US Wine industry

Industry transformation related to environmental stewardship proceeds through multiple stages, and there is as of yet no clear understanding of the importance of certain drivers of transformation at different stages. We bring together previous environmental management research regarding individual‐ and institutional‐level drivers of environmental stewardship to develop a model and series of questions regarding proactive environmental behavior in the US wine industry. A qualitative research method, including interviews and focus groups, is used to test the model. At the early stage of environmental transformation in the wine industry, we find that managerial attitudes and norms, existing regulations, employee welfare and competitive pressures are all strong drivers of proactive environmental behavior. However, our multi‐level analysis suggests that drivers of environmentalism vary in relevance and relative importance and that future environmental management research needs to consider the relationship between drivers of environmentalism and the stage of an industry's environmental transformation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Estimating time-dependent means in dynamic models for cross-sections of time series

This paper considers a dynamic extension of the classical error components model based on the ideas of structural time series models. The study concentrates on the mean square error estimation of time-dependent means by using the Kalman filter, and on the relative efficiency of these estimators as a function of both the number of observations across units and time.     

The effect of size on prices

We present here an analysis of the effects that the firm's size, in the sense of the quantity of its assets, has on the price charged per asset. We show that the larger the firm is, the higher the price it charges. Our argument is not based on the traditional monopoly power associated with size but rather on the ability to bear risk.     

Audit Fees, Non-Audit Fees and Auditor Going-Concern Reporting Decisions in the United Kingdom

The accounting profession has come under increased scrutiny over recent years about the growing number of non-audit fees received from audit clients and the possible negative impact of such fees on auditor independence. The argument advanced is that providing substantial amounts of non-audit services to clients may make it more likely that auditors concede to the wishes of the client management when difficult judgments are made. Such concerns are particularly salient in the case of reporting decisions related to going-concern uncertainties for financially stressed clients.
 This study empirically examines audit reports provided to financially stressed companies in the United Kingdom and the magnitude of audit and non-audit service fees paid to the company's auditors. We find that the magnitude of both audit fees and non-audit fees are significantly associated with the issuance of a going-concern modified audit opinion. In particular, financially stressed companies with high audit fees are more likely to receive a going-concern modified audit opinion, whereas companies with high non-audit fees are less likely to receive a going-concern modified audit opinion. Additional analyses indicate that the results are generally robust across alternative model and variable specifications. Overall, evidence supports the contention that high non-audit fees have a detrimental effect on going-concern reporting judgments for financially stressed U.K. companies.     

Is international trust performance predictable over time? A note

We examine whether past return measures have any significant predictive ability for future returns of UK unit trusts with international equity objectives. We find significant positive persistence between the past return performance of the trust relative to its investment sector and future trust returns relative to its sector. This result holds at short‐run and long‐run return horizons. The persistence is stronger in trusts that perform well relative to their sector. Our findings suggest that the past return performance of the trust relative to their sector provides a useful guide to future return performance relative to their sector.     

The hiring of accounting and finance officers from audit firms: how did the market react?

This study investigates the market’s reaction to companies hiring accounting and finance officers directly from their external audit firms—the auditor-to-client hiring practice referred to as the “revolving door.” The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) eliminated this hiring practice, reflecting concerns that such appointments may impair audit and financial reporting quality. However, it was also argued that companies may have benefited from hiring individuals already familiar with their systems, organization and personnel. To determine the prevalence of this hiring practice and how shareholders viewed these appointments, we examine 3-day cumulative abnormal returns around the announcements of newly appointed accounting and finance officers over the period 1985–2002. We find that the proportion of revolving door hires is relatively low (only 6.1% of all hires in our sample), but that when they did occur the market valued the revolving door appointments more positively than other appointments. Further tests reveal that the positive market reaction to revolving door appointments is driven mainly by smaller companies, and that these appointments are not associated with lower financial reporting quality when assessing subsequent discretionary accruals or the receipt of an Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release (AAER). Overall, the low frequency of occurrence, investors’ positive perceptions, and the lack of association with deteriorated reporting quality indicate that the SOX restriction on revolving door appointments may have been unnecessary and will do little to protect shareholders.