Trade Liberalisation of Intermediate Inputs

This paper considers the effects of tariff cuts in the intermediate inputs market. Traditional trade theories predict that upstream industries would contract and downstream industries would expand. In contrast, new trade theories show that trade liberalisation of the intermediate inputs market may expand both upstream and downstream industries.     

Competencies for the introductory accounting sequence

The purpose of this study was to examine the competencies demanded and supplied by the introductory accounting sequence. A random sample of Accounting faculty was surveyed to determine the topic coverage believed to be important to students majoring in accounting and the extent of conceptual knowledge and technical ability that accounting majors should achieve for each topic. To provide greater insight, the results of this survey were compared to the results of a survey of Finance, Management and Marketing faculty that used the same research instrument. Among the findings is that the most important competencies demanded by Accounting faculty are those related to financial accounting topics. The competencies demanded by Finance faculty are most closely aligned with those demanded by Accounting faculty, while Management and Marketing faculty demand more competencies related to managerial accounting topics. These and other findings should prove useful in the design and development of the introductory accounting sequence.     

Debt Reclassification and Capital Market Consequences

Abstract:  We provide initial evidence on the economic consequences of a relatively large, fully disclosed, and apparently purposeful reporting decision: the balance sheet classification of short-term obligations as long-term debt in accordance with Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 6 . We examine a sample of 1,684 American firm-year observations between the years 1989 and 2000 to determine whether reclassification is associated with debt-ratings and equity values. We find that reclassification increases the likelihood of a subsequent debt-rating downgrade. We also find that market value decreases with increases in the amount reclassified, and that equity value is higher after firms cease reclassifying short-term obligations as long-term debt, compared with other firm-years in the sample. Thus, changes in debt classification are empirically linked in predictable directions to subsequent changes in debt ratings and stock values. Taken together, our results show that debt classification is an important publicly-available indicator that may be useful to capital market participants. We discuss several research extensions including the implications of our findings to European companies that convert to IAS in 2005.     

Uniformly bounded sufficient sets and quasi‐extreme social welfare functions

The set of alternatives is infinite. If the social welfare function is transitive‐valued and minimal sufficient sets are uniformly bounded, then there are arbitrarily large finite subsets of the feasible set, and a rich sub‐domain of profiles, within which a reduction in the scope of someone's dictatorial power must be accompanied by an equal increase in the fraction of the pairs that are socially ordered without consulting anyone's preferences.     

Agency / Client Relationshipsas Seen by Influential on Both Sides

Abstract

This article concerns a subject of interest and concern to both advertising agency executives and their clients; i.e., how the two of them feel about each other and themselves in terms of the agency/client relation-ship. These perceptions and feelings were gleaned from a survey of agency leaders and major users of agency services. Based on the findings, some suggestions and directions are offered for making the agency/client dyad more harmonious.