MUNICIPAL CONSTRUCTION SPENDING: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION

Despite widespread concern and discussion, no consensus exists concerning the causes of the "infrastructure crisis" or its implications for the efficiency of government decision-making more generally. We investigate several models of the determination of local public capital expenditures. Using Euler equation methods, we cannot reject the hypothesis that construction spending is determined by unconstrained, forward looking municipal planning. Consistent with this result, the stochastic structure of resource flows is an important feature of the determination of construction spending. Only unanticipated changes in a community's resources alter its demand for structures, with an unanticipated increase of one dollar increasing current construction spending by about 5.6 cents.     

Properties of Economic Income in a Private Information Setting*

Abstract. This paper adopts a valuation perspective within an asymmetric information setting and explores properties of economic income. The optimal intertemporal contract induces an accrual component of income which would not exist absent the information problem. The contracting solution introduces a dampening effect—if cash flow increases by one dollar, income increases by less than one dollar. Thus, the accrual is inversely related to cash flows. Further, this dampening is greater for more favorable cash outcomes. Résumé. Les auteurs adoptent la perspective de l'évaluation en situation d'asymétrie de l'information et explorent les propriétés du bénéfice économique. Le contrat intertemporel optimal fait intervenir une amplification du bénéfice qui n'existerait pas si ce n'était de la présence du problème d'information. La solution contractuelle amène un effet atténuateur — c'est-à-dire qu'à une augmentation du flux monétaire de un dollar correspond une augmentation du bénéfice de moins de un dollar. Ainsi, l'amplification est en relation inverse avec les flux monétaires. En outre, l'atténuation est plus marquée dans le cas de résultats monétaires plus avantageux.     

ARTIFACTUAL BIAS IN CONSUMER RESEARCH

Cognitive complexity has been found to affect the scope and quality of consumer information search. This research demonstrates that the characteristics that define cognitive complexity may result in an unintended subject bias in consumer information studies using college students as subject populations.     

Fritz Schmidt (1882–1950) and his pioneering work of current value accounting in comparison to Edwards and Bell's theory*

Abstract. One of the tasks of this paper is to draw attention to Fritz Schmidt and his pioneering work in current value accounting which anticipated essential features of both Edwards and Bell's (1961) work by 40 years, and the current cost legislations and standards of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada by roughly six decades. Above all, I am trying to relate Schmidt's work to that of Edwards and Bell, thereby clarifying some misunderstandings that still surround this relationship. Schmidt needs a champion on the North American continent, and I have tried to assume this often misunderstood task. By direct reference to and translations from Schmidt's magnum opus, I attempt to demonstrate that Schmidt's theory possesses the following qualities:

• 1 It distinguishes clearly between general purchasing power adjustments and current value adjustments.
• 2 It does eliminate realized holding gains (cost savings) from the operating section, and presents an income concept equivalent to the “Current Operating Profit” of Edwards and Bell.
• 3 It clearly separates operating gains from holding gains (though rarely endeavors to separate real from fictional holding gains, since it favors the physical capital maintenance basis of income measurement).
• 4 It applies current costs also to manufacturing operations.
• 5 It does not fail to deal with the current costs of other inputs, and generally abandons the historical cost basis.

Résumé. Un des objectifs de cet article, est de faire ressortir le travail de pionier de Fritz Schmidt sur la comptabilité à la valeur actuelle qui anticipa les caractéristiques essentielles des travaux de Edwards et Bell (1961) de 40 ans et les lois et normes sur le coût actuel du Royaume-Uni, des Etats-Unis et du Canada d'approximativement six décades. Avant tout, j'essaie de relier les travaux de Schmidt à ceux de Edwards et Bell, afin de clarifier certaines méprises qui existent toujours relatives à cette relation. Schmidt a besoin d'un champion sur le continent nord américain et j'ai essayé d'assumer cette tâche souvent mal comprise. En me référant aux travaux de Schmidt et à certaines traductions, j'essaie de démontrer que la théorie de Schmidt possède les qualités suivantes:

• 1 Elle distingue clairement les ajustements du pouvoir général d'achat des ajustements de la valeur actuelle.
• 2 Elle élimine les gains de détention réalisés (économies de coûts) de la section exploitation et présente un concept de revenu équivalent au “Bénéfice hors postes non courants” de Edwards et Bell.
• 3 Elle sépare clairement les gains d'exploitation des gains de détention (quoiqu'elle ne s'efforce pas de séparer les gains de détention réels des fictifs, puisqu'elle favorise la base de la préservation de la capacité de production pour mesurer le revenu).
• 4 Elle utilise les coûts actuels aussi pour les exploitations manufacturières.
• 5 Elle n'oublie pas de traiter des coûts actuels des autres intrants et abandonne de façon générale la base du coût historique.

     

Commentary: Accounting Schism or Synthesis? A Challenge for the Conditional‐Normative Approach*

This paper explains the conditional‐normative accounting methodology (CoNAM) and its origin, offering a comparison of the normative, positive, and conditional‐normative approaches. It also discusses the difference between the pragmatic versus a more scientific treatment of CoNAM. However, the main thrust of the paper is directed toward the schism in academic accounting between the positive accounting theory (PAT) and the critical interpretive view (CIV). To better understand CIV, the paper attempts to explain the philosophic roots that reach from Husserl and some Marxist writers to Foucault, Derrida, and Baudrillard. This schism seems to call for a new synthesis that avoids extreme positions but draws upon insights from both camps. In this search, CoNAM might be helpful by exploring means‐end relations and connecting value judgements to accounting theory in a fairly “objective” way.     

Product Knowledge and Product Involvement as Moderators of the Effects of Information on Purchase Decisions: A Case Study Using the Perfect Information Frontier Approach

This study ascertains the extent to which consumers achieve highest value-for-money under different conditions. Perfect Information Frontier Approach is applied to examine the influences of providing consumers with information on their purchase decisions, with allowance for the joint effects of prior product knowledge and product involvement on the provided information. A 2 (provided information: simple vs. complex) × 2 (prior product knowledge: novice vs. expert) × 2 (involvement: high vs. low) factorial design was employed. Data from 282 survey respondents illustrate that experts were more likely to be persuaded by complex product information than by simple information, while novices reacted similarly to both simple and complex information. The effects of providing complex information to involved novices and providing simple information to involved experts showed the least impact.     

'Fair Value' for Financial Instruments: How Erasing Theory is Leading to Unworkable Global Accounting Standards for Performance Reporting

The LASC is pursuing proposals for accounting for financial instruments that are conceptually flawed and unworkable in practice. "Fair value" has been elevated to a catch-all concept to resolve measurement issues objectively. Adoption of fair value, as cuwently interpreted by standard-setters (eg, by the FASB in Concepts Statement No. 7, issued in February 2000), threatens to drive out a long-understood, theory-based approach to the rationales for cuwent value accounting — founded on "deprival value" — that has recently been comprehensively restated in Accounting Theory Monograph 10, issued by the Australian Accounting Research Foundation in 1998, and reaffirmed in the UK Accounting Standards Board's Statement of Principles for Financial Repovting, issued in December 1999.