Productivity and Performance Indicators in Enterprise Agreements

The design and implementation of performance measurement systems is a major interest of management accountants. In recent years many organisations have made enterprise agreements with their employees, often specijjing performance indicators on which to base wage increases. This paper explains how performance indicators are used in enterprise agreements and considers alternative definitions of indicators and their limitations. It argues that performance indicators in enterprise agreements should be consistent with wider organisational performance measurement systems, particularly those having a strategic focus.     

Disappearing Dividends: Implications for the Dividend–Price Ratio and Return Predictability

The conventional dividend–price ratio is highly persistent, and the literature reports mixed evidence on its role in predicting stock returns. We argue that the decreasing number of firms with a traditional dividend‐payout policy is responsible for these results, and develop a model in which the long‐run relationship between the dividends and stock price is time varying. An adjusted dividend–price ratio that accounts for the time‐varying long‐run relationship is considerably less persistent. Furthermore, the predictive regression model that employs the adjusted dividend–price ratio as a regressor outperforms the random‐walk model. These results are robust with respect to the firm size.     

Knowledge of iron nutrition by university students in Japan,Korea, Thailand and Indonesia

Current advances in iron nutrition are remarkable. This study was carried out to determine the level of knowledge among the university and college students in Japan, Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. Although about 90% of the students participating in the study knew that iron deficiency causes anaemia, they have poor overall knowledge about iron nutrition. More Korean students believed that milk and its products are a good source of iron and the promoter for its absorption. This may be attributed to misunderstandings engendered by the mass media. Iron nutrition education in home economics classes at primary and junior high schools is important, and home economics teachers in South-east Asia must emphasize this importance.     

The Geography of Block Acquisitions

Using a large sample of partial block acquisitions, we examine the importance of geographic proximity in corporate governance and target returns. We find that block acquirers have a strong preference for geographically proximate targets and acquirers that purchase shares in such targets are more likely to engage in post‐acquisition target governance activities than are remote block acquirers. Moreover, the targets of these acquirers realize higher announcement returns and better post‐acquisition operating performance than do targets of other types of acquirers, particularly when they face greater information asymmetries.     

Social Security,Government Finance,and Savings*

This paper considers the impact of social security and the government financing mix on saving behaviour and aggregate economic activity. The theoretical argument for the neutrality of these actions is shown to have validity only if we consider the economy as behaving like a composite individual. Particular individuals do not face the same marginal rates of substitution and transformation as the hypothetical composite, due to corner solutions, illusions, and important distribution effects. Empirically, neutrality for the whole economy depends on the relative strengths of the offsetting forces faced by the individuals. Our findings with Australian data suggest that neither the level of aged pensions, nor the government financing mix, have substantial real effects on aggregate saving behaviour.     

Predictable Stock Returns: The Role of Small Sample Bias

Predictive regressions are subject to two small sample biases: the coefficient estimate is biased if the predictor is endogenous, and asymptotic standard errors in the case of overlapping periods are biased downward. Both biases work in the direction of making t-ratios too large so that standard inference may indicate predictability even if none is present. Using annual returns since 1872 and monthly returns since 1927 we estimate empirical distributions by randomizing residuals in the VAR representation of the variables. The estimated biases are large enough to affect inference in practice, and should be accounted for when studying predictability.