Are Private Sector Standards Enough? An Example From Public Sector Hospitals in New Zealand

The aim of this paper is to assess whether and to what extent public sector hospital reports in New Zealand disclose information which best support the public interest. We analyse the content of the annual reports of Crown Health Enterprises (CHEs) for 1994, 1995 and 1996. It is concluded that the developments in public sector accounting, with respect to the public interest, have not permeated these reports to any significant extent. The following changes would improve these reportings: Reports providing costs relative to non-financial accomplishments; removing the traditional 'revenue' disclosure; disclosing non-financial as well as financial resources and obligations; providing further disaggregation in the reports; disclosing budgetary information and valuing assets alternatively. Implications of the lens used for the analysis are also considered.     

Credit constraints and smallholder dairy production in the East African highlands: application of a switching regression model

Accurate assessment of farmers' credit constraint condition is important in order to understand the circumstances under which credit would have its greatest impact. In this study a switching regression model was used to determine the impact of credit on smallholder dairy farms in the East African highlands using farm level data from Ethiopia and Kenya. Farmers were classified as credit constrained or credit non-constrained based on their responses from the farm level surveys. No consistent relationship was found between farmers' credit constraint condition and their borrowing status. Most of the variation in milk output per farm was explained by the number of crossbred milking cows in the dairy herd. As credit is likely to facilitate investment in crossbred dairy cows it will have substantial impacts on smallholder dairy farms especially if it is targeted to credit constrained farms.     

NON-LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS

Whereas organizational learning and unlearning enjoy a well-established reputation in organization theory, non-learning has rarely if ever been discussed. In this article organizational non-learning is characterized, and techniques for non-learning are identified. It is argued that nonlearning organizations have developed a proficiency in ignoring. They may ignore problems and solutions to problems, as well as their own attitudes to these problems and solutions. Non-learning organizations accomplish this essentially by placing problems and potentially problematic issues with somebody else, to be attended to in the future. Their behavior is supported and reinforced by procedures: by the particular distribution of responsibility that procedures entail, and by the fact that procedures recur. A non-learning option allows for organizational discretion. Organizations are free to account for their work in a contradictory manner — realistic and idealistic at the same time. They are free to learn slowly and to take advantage of their learning.     

The information content of option implied volatility surrounding the 1997 Hong Kong stock market crash

This study examines the information conveyed by options and examines their implied volatility at the time of the 1997 Hong Kong stock market crash. The author determines the efficiency of implied volatility as a predictor of future volatility by comparing it to other leading indicator candidates. These include volume and open interest of index options and futures, as well as the arbitrage basis of index futures. Using monthly, nonoverlapping data, the study reveals that implied volatility is superior to those variables in forecasting future realized volatility. The study also demonstrates that a simple signal extraction model could have produced useful warning signals prior to periods of extreme volatility. These results indicate that the options market is highly efficient informationally. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:555–574, 2007     

DEPOSITOR DISCIPLINE, REGULATORY CONTROL, AND A BANKING CRISIS: A STUDY OF INDIAN URBAN COOPERATIVE BANKS

ABSTRACT ** :  Urban Cooperative banks in India (UCBs) play an important role in mobilizing resources from lower and middle-income groups and in providing direct finance to small entrepreneurs and traders. Motivated by previous empirical work on depositor disciplining behaviour, this paper examines whether depositors punish weak UCBs by withdrawing deposits during and after a banking crisis. In addition, the paper investigates the impact of tightened prudential standards imposed by the Indian central bank (RBI) on the ratio of investments to loan assets and on the rate of growth of loans. Our sample of 45 UCBs is partitioned into strong and weak banks and subjected to econometric testing. Our analysis reveals that a banking crisis is associated with a contraction in deposits across the sample. However, weak banks appear to be disciplined by depositors during election years. We also find weak support for the contention that banks reduced loans when faced with intensified regulatory scrutiny in the aftermath of a crisis.     

RISK DECISIONS FOR BEEF PRODUCTION SYSTEMS IN THE COLOMBIAN SAVANNAS

A beef simulation model was used to examine a range of production possibilities for increasing the output of extensive ranching systems in the tropical savannas of eastern Colombia through the use of sown grass-legume pastures of higher inherent digestibility than that of the native species. Generalised stochastic dominance was used to compare some promising alternatives with the unimproved savanna-based production system and with each other. As the planning horizon of the decision maker was reduced, so variability, measured as the coefficient of variation of output, increased significantly. The impact of risk on the long-term acceptability of a complete investment was limited.