Making sense of complex data using interactive data visualization

An important role for accountants today is to provide decision support to senior management by assisting them in the analysis of large, complex data sets. Interactive data visualization (IDV) facilitates this process by allowing users to navigate, select, and display data via an easy-to-use interface often used as a component of data analytics. Given the increasing popularity of IDV as a tool for making sense of complex data, it is important that accountants become familiar with and learn how to use this technology. This case provides a hands-on opportunity to organize complex accounting data to create IDVs for decision makers to use. Further, the case enables students to understand the potential impact of IDVs on preparers and users of accounting information. Students will assume the role of a division controller in a hypothetical company and create an IDV to assist the chief executive officer (CEO) in decision making.     

Tax avoidance and ex ante cost of capital

This study examines the association between tax avoidance and ex ante cost of equity capital. Based on prior research, we develop two proxies for investors’ expectations of tax avoidance and explore whether deviations from those expectations result in higher ex ante cost of equity capital. We find that the ex ante cost of equity capital increases with tax avoidance that is either below or above investor expectations and that the increase is larger for tax avoidance that exceeds investors’ expectations. We then examine whether firms that alter their future tax avoidance exhibit a lowering of their ex ante cost of equity capital and find that tax avoidance decreases (increases) from the prior year for firms that were above (below) investors’ expectations in the prior year. These results are consistent with the trade‐off suggested by the Scholes and Wolfson framework and reinforce the notion that balancing tax benefits and non‐tax costs is an important feature of firms’ tax planning.     

Über die Grundformeln der Invaliditätsversicherung

Abstract

Zweck dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung des Formelbestandes der biometrischen Grössen der Invaliditätsversicheruugunter möglichst allgemeinen, sogleich näher zu präzisierenden Voraussetzungen. Bekanntlich hat die Invaliditätsversicherung in seinen verschiedellen Formen (Pensions- und Sozialversicherung, Mitversicherung zusätzlicher Invaliditatsrente oder Prämienfreiheit im Invaliditätsfall bei Kapitalversicherungen n. a. m.) mit vielen Schwierig-keiten zu kämpfen, und zwar sowohl in praktischer als auch in theoretischer Hinsicht. Auf die praktischen Schwierigkeiten solI hier nicht näher eingegangen werden, es genügt auf die diesbezügliche sehr umfangTeiche Literatur zu verweisen; im folgendell wird vorausgesetzt, dass bestimmte Konventionen hinsichtlich solcher Begriffe wie Aktivität (Enverbs- oder Dienstfähigkeit) und Invalidität festgelegt worden sind.     

The underpricing of gold mining initial public offerings

This study is motivated by How [How, J., 2000. The initial and long run performances of mining IPOs in Australia. Aust. J. Manage. 25, 95-118] who examined 100 Australian gold mining initial public offerings (IPOs) from 1979 to 1990 to report an average 119.51% underpricing return by those IPOs. This study updates that analysis by investigating 114 Australian gold mining IPOs from 1994 to 2004 and finds a significantly lower 13.3% average first day return. Options offered to underwriters can in part explain these returns as can the change in either the Gold Index or the All Ordinaries Index from the date of the prospectus to the date of listing.     

Integrating strength-weakness analysis into strategic planning

Strength-weakness assessment, which must be performed as a part of any strategic planning process, is presented in terms of a process, termed SWA, that involves managers in making the critical informational choices that are implicit in strategic assessments of strengths and weaknesses. The process is illustrated in terms of its underlying premises, their implications, its benefits, and an illustrative substantive framework that can be used to guide the process.     

Labor demand and trade reform in Latin America

Trade liberalization is thought to result in higher own-wage elasticities of labor demand, particularly for unskilled labor, with adverse implications for both labor market volatility and wage dispersion. The paper first argues that theoretically the link between liberalization and labor-demand elasticities is less clear than has previously been asserted. It then uses dynamic panel techniques to estimate labor-demand relations for manufacturing establishments in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico across periods of trade policy reform. The results do not strongly support the hypothesis that trade liberalization has a direct impact on own-wage elasticities.     

Teaching information technology alongside business analytics: Case study

Business analytics can be described as the statistical analysis of data to make decisions and meaningful conclusions. As the demand to advance the curriculum of undergraduate business education increases, courses in business analytics aim to provide students with fundamental skills in critical thinking. Educators have found that spreadsheet applications that include statistical features are easy to use and facilitate student learning. The authors analyzed student performance in an introductory business analytics course that used Microsoft Excel as a statistical tool by comparing scores from this introductory course with those from an information technology course in which only Excel skills were learned.