The British 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis: a comparative study of public risk perceptions,trust and beliefs about government policy in two communities

This mixed methodology study examines public attitudes to risk and its management during the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic in Britain. A quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups were conducted to examine how two communities (Norwich and Bude) responded to the crisis. People were more concerned about a broad range of indirect consequences than about the direct (health) impacts of the disease, especially about the effects on the livelihood and future of rural economies. Moreover, people detected a complex of causes underlying the emergence of FMD, which suggests that the outbreak of FMD was considered a system failure, rather than something that could be blamed on one specific cause or actor. In general, people appeared to be critical about governmental handling of the FMD epidemic. Although there was some support for the government policy of slaughtering infected animals, the government was widely criticized for the way they carried out their policies. Only minor differences between the two communities Norwich and Bude were found. In particular, differences were found related to the government handling of the disease, reflected most notably in people's trust judgements. It is argued that these were the result of contextual differences in local experience, and debate on the crisis, in the two communities.     

Communication management during risk events and crises in a globalised world: Predictability of domestic media attention for calamities

While governments are concerned with controlling domestic safety issues and preventing resulting potential societal disruptions, events abroad can trigger similar effects. Globalisation magnifies the media attention for events, domestic and abroad, which poses new challenges for authorities. This paper suggests additional approaches for governments to address such situations. Based on interviews with experts and representatives of authorities and analysis of Dutch media attention for external safety events, this paper identifies criteria that can predict media attention and factors that may contribute to effective policy responses. Both can contribute to help to manage external safety risk events. The study shows that media response is predictable to a certain extent. This insight can be a tool in the wider range of measures for authorities to help manage a crisis situation and in particular strategies to cope with the media.     

Strategic pricing by Big 4 audit firms in private client segments

We examine how Big 4 auditors compete for new private clients. We find evidence suggesting that Big 4 auditors offer fee discounts to attract non‐Big 4 private clients to experience attributes of their brand name audit services. We also find that to attract clients from competing Big 4 suppliers, Big 4 auditors target fee discounts at clients in industries where they are the market leader. Our results further indicate that the Big 4 industry leaders target fee discounts to fast‐growing clients and are able to charge these clients significant price fee increases in the second mandate period (after 3 years).     

Do universal banks create value? Universal bank affiliation and company performance in Belgium, 1905-1909

We investigate the impact of universal bank relations on the performance and the risk of listed companies in Belgium in the period 1905-1909. Our results are consistent with the view that universal banks are efficient institutions which overcome problems of asymmetric association inevitably associated with external finance. We find that universal bank affiliation was positively linked with market-to-book ratio and return-on-assets. Performance was also positively related to the degree of bank involvement. Universal bank relations were significant and negatively correlated with volatility of return-on-assets. Finally, stock return performance, measured by the Sharpe ratio, was also significantly better for affiliated corporations.     

Public sector employment and the distribution of income

In this paper a simple general equilibrium model is presented to examine the impact of three forces on the distribution of (labor) income: (i) changes in educational composition of the labor force; (ii) changes in productivity of different educational groups; and (iii) changes in the volume of public sector employment. A numerical illustration of the model based on observed and derived figures for the Netherlands suggests that the impact of a growing public sector on the distribution of income might very well be substantial, resulting into more inequality of income, while the combination of the other two forces has resulted in less inequality of income.     

Linking turnover to organizational performance: the role of process conformance

ABSTRACT

Despite substantial evidence for the negative effect of turnover on performance, several studies also note offsetting positive effects hereby recognizing an optimal rate of turnover. These mixed results stress the need to examine under which conditions turnover is more harmful or beneficial to the organization. Using panel data from 30 divisions of the same agency, this study examines the impact of process conformance – the extent to which there are prescribed standards and rules related to the task. Results support a non-linear, inverted U-shaped relationship for those tasks with a high process conformance.     

Disclosure tone management and labor unions

By analyzing the influence of labor unions on the narrative content of corporate disclosures, we provide empirical evidence that managers deflate the tone of earnings press releases in order to convey to unions a less optimistic image of firm financial performance. We find that the tone of the qualitative information in earnings press releases is significantly less optimistic as the degree of unionization increases, and particularly when financial performance is strong. The results of quasi‐natural experiments suggest that labor unions causally affect the use of tone deflation, and the deflation is stronger during labor negotiations. Our findings also indicate that labor unions lead to a significant weakening of the signaling value of the tone of earnings press releases in predicting future performance.     

The BRICs and International Tax Governance: The Case of Automatic Exchange of Information

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the BRICs’ involvement in the adoption of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEoI) by the G20 and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as a major breakthrough in the global fight against tax evasion. Our main questions concern the BRICs’ willingness to accept AEoI, and their agreement to the Western-dominated OECD as its institutional forum. First, we examine the domestic drivers for BRICs’ participation, as their statist model of capitalism reveals strong disincentives to join this regime and the fact that the budgetary consequences of the global financial crisis were less severe than in Western states. We argue that their agreement on AEoI results more from their persistent balance-of-payments vulnerability to illicit capital than from fiscal weakness, while also discussing the possibilities for mock compliance. Second, we review the role of the non-reciprocal US foreign account tax compliance act (FATCA) in shaping the BRICs’ preference for a multilateral AEoI-regime centred around the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS). Last, we show that the BRICs’ acceptance of the OECD resulted from pragmatic interests and receiving ownership over the process, together with the absence of coercive mechanisms within the CRS-regime that could fundamentally undermine their sovereignty in this domain.     

What drives leverage in leveraged buyouts? An analysis of European leveraged buyouts’ capital structure

This paper examines leverage in European private equity‐led leveraged buyouts (LBOs). We use a unique, self‐constructed sample of 126 European private equity (PE)‐sponsored buyouts completed between June 2000 and June 2007. We find that determinants derived from classical capital structure theories do not explain leverage in LBOs, while they do drive leverage in a control group of comparable public firms. Rather, we document that leverage levels in LBOs are related to the prevailing conditions in the debt market. In addition, our results indicate that reputed private equity sponsors use more debt and that secondary buyouts have higher leverage levels.