AUDITOR OBJECTIVITY: THE EFFECT OF PRIOR INVOLVEMENT IN AUDIT PROGRAMME DESIGN

This study tests whether the involvement of independent auditors in the design of an audit programme affects their subsequent audit work relating to that audit area. Two groups of subjects played roles in designing partial audit programmes for a particular account. They also evaluated partial audit programmes for another account designed by someone else. A third group merely evaluated partial audit programmes for both accounts. All subjects were informed that both audit programmes were implemented and of potential problems that could be attributed to either of the two accounts. Subjects were asked to allocate 15 hours to investigate either or both of the accounts in question. Our hypothesis was that auditors who had a role in designing a partial audit programme would allocate less audit effort to that account than auditors who had no role in the programme design. Comparisons of the hours allocated provided some support for this hypothesis.     

Fallacies in the interpretation of a european monetary aggregate

Conclusions This paper leads to the following two conclusions regarding the role of a European monetary aggregate in stages two and three of the process towards EMU. First, the relatively high stability of the demand for a European monetary aggregate is no indication for a high degree of currency substitution. Calls for a more symmetric monetary coordination scheme during stage two therefore cannot be based on this argument. Second, present estimates of European money demand functions give an overly optimistic idea of money demand stability after EMU.     

Growth,distribution and motivation in LDCs

Economic growth leads, according to Kuznets, at first to glaring income disparities and only when a certain state of development has been reached to a levelling of incomes. Translating this thesis to the developing countries, one would have to assume that there exists a constant conflict of objectives between an equitable income distribution and increased economic growth. The author examines various alternative explanations of the personal distribution of income to answer the question how the distribution objective can be attained and what effect certain measures of distribution policy have on growth.     

An analysis of changes in bank market structure

Conclusion Several conclusions may be derived from this study. First, there is a great deal of randomness in the determination of market structure. Thus, regulatory authorities also need to look to performance variables directly, as well as structural variables. Second, merger policy at present seems to be effective; at least, mergers do not lead to increases in concentration. Third, the results with respect to the holding company and branching variables suggest that statewide banking in the short run leads to increased concentration in local markets. These results may, however, be only true in the short run. Long run effects may strengthen the short run effects or may work in the opposite direction. Further research should be devoted to the long run determinants of market structure. The opinions in this paper are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Board or its staff. Financial support from the Center for Public Policy Research of the University of Florida is gratefully acknowledged.