A wicksellian indicator of monetary policy

This paper compares actual U.S. monetary policy with an ideal policy based upon Wicksell's theory of natural and market rates of interest. For the period 1952–1971, this comparison indicates that actual policies behaved in a distinctly pro-cyclical manner with the result that monetary policies amplified the magnitude of the business cycles. The explanation offered suggests that this stems from the central bank's attempt to stabilize the interest rate which is consistent with one of the paper's findings of a highly significant positive relationship between changes in the natural rate of interest and changes in the monetary base.     

Interactions and arrangements in the process of informing

Based on year long participant observation study, this paper attempts to explain how managers are informed or inform themselves. In contrast to the hierarchical systems model of organisations and behaviour typically adopted by information designers, a model of the social order is presented. Adopting a symbolic interactionist perspective, the way managers are informed is defined as a process of informing in which managers construct and maintain arrangements to inform each other and themselves. These arrangements to inform employ the media of interactions, observations, personal record keeping and attending meetings. In addition to describing the process of informing, supported with qualitative data from the research setting, a number of implications of this perspective for information design are considered.     

Regulation as a means for the social control of technology

The argument that regulation is a necessary, though controversial, component of technology policy is discussed in detail. Ib addition to the regulation of technology, various other regulatory policies, such as market regulation, affect the development of technology. Various types of direct regulation and their conditions of operation are discussed. It is shown that regulation can afect technological innovation positively by providing a surrogate market. The paper serves as an introduction to this special issue and shows how the different contributions fit into a general framework of regulatory effects on technolgy. Regulation as a factor in competition is discussed, particularly in the context of developing countries.     

Board gender diversity and dividend policy in Australian listed firms: the effect of ownership concentration

Asia Pacific Journal of Management - We examine the association between board gender diversity and corporate dividend payout. Our results suggest that although board gender diversity impacts...     

Can Economists Forecast Exchange Rates? The Debate Re‐Visited: The Case of the USD/GBP Market

In the debate on forecasting exchange rates, critics claimed that traditional macroeconomic models could not outperform a random walk in post‐sample forecasts. Perceived deficiencies include inadequate allowance for simultaneity, and expectations hypotheses inconsistent with the structure of models employed. This paper re‐visits the debate, first to address critics' major concerns, and second because in the view of the present authors, the debate closed on an unduly pessimistic note. This paper develops a simultaneous, rational expectations model of the USD/GBP market, with functional relationships for hedgers, speculators and a spot rate equation. The model is estimated with data contemporaneous to the debate, including a period during which the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission did not collect data on traders' open positions. Using the results of post‐debate research on tests for stationarity with missing observations, the model, using only public information, outperforms a random walk in post‐sample forecasts of the spot rate. Recent microstructure models of the exchange rate based on order flow have re‐kindled the forecasting debate. The model developed here, however, is differentiated from these microstructure models, first because order flow utilises both public and private information, and second because the microstructure models do not directly address critics' concerns.     

On Compliance with Ethical Standards in Tax Return Preparation

The Statements on Responsibilities in Tax Practice (SRTPs) provide guidance to the CPA when making decisions in tax practice. Many of these decisions are ethical in nature and have implications for tax compliance. In this study, a survey methodology is used to test whether the SRTPs affect decisions that CPAs make. The findings suggest that a clear majority of CPAs follow the SRTPs when making ethical decisions relating to tax return preparation and that CPAs follow the SRTPs more often than unlicensed preparers on half the issues tested. However, a statistically significant number of CPAs do not follow the SRTPs and, CPAs do not follow the SRTPs any more often than unlicensed tax preparers on three issues.     

Self‐selection,endogeneity, and the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance

This study focuses explicitly on the methodological implications of the endogenous theory of governance as applied to firm performance. In particular, if firms choose their governance structures as part of a constrained performance maximization process, then application of an appropriate empirical methodology should reveal statistical evidence of such behavior. In this study we take advantage of the endogenous switching regression model framework to determine whether such predicted optimizing behavior can be corroborated by the data. The model allows us to test explicitly for selection behavior in accordance with comparative advantage and, concomitantly, the presence of selectivity bias, in estimating the impact of CEO duality on firm performance. The selection and performance equations are modeled in accordance with the extant accounting, economics, and management literature on the impact of the dual governance structure on firm performance. Overall, we tested four performance measures for the entire sample of firm‐year observations as well as for the largest three industries in terms of sample sizes. The major finding, robust in all cases, is that there is no evidence to support a contention that CEO duality is a structure purposefully chosen for optimizing performance. If firms are indeed choosing the dual leadership structure, they are doing so for reasons other than improving performance from what it would be otherwise. In fact, for performance measured as market return and earnings per share, there is evidence of a significant selectivity bias that acts to lower performance below what it would have been under random assignment. For performance measured by Tobin's q and return on assets, we found neither evidence of selectivity bias, nor any significant marginal performance impacts of CEO duality. Such findings are inconsistent with an endogenous governance theory, at least when applied to firm performance. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.