Wine Tax Reform: The Impact of Introducing a Volumetric Excise Tax for Wine

The recent Henry tax review recommended substantial changes to Australian alcohol taxation policy. Here, the implications for the Australian wine industry of the Henry tax review's recommendations are explored using a computable general equilibrium model. The results show that: (i) replacement of the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) with a revenue‐neutral volumetric excise tax would have a small negative impact on the wine industry; (ii) removal of the WET rebate would have a substantial negative impact on small wineries; and (iii) applying the packaged beer excise rate across all alcoholic beverages would have a notable negative impact on the wine industry.     

Accountancy before the fall: The AICPA vision project and related professional enterprises

This paper examines the AICPA Vision Project, understanding this both as a professional project aimed at repositioning the identity and practice of accountants, and as a window into the activities of professional bodies before recent financial scandals and regulatory reform. Archival and interview material is used to analyze the Vision Project and explicate its meaning and significance. The project is understood in terms of work by Giddens and Abbot concerning the development and repositioning of professional claims. The Vision Project may ultimately be seen as a failure, with professional bodies now distancing themselves from the Vision Project’s goals. Nonetheless, the project itself presents an opportunity to understand the mechanics by which professional bodies seek to expand the domain of practice, even if such exceeds the limits of their technical competency.     

THE DEMAND FOR BEER,WINE AND SPIRITS: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE

Abstract The demand for alcohol literature is vast and much conflicting information about the nature of the demand for alcoholic beverages has been published. This paper presents a survey of the literature, and then uses the technique of meta‐regression analysis to establish insights into the nature of the demand for beer, wine and spirits. Unlike previous meta‐studies of the demand for alcoholic beverages this study adjusts for the precision of each elasticity estimate. The analysis presented suggests reported elasticity estimates will be influenced by such factors as estimation technique, data frequency and time period under consideration. With respect to time, the findings suggest that the demand for alcoholic beverages has become less inelastic since the mid‐1950s and that the income elasticity has been falling since the mid‐1960s. The analysis also found support for the idea that alcohol as a commodity group is a necessity, and that consumers respond to price discounting with inventory behaviour rather than true substitution behaviour. Little support is found for the idea that the demand for alcoholic beverages varies fundamentally across most countries, although wine may be an exception.     

Instructor Control in an automated environment: a reconsideration with empirical evidence

Professionals can be distinguished by the degree of control they exercise over their clientele. This control enables professionals to invoke a systematic body of knowladge on behalf of those in need of these services, and serves as the basis for professional monopolies and prestige. Applied to the classroom, instructors exert control over the educational process in a variety of ways. This paper reports on the utilization of an expert system to reduce several dimentions of instructor control at a major university in the United States. It finds that the relaxation of instructor control may be a desirable means of attaining educational goals.     

A commentary on “Why DCF capital budgeting is bad for business and why business schools should stop teaching it”

‘Towards a conceptual framework for auditing’ suggest a conceptual framework, which it is hoped may help in the teaching and understanding of external attest auditing. Briloff's (1986) view that ‘as concern for ecology and the wellbeing of consumers in posterity intensifies, this responsibility (accountability) will extend to the total society and environment’ is taken as the philosophical departure point for the conceptual framework.

The paucity of attempts to develop a unifying theory of auditing is noted and a brief history of developments is traced commencing with Mautz and Sharaf in 1961. Flint's 1988 work (The Philosophy and Principles of Auditing) is adopted and developed. Each of Flint's concepts is examined in some detail to consider its significance in the conceptual framework and its implications for audit practice. Reasons for changes from earlier frameworks are offered.

In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the framework as an holistic tool of analysis, the concepts identified are then related to the Auditing Standards and Guidelines of our national professional accounting association, the New Zealand Society of Accountants (NZSA). Whilst considerable correlation is noted, some inconsistencies are also identified. It is suggested that the standards and guidelines may not have derived from any philosophical analysis and that the inconsistencies between the concepts and the standards appear to have resulted from a lack of a clear theory as to what constitutes a standard and what constitutes a guideline; higher and lower order ideas would appear to fall somewhat indiscriminately in both. It is noted that this analysis may be repeated in respect of the auditing standards of any professional organization.

It is concluded that the application of these concepts can lead to more informed discussion of some of the controversial issues that face the auditing profession at this time, and to an holistic understanding of the discipline of auditing as well as of professional audit promulgations. It is recommended that standard setters should give thought to the adoption of a more holistic approach to standard setting, grounded in a conceptual framework, and that auditing educators should adopt such a framework in order to assist students towards an understanding of the role and process of auditing and away from the memorizing of techniques.