AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE,AUDIT QUALIFICATIONS AND THE PROVISION OF NON-AUDIT SERVICES: A NOTE

This paper presents the results of a study designed to investigate the question of whether there is the potential for an appearance of auditor independence impairment when higher levels of non-audit services are provided to audit clients. This question was investigated by analysing the audit reports for a sample of publicly listed companies over the period 1980 to 1989. The results of the analysis indicate that the auditors of companies not receiving an audit qualification of any type over the period derived a significantly higher proportion of their remuneration from non-audit services fees than the auditors of companies receiving at least one audit qualification. This result is driven by the non-Top 100 companies in the research sample. These findings could suggest that auditors are less likely to qualify a given company's financial statements when higher levels of non-audit services fees are derived. This could convey the view that the independence of the auditors of these companies may have been compromised.     

Revitalising Group Accounting: Improving Accountability

This article questions conventional consolidation accounting's effectiveness as a governance mechanism. Disclosure of the aggregate financial outcomes of a set of related business entities is of commercial importance. Currently that information is disseminated through financial statements underpinned by assumptions contradicting fundamental principles of corporate law and contestable propositions of commercial fact. Corporate accountability could be improved if the traditional approach to consolidation accounting were supplanted by reporting on an individual company basis, with assets marked to market, augmented with a statistical annexure of assets and liabilities of all related entities and a related companies' cross-claims matrix. Recent revelations related to Enron's collapse reinforce the need for improved corporate group accountability mechanisms.     

The administration of union business: the role of the Certification Officer

This commentary reports on the role of the Certification Officer in the regulation of trade union internal affairs. Debate concerning the amount of external supervision of the internal affairs of trade unions has been a recurring theme in labour law for many years.     

MICROCOMPUTER SOFTWARE COSTING LESS THAN $1000 FOR ECONOMIC AND MULTI-ATTRIBUTE DECISION ANALYSIS∗

Commodity price simulation is useful in many engineering economics applications, yet discrete approximations of the continuous stochastic processes used in modeling commodity prices are not always straightforward. This article describes the exact solution for discretely simulating the Schwartz and Smith (2000 Schwartz, E. and Smith, J. E. 2000. Short-term variations and long-term dynamics in commodity prices. Management Science, 46(7): 893–911. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) two-factor model of commodity prices.     

Carbon Subsidies,Taxes and Optimal Forest Management

We consider the effect of carbon credit payment schemes on forest owners’ land use and harvest decisions. We study two possible credit allocation regimes: one where credits are allocated according to the actual amount of carbon sequestered by the trees on a piece of land and another where credits are allocated according to the long-run potential to sequester carbon on the land. Using a real options model with uncertain future timber prices, we examine the effect on the timing of harvests and the replanting-abandonment decision. We show that both schemes discourage deforestation. Compensating growers for actual carbon sequestration leads to longer rotation periods between harvests, while basing compensation only on the long-run potential level of sequestration induces shorter rotation periods. The former scheme leads to greater benefits of carbon sequestration at lower cost than the latter scheme. Although inducing moderate levels of sequestration is expensive under both schemes, the cost falls dramatically when the level of payments climbs above some threshold. Indeed, providing the payments are sufficiently generous, carbon credit payment schemes offer an effective means of increasing carbon sequestration. The views expressed in this paper are strictly those of the authors and do not represent the views of the New Zealand Commerce Commission. We thank Lewis Evans and two anonymous referees for many very helpful comments. Kevin Counsell, Steen Videbeck, and participants at an ISCR seminar also provided useful suggestions. Fletcher Forests Ltd and the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry generously provided data.