Timing in Accountability and Trust Relationships

In this study we examine (1) how a manager’s risk behavior is influenced by developing success (or failure) as an impending settling up deadline to report performance approaches, (2) how willingness to provide transparent accountability is negatively affected by perceived risk and eroding trust, and (3) how others interpret and respond to reduced transparency. As perceptions of high levels of risks suggest a lack of environmental control of a firm’s destiny in contemporary settings, we adopt a historical approach to examine these issues. In this respect we draw on primary sources found in library archives in Spain and Argentina. Our focal case refers to the contract signed and executed between the South Sea Company and Captain José de Salinas (1731–1735) to walk 408 Negroes from Buenos Aires to Potosí and sell them en route or at destination. Drawing on this evidence, we examine how bring about unethical conduct featured by increasingly risky business practices, and how eroding trust conditions lead to only summary record-keeping and delayed reporting. In turn, diminished accountability further undermined trust. Our findings have implications for further research in this area as well as for contemporary cases of accounting failures.     

The Amenity Value of English Nature: A Hedonic Price Approach

Using a hedonic property price approach, we estimate the amenity value associated with proximity to habitats, designated areas, domestic gardens and other natural amenities in England. There is a long tradition of studies looking at the effect of environmental amenities and disamenities on property prices. But, to our knowledge, this is the first nationwide study of the value of proximity to a large number of natural amenities in England. We analysed 1 million housing transactions over 1996–2008 and considered a large number of environmental characteristics. Results reveal that the effects of many of these environmental variables are highly statistically significant, and are quite large in economic magnitude. Gardens, green space and areas of water within the census ward all attract a considerable positive price premium. There is also a strong positive effect from freshwater and flood plain locations, broadleaved woodland, coniferous woodland and enclosed farmland. Increasing distance to natural amenities such as rivers, National Parks and National Trust sites is unambiguously associated with a fall in house prices. Our preferred regression specifications control for unobserved labour market and other geographical factors using Travel to Work Area fixed effects, and the estimates are fairly insensitive to changes in specification and sample. This provides some reassurance that the hedonic price results provide a useful representation of the values attached to proximity to environmental amenities in England. Overall, we conclude that the housing market in England reveals substantial amenity value attached to a number of habitats, designations, private gardens and local environmental amenities.     

High‐involvement work practices and environmental capabilities: How HIWPS create environmentally based sustainable competitive advantages

We study how high‐involvement work practices (HIWPs) may enhance a firm's economic performance through the development of a proactive environmental strategy (PES). HIWP systems facilitate the implementation of a PES by promoting employees' ability, motivation, and opportunities to behave in ways consistent with environmental management goals. In turn, PESs contribute to the development of strategic competitive advantages and drive superior performance. The results of our empirical analysis of 233 firms broadly confirm our hypotheses and suggest that although the direct effect of HIWPs on performance was not signifi cant in our sample, HIWPs do have a significant indirect effect through a PES as a mediator.     

Pandemic effects in the Solow growth model

We show how diseases can affect economic growth in a Solow growth model, with population growth and no technical progress, but modified to include a saving rate that depends on the individual health status. We successively insert this model into the SIS (susceptible–infected–susceptible) and SIR (susceptible–infected–recovered) models of disease spreading. In these two models, the spread of the infection proceeds according to the so-called basic reproductive number. This number determines in which of the two possible equilibria, the disease-free or the pandemic equilibrium, the economy ends. We show that output per capita is always lower in the pandemic steady state, which implies a contraction in the economy's production possibilities frontier.     

The influence of economic research on financial mathematics: Evidence from the last 25 years

This is an attempt to review some of the breakthroughs in economic research as they impacted the nascent field of financial mathematics over the last 25 years. Because of the prominent role of Finance and Stochastics in the definition of this emerging field, I try to view things through the lens of its published papers, and I try to stay away from financial engineering applications.