Beyond budgeting ante portas,ControllingWorld am 31.3. und 1.4.

Neben dem Congress der Controller und Horváths Controller-Forum versucht sich die ControllingWorld von Management Circle als drittes gro?es Treffen der Controller-Community zu etablieren. Es geht nicht so famili?r zu wie in München und auch die Weihe eines Controlling-Papstes wie in Stuttgart fehlt. Aber als Tendenzbarometer hat auch die Bad Homburger ControllingWorld ihren Platz.     

Information and energy policy preferences: a survey experiment on public opinion about electricity pricing reform in rural India

A common argument for the lack of economic reform in developing countries is popular opposition. If current economic policies are dysfunctional, could information about alternatives sway the voters? We examine if a simple argument emphasizing the need to increase electricity prices for improved supply can change public opinion in the case of India’s power sector reforms. The evidence comes from a survey experiment in rural Uttar Pradesh, which is both India’s largest state and has one of the lowest levels of household electrification. As expected, people respond to information about the relationship between electricity pricing, capacity investment, and reliability of supply by increasing their support for higher prices. However, no corresponding increase is observed for privatization of electricity generation. For external validity, we analyze an existing national survey on electricity privatization conducted in 2004/2005, finding patterns that support our argument.     

Einkommens- und Vermögensverteilung — zu ungleich?

The distribution of income and wealth in Germany grew increasingly unequal until the beginning of the financial crisis. But inequality has not risen in either Germany or Switzerland since 2005. Nevertheless, Germans overestimate inequality. The German gap between reality and perception of inequality is important to investigate, as the subjective assessment of inequality influences redistribution preferences. Rising inequality may damage social stability and democracy, but it is unclear whether economists are able to assess a “proper and just” distribution. Interdependencies are discussed: Does a more equal distribution create negative effects on economic growth? How does Germany rank internationally with regard to distribution? Social mobility rates differ substantially across countries; what are the implications for economic policy?     

Development and perspectives of the Australian Coal Supply Chain and Implications for the Export Market

The Australian coal industry is critical for the nation’s domestic energy supply and economy with an export value of almost A$24 bn in the fiscal year 2007/08. With almost 75% of production destined to the export market, Australia is also the world’s largest hard coal exporter and an essential secure source of energy particularly to meet both thermal and metallurgical coal demand in the fast growing Pacific Rim. This paper examines the Australian mining sector prospects to retain its position as the world’s largest coal exporter in the mid-term, by analysing the potential increases in export capacity along the coal supply chain through expansions in mine, rail and port capacities. Despite current financial challenges and restrictions, the authors conclude that export volumes, depending on demand, could rise by 50% in the period to 2014.     

The effect of self-confidence and anxiety on risk reduction strategies for an innovative product

This research investigated consumer modes of information seeking as a means of reducing uncertainty for a high risk innovation. Measures of consumers' generalized and specific selfcondidence along with anxiety were taken to study their mediating effect on consumer's tendency to seek any of six information sources. Subjects completed a 20 item behavioral differential designed to measure the tendency to seek different sources. The design used was a 2×2×2 ANOVA. The sample was drawn from a middle, upper middle class, white suburban civic club. The results show that specific self-confidence was the most important variable in explaining the tendency to seek information about a microwave oven. The two most favored information sources were the impersonal independent (Consumer Reports type of magazine) and the subject's own observation and experiences. There was some tendency to use interpersonal sources, but the impersonal independent and observation/experience were favored.     

IV. Bevölkerung und Arbeit

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

ACCOUNTING COURSES AND PROFESSIONAL FUNCTIONS*

In Australia, people performing accounting functions may have undertaken a course at a university, CAE, or technical college. This study is addressed to the rationale for this multiplicity of courses by seeking to determine whether there are different outcomes, such as professional functioning and salary, among graduates from these different courses. A specially devised questionnaire was developed to determine the degree of professionalism in late 1979 of accounting graduates from some Sydney and Melbourne universities, CAEs (UG1 bachelor degree and UG2 diploma courses), and technical colleges from the following years: 1970, 1974, 1976 and 1978. Limitations such as sample size prevent definitive answers. It was found that degree of professionalism and salary were related to attendance pattern, years of accounting experience before course completed, and years of accounting experience after course completed, but that the relationships with accounting course studied are low. Data counceming the mean percentage time spent on professional, technician, and other functions are provided.     

The excess burden of tax evasion—An experimental detection-concealment contest

Tax evasion may cause social welfare losses due to the incentives of taxpayers to invest in the concealment and of tax authorities to invest in the detection of tax evasion. Reducing the investment of both parties at the same time would then lead to a Pareto improvement. Given that concealment and detection costs are hardly measurable in reality, we show in a controlled laboratory experiment that the welfare losses from a concealment-detection contest depend positively on the prevailing tax rate, but not on the penalty which is imposed in case of detected tax evasion. Hence, policy makers who are concerned about socially inefficient concealment and enforcement costs should focus on tax rates rather than penalty rates.     

Application of a vision in the Lake District of Salzburg

Understanding the complexity of landscapes is an essential prerequisite to propose strategies for landscape development in the mid future, to predict long-term effects of landscape change, and assess future demands on landscape resources. In order to be able to direct today's landscapes to a possible future state (German: Leitbild), landscape planning must include socio-cultural, economic and political considerations in addition to ecological aspects of the landscape. In response to this challenge, this paper unifies the Leitbild concept with a spatial explicit planning procedure and introduces a case study application for describing and classifying landscape visions based on a transdisciplinary, holistic concept.The general assessment system of planning a vision is adapted to the natural, cultural, political and economic conditions of the given case study area in the Federal States Upper Austria and Salzburg (Austria). The assessment system includes exercises that identify the assets of the planning procedure and encourage stakeholders, scientist and local people to collaborate in planning and implementation processes. This paper provides an overview of planning procedures from the Leitbild perspective, outlines problems encountered in the case study, and compares them to the findings of other scholars.