The Development of Meaning in Accounting: An Intertemporal Study

The measurement of meaning is an important aspect of research in both psychology and education. Using a semantic differential based instrument, the present study examines the development of connotative meanings for certain accounting concepts. Specifically, it measures the change in (1) the meaning of those concepts, and (2) the cognitive structure within which those meanings are held, observed between two points in time (the commencement and conclusion of a MBA accounting course).     

Turnaround: Retrenchment and recovery

Empirical research was conducted to investigate retrenchment as an integral component of the overall turnaround process. An industry study provided an anchored operational definition of a turnaround situation, indications of its internal and external causes, and an application of an absolute measure of its severity. The research further produced an empirical discrimination between retrenchment as a stand-alone response to financial decline and retrenchment as an initial phase of a turnaround strategy, and an identification of activities that can be used to classify entrepreneurial vs. efficiency emphases in a turnaround firm's recovery response.     

NEW ZEALAND'S GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT: 1859–1939

In this paper the author continues the work of Hawke, who used Australian velocity of money data to estimate New Zealand's GDP for 1870–1918, and whose results have been incorporated into international studies through the work of Bairoch. He also provides an alternative set of estimates for the inter-war years to those published by Lineham. The important findings of the paper are: (i) that Australian data show a significant relationship between the velocity of money and the price level; (ii) that New Zealand's income was significantly higher in 1870 than Hawke's estimates suggest; (iii) that sustained per capita growth has not been New Zealand's normal experience; (iv) that previous GDP estimates for the inter-war period have failed to reflect the fluctuations of the New Zealand economy and the extent to which it was operating below its production possibilities frontier during the Great Depression of the 1930s.     

Alternative funding: Looking beyond the nation-state

The challenge for the UN and for all publicly funded institutions that distribute surpluses for international needs is nothing less than to devise new global mechanisms for the collection and distribution of the surplus generated in a global economy. A minimalist interpretation of when individual governments can and cannot provide public goods has exercised strong influences on perceptions as to what is appropriate at international levels and with regard to the financing of international institutions. There is a strong consensus on an important range of international social goods. Three kinds of financing alternatives should be accorded priority in policy research—charges for the use of the global commons, monetary measures, and international taxation.     

MACROECONOMIC POLICY EVALUATION AND OPTIMAL CONTROL THEORY: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Abstract. This survey addresses the recent literature on the application of optimal control theory and game theory to macroeconomic policy evaluation and design. This literature focuses on strategic interactions between governments and private agents engaged in dynamic non-cooperative games and emphasizes such issues as precommitment, credibility and reputation as important and endemic aspects of optimal policy design. A dominant theme is the problem of dynamic inconsistency and the inferiority of an equilibrium in single-stage full-information games without commitment. This may be alleviated in repeated games involving reputation effects and threat strategies designed to coerce rivals into pursuing particular strategies and to sustain a sequential equilibrium. The type and characteristics of a sequential equilibrium also depend importantly upon the information structure conditioning players'beliefs under uncertainty. Included here are separating and pooling equilibria, involving notions of learning, signalling and information revelation. Additional dimensions exist in stochastic systems which introduce other forms of uncertainty. Optimal control and game theory have also been applied to international macroeconomic policy design, with emphasis on the potential costs and benefits of non-cooperative and cooperative behaviour between countries and problems of international policy coordination.     

Defence markets

Although defence is a classic example of a public good, there are extensive opportunities for applying market solutions to the armed forces and defence industries. There are possibilities for beneficial inter-service rivalry and for creating profit centres within the armed forces; substitution is possible between parts of the armed forces, and competition can be used for purchasing weapons and for market-testing activities traditionally undertaken'in-house'by the armed forces. The analysis has implications for the UK strategic defence review.