Beyond budgeting or budgeting reconsidered? A survey of North-American budgeting practice

Budgets have historically played a key role in management control; however, recently they have become the subject of considerable criticism and debate. Some argue that the problems with budgeting stem from the way budgets are used (Horngren et al., 2004) while others argue that budgeting processes are fundamentally flawed (Hope and Fraser, 2003a). Hansen et al. (2003), among others, have called for a systematic examination of these issues against empirical evidence. In this paper, we present the results of two surveys of mid- to large-sized North-American organizations to 1) update the literature on North-American budgeting practices, 2) collect empirical evidence to assess the criticisms, and 3) begin to identify strong tendencies or patterns in budgeting practice to inform future academic research. Overall, we find for the majority of firms that budgets continue to be used for control purposes and are perceived to be value-added. While problems exist with budgets, organizations are adapting their use to account for these problems rather than abandoning budgets altogether.     

Around-the-Clock Performance of Closed-End Funds

Herein, we find that the market price of closed-end fund shares tends to increase (decrease) in anticipation of a rise (fall) in the net asset value (NAV). Similarly, an increase (decrease) in the reported NAV tends to be followed by a rise (fall) in the price of the fund's shares. Interestingly, we also find a powerful negative autocorrelation between closed-end fund shares’ overnight and intraday returns in both univariate and multivariate tests for both the overall sample and a number of subsamples. We believe that this tendency results from the strategies that many specialists employ when they open their assigned shares.     

Estimated participation in U.S. carbon sequestration programs: A study of NIPF landowners in Massachusetts

Although carbon sequestration programs for non-industrial forestland owners in Massachusetts are being developed, very little is known about the program attributes of importance to different types of landowners or the likelihood that landowners will participate in any given program. This study estimates the probability that Massachusetts landowners will participate in several carbon offset programs using data from a survey of 3000 Massachusetts forestland owners. Results from an ordered logit discrete choice model suggest that the likelihood of enrollment in most programs is quite low. Landowners are clearly motivated by economic factors, but other aspects of carbon sequestration may also be important in their decision making.     

NAFTA as a Means of Raising Rivals' Costs: A Comment

The purpose of this comment is toclarify and extend a recent paper entitled NAFTA as a Means of Raising Rivals Costs. The paper indicates that the complexity of complying with the rules of NAFTA may lead to a decrease in competition in the domestic market. The comment shows that thecomplexity of NAFTA is related to the rules of origin which are a part of virtually any free-tradeagreement. Since rules of origin are a necessary part of virtually any trade agreement, the conclusions of the paper are not restricted to NAFTA but can be generalized to a large part of international trade.     

IMPORT FORECASTS FOR INPUT-OUTPUT MODELS*

The paper presents forecasting models for (1) the share of competitive imports in the total demand for a commodity group and (2) the level of demand for competitive imports of a commodity group. The two forecasting models are used, respectively, with (1) input-output models which incorporate market share parameters as one vector of coefficients and (2) input-output models which assume imports have been determined autonomously. It is shown that these two types of input-output models can be made workable by prefixing one or other of the import forecasting models to the input-output model. Tests are made of the forecasting ability of the combined models.     

The effects of the second enlargement of the EC on U.S. exports to Europe

Zusammenfassung Die Auswirkungen der zweiten EG-Erweiterung auf die US-Exporte nach Europa. — Dieser Aufsatz enth?lt Sch?tzungen über die Auswirkungen der zweiten Erweiterung der EG auf die Industrieexporte der USA in die EG der Neun. Der verwendete Ansatz identifiziert die Produkte, die die Vereinigten Staaten in die EG-9 exportierten und die mit den Exporten Griechenlands, Portugals und Spaniens auf diesen M?rkten konkurrieren. Sowohl für eng begrenzte Produktgruppen als auch für die Produktion insgesamt werden die statischen Exportverluste der USA infolge der Handelsumlenkung gesch?tzt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daΒ die Exportverluste der USA insgesamt recht gering sind, sich aber auf eine verh?ltnism?Βig kleine Anzahl von Produktgruppen konzentrieren.

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Résumé Les effets du deuxiéme élargissement de la CE sur les exportations des E.U. vers l’Europe. — Dans cet article l’auteur développe des estimations sur les effets du deuxiéme élargissement de la CE sur les exportations manufacturiéres des E.U. vers la CE-9. L’approche appliquée ici est d’identifier la série des produits exportés par les E.U. vers la CE-9 en concurrence avec les exportations de la Gréce, du Portugal et de l’Espagne vers ce marché. L’auteur fait des estimations statiques des pertes d’exportations américaines à cause de la diversion de commerce pour des catégories des biens étroitement définies aussi bien que pour les exportations totales. Les résultats indiquent que les pertes totales des E.U. sont assez modérées, mais que les pertes se concentrent sur un relativement petit nombre des catégories des biens.

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Resumen Los Efectos de una segunda ampliación de la C.E.E. sobre las exportaciones de los Estados Unidos a Europa. — El estudio estima el impacto de una segunda ampliación de la C.E.E. sobre las exportaciones norteamericanas de manufacturas a los nueve paises miembros de la C.E.E. El mètodo empleado consiste en identificar el grupo de productos que los Estados Unidos exportan a los nueve paises y que se ven confrontados por la competencia de Grecia, Portugal y Espana en el Mercado Común Europeo. Las estimaciones de las pèrdidas de exportaciones norteamericanas debidas a esta competencia se realizaron utilizando categorfas estrechamente definidas de productos y tambièn agregados totales. Los resultados indican que los pèrdidas totales de exportaciones norteamericanas son bastante modestas, estando sin embargo concentradas en un numèro pequeno de tipos de producto.