Genuine Wealth Per Capita as a Measure of Sustainability and the Negative Impact of Corruption on Sustainable Growth in Sub‐Sahara Africa

In this paper, we argue that the answer to the question of whether the impact of corruption on development is homogenous, is no. Our optimism rest on how development may be conceptualised. When equated to a narrow measure in economic‐wise which fundamentally ignores critical issues, then there is a possibility the outlook could be positive. But when conceptualised using a broad‐based approach such as sustainable development, then the outlook could be negative. We assess a panel of 22 economies in Sub‐Sahara Africa with the most recent dataset (1996–2013) from the World Bank and other reputable agencies. Our finding is quite robust. It holds in pooled OLS, Fixed effects and GMM within IV settings; and it also holds for different measures of institutions and different measures of development using growth per capita GDP and genuine wealth per capita, respectively. Taking stock of major policy blue‐prints of selected countries in the region on the fight against corruption, we are able to point out that institutions play important role in insulating citizens against the devastation caused by corruption. Overall, through this comparison, we are able to signal that both incidental and systematic corruption poses a long‐term threat to sustainable development.     

The gravity model and trade in intermediate inputs

Is the gravity model as applicable to trade in intermediate inputs as it is to trade in final goods? One of the contributions of this paper is that we explicitly account for the dual nature of products that can be used as either intermediate inputs or final goods. We find that the structural gravity model performs extremely well for describing bilateral trade in final goods and in intermediate inputs. Moreover, this continues to hold even when we focus on a subset of countries in which intermediate inputs trade accounts for a growing share of trade, namely "Factory Asia." However, the gravity model may perform poorly due to model misspecification (i.e., exclusion of intranational trade) and/or sample selection, even after the model considers the dual nature of products. We demonstrate that the poor performance of the gravity model is not attributable to the large trade flow of intermediate inputs, which supports the continued use of the model as these trade flows continue to grow in importance worldwide.     

Great Galway Goslings: Organizational Context of Managerial Accounting*

This case seeks to enhance student understanding of the relationship between accounting information and the order fulfllment and production activities of a manufacturing frm, Great Galway Goslings. Great Galway Goslings manufactures goose sculptures and has been suffering losses in recent years. Students draw on the skills they learned in financial accounting to analyze the company's order fulfllment activities, identify economic transactions, and prepare journal entries. The case provides a link to managerial accounting topics as students use segment financial statements to create contribution margin income statements, perform break‐even analyses, and recommend whether Great Galway Goslings should keep its retail business segment. Students will become familiar with the key features of business process management (BPM) and the extensive, real‐world activities that a manufacturing entity engages in to fll an order. Students will analyze the company's existing order fulfllment process and apply their knowledge of BPM to recommend process improvements for Great Galway. This case contributes to the accounting case literature by serving as a bridge from financial accounting to managerial accounting, intertwining many topics from managerial accounting into one cohesive case, and providing real‐world business process knowledge. Student feedback indicates that, overall, the case met its stated learning objectives. Great Galway Goslings is appropriate for an undergraduate introductory managerial accounting course but can be adapted to the equivalent graduate‐level course or an accounting information systems course.     

Bad bosses and self-verification: The moderating role of core self-evaluations with trust in workplace management

Who responds most strongly to supervisor social undermining? Building on self-verification theory (Swann, 1983, 1987), we theorize that employees with positive views of the self (i.e., higher core self-evaluations [CSEs]) who also maintain higher trust in workplace management are more likely to experience heightened stress and turnover intentions when undermined. We argue that this subset of employees (high CSE, high trust) are more likely to feel misunderstood when undermined by their supervisor and that this lack of self-verification partially explains their stronger responses to supervisor undermining. We find initial support for the first part of our model in a study of 259 healthcare workers in the United States and replicate and extend our findings in the second study of 330 employees in the United Kingdom. Our results suggest that the employees Human Resources often wishes to attract and retain—employees with high CSE and high trust in workplace management—react most strongly to supervisor social undermining.     

Why do we feel bored with our clothing and where does it end up?

Boredom reflects the dynamic nature of consumer tastes and preferences. Understanding the role of boredom in clothing disposal is of particular importance given that consumers often dispose of clothes they feel bored with, leading to harmful environmental consequences. Despite its substantial influence on postacquisition behaviours, boredom has received insufficient attention in the disposal literature. In this paper, we explore the factors that lead to boredom and the effect of boredom on retention, recycling and discarding of clothing. We use a sequential mixed‐methods approach, consisting of a first qualitative phase that uses in‐depth interviews to generate hypotheses, followed by a second quantitative phase that tests the hypotheses using survey data. In two phases, we identify the oldness of clothing, decreased social fit and purchase of new clothing as drivers of boredom, which implies that the physical and aesthetic attributes of the clothing, social meaning ascribed to the clothing and situational factors collectively influence feelings of boredom towards owned clothing. As boredom intensifies, consumers are less inclined to keep the item and more inclined to recycle or discard it. Furthermore, we find that attachment and resource input (i.e., money, time and effort) moderate the effect of boredom on decisions regarding disposal methods. The results add to our understanding of emotion‐laden disposal by revealing the role of boredom in clothing disposal. Finally, our findings call for the collective efforts of consumers, retailers, campaigners and policymakers to break away from an increasingly extravagant and wasteful culture of clothing consumption.     

Mechanization and the spatial distribution of industries in the German Empire, 1875 to 1907

The adoption of water, steam, and electric power transformed manufacturing in the nineteenth century. This article studies the relationship between this technological change and the spatial distribution of manufacturing industries in the German Empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The adoption of steam powered machinery created incentives for manufacturers to form industry clusters near coal mining regions. Specifically, this article shows that a one standard deviation increase in the average size of steam power operations was associated with a rise in geographic concentration of one‐quarter of a standard deviation. In contrast, a one standard deviation increase in the size of water power operations was associated with a drop in geographic concentration of one‐sixth of a standard deviation. This is consistent with the constraint that water powered plants had to be located on a stream with a sufficient gradient and away from other water powered plants to avoid disruption from neighbouring gates and dams. Together the findings indicate that the transition from water to steam powered machinery contributed to the geographic concentration of manufacturing in the nineteenth century.     

Values-Based and Global Systemically Important Banks: Their Stability and the Impact of Regulatory Changes After the Financial Crisis on it

Asia-Pacific Financial Markets - We study the financial stability of Values-Based Banks (VBBs) and Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs), and how regulatory changes in the aftermath of the...