Democracy and Development: Cruel Dilemma or Symbiotic Relationship?

The paper dissects the hypothesis that democracy is inimical to economic development. The historical origin of this perspective is presented and its key theoretical and empirical assumptions are examined and assessed. The chief conclusion is that there is no necessary tradeoff between democracy and development. When compared to authoritarian regimes, democracy is more likely to foster an environment that facilitates the innovative and entrepreneurial process so essential for sustained development. On the other hand, democracy is better for development only when accompanied by an expansion of markets and competition. Democracy without markets is unlikely to deliver significant growth. In this context, liberalized international trade can act in a productive symbiosis with democratic institutions to promote development by facilitating bilateral flows of ideas, knowledge, goods, services, and technology.     

Currency substitution and transactions costs

This paper examines currency substitution in Canadian money demand vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar. A variant of the model developed by Bordo and Choudhri (1982) is estimated to test for the presence and extent of this substitution. The modified model is enhanced by the introduction of foreign exchange transactions costs. The resulting increased explanatory power indicates that previous tests which have omitted such costs understate the extent of currency substitution.     

Formal Analysis of Segregation of Duties (SoD) in Accounting: A Computational Approach

This study examines a computational framework for segregation of duties (SoD) in the design as well as implementation of accounting systems. The framework consists of a model of workflows in accounting systems based on workflow graphs, a partial order model of roles performed by the actors in the accounting system, and a specification of SoD rules. We develop a set of algorithms for four SoD rules that can be used in the enforcement of SoD. For the SoD rule that precludes task type conflicts, our results show that while compliance verification can be carried out efficiently, finding an SoD compliant assignment of tasks is computationally intractable. For those situations, we present an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation for finding compliant assignments using public domain ILP solvers. For the remaining three SoD rules, we demonstrate efficient ways of testing compliance for a given assignment as well as finding compliant assignments.     

National welfare in an open economy in the presence of foreign-owned factors of production

In the presence of foreign-owned factors of production in the economy, the effect of trade policy changes on national welfare needs to take into account the possible redistributive effect between foreign-owned and domestic factors. Therefore, an otherwise welfare-improving trade liberalization may paradoxically worsen national welfare. This paper analyzes this important, new area of trade theory and establishes the condition under which this paradox of immiserizing trade liberalization arises. The analysis is also applicable to analyzing the effects of external tariff variation in customs unions, with full internal factor mobility, on member countries' welfare.     

Mindful consumption: a customer-centric approach to sustainability

How effectively business deals with the challenges of sustainability will define its success for decades to come. Current sustainability strategies have three major deficiencies: they do not directly focus on the customer, they do not recognize the looming threats from rising global over-consumption, and they do not take a holistic approach. We present a framework for a customer-centric approach to sustainability. This approach recasts the sustainability metric to emphasize the outcomes of business actions measured holistically in term of environmental, personal and economic well-being of the consumer. We introduce the concept of mindful consumption (MC) as the guiding principle in this approach. MC is premised on a consumer mindset of caring for self, for community, and for nature, that translates behaviorally into tempering the self-defeating excesses associated with acquisitive, repetitive and aspirational consumption. We also make the business case for fostering mindful consumption, and illustrate how the marketing function can be harnessed to successfully implement the customer-centric approach to sustainability.