The mediated effect of SAS No. 99 and Sarbanes–Oxley officer certification on jurors’ evaluation of auditor liability

This study experimentally examines the impact of implementing Statement on Auditing Standard (SAS) No. 99, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit and the financial statement and internal control certification requirement by key corporate officers under the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX). The study investigates the prediction that the new regulations affect jurors’ assessment of guilt for failing to discover fraud, and also whether the regulations affect jurors’ perceptions of the appropriateness of auditors’ actions regarding fraud detection and of auditors’ and officers’ responsibility for the fraudulent financial statements. The study tests whether these perceptions mediate the association between the regulations and mock jurors’ guilt assessments. Results show that jurors assess auditors as less guilty under SAS No. 99 and in the presence of the officer certification requirement. SAS No. 99 decreases guilt assessments indirectly through jurors’ perception that auditors acted more appropriately under the new standard. Although jurors did view auditors as more responsible under SAS No. 99, their responsibility perceptions had no effect on guilt assessments. An additional finding is that the officer certification requirement has an indirect effect on guilt assessments via jurors’ perceptions of the officers’ responsibility for the fraudulent financial statements.     

An exploratory study of the management of product replacement

The process of product replacement is a surprisingly neglected area of innovation. Its existence as an important corporate activity is known through prior research and anecdotal evidence. This study was designed to shed some light on the replacement activities which are conducted by large companies in Britain and America. The findings revealed a number of different approaches to product replacement and suggested that related activities can be understood (and measured) by seven distinct dimensions.     

The influence of guarantees,active requests to voice and failure severity on customer complaint behavior

Anecdotal evidence suggests that service guarantees and requests by service workers to complain encourage customers to voice following failure, while holding negative word of mouth and exit at bay. However, empirical support for these tactics is limited. To address this deficiency, we conducted an experiment examining the influence of these devices on customer complaint behavior (CCB) across restaurant failures of varying severity. Findings suggest that offering a guarantee, regardless of it being unconditional or combined, encourages voice. Failure severity had the strongest influence on CCB, and it interacted with both active request and guarantee type in influencing exit. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.     

A data set on international trade in armaments for the major western industrialized and developing countries for 1980: Sources and methodological issues

Zusammenfassung Eine Datensammlung über den internationalen Waffenhandel der bedeutenden westlichen Industrie- und Entwicklungsl?nder im Jahre 1980: Quellen und methodische Fragen. — Dieser Aufsatz liefert eine Sammlung von Daten über den internationalen Waffenhandel nach Herkunfts- und Bestimmungsl?ndern (-regionen) für die bedeutenden westlichen Industrie- und Entwicklungsl?nder im Jahre 1980. Die Sammlung enth?lt Sch?tzungen über die Aufteilung des internationalen Waffenhandels nach den vier Sektoren: Kriegsschiffe, Milit?rflugzeuge, milit?rische Nachrichtenausrüstungen und milit?rische Güter. Sie ist st?rker disaggregiert als die Quellen, die zur Zeit verfügbar sind, und enth?lt, wo immer m?glich, Sch?tzungen des Umfanges und der Richtung von Waffenlieferungen.

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Résumé Quelques données sur le commerce international d’armes des principaux pays industriels de l’ouest et des pays en voie de développement en 1980: sources et méthodes. — L’intention de l’étude est de représenter des données sur le commerce international d’armes par pays/région d’origine et de destination parmi les principaux pays industriels de l’ouest et les pays en voie de développement en 1980. Les données contiennent des estimations de la répartition du commerce militaire en quatre secteurs: les navires de guerre, les avions de combat, l’équipement de communication militaire et les biens militaires. Les données sont plus désagrégées que celles qui sont disponibles jusqu’à présent et contiennent, s’il est possible, des estimations du volume et de la direction du commerce international d’armes.

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Resumen Datos sobre el comercio international de armas de los países occidentales industrializados y en desarrollo más importantes para 1980: fuentes y problemas metodológicos. — El objetivo de nuestro trabajo es presentar datos sobre el comercio internacional de armas según países/regiones de origen y destinatarios correspondientes a los países occidentales industrializados y en desarrollo más importantes para 1980. Estos datos incluyen estimaciones de cuatro sectores de comercio: buques miliares aviones militares, equipo de comunicaciones militares y bienes militares. Nuestros datos son más desagregados que los datos actualmente disponibles de otras fuentes e incluyen, siempre que haya sido posible, estimaciones de la magnitud y directión de los flujos comerciales de armas.

     

Continued decline for ethnic minorities in the transition?

Using three Bulgarian cross‐sectional household surveys from 1986, 1993 and 1997, this essay shows that the mean log wage differential between ethnic Bulgarians and Turks increased from 0.1615 in 1986 to 0.2874 in 1993 and again to 0.4075 by 1997. Bulgarian gains over ethnic Turks in the early transition are related to both changes in the relative returns to skill and changes in the composition of demand for goods and services as the country moved toward a market economy. The Turks began the transition with fewer years of education than the Bulgarians, and began to close the education gap over this time. The Bulgarians, however, were more likely to have obtained more general secondary and university degrees than the ethnic Turks – degrees that, in contrast to technical or vocational degrees, are experiencing increased remuneration in the transition. With more of an asset that has become more valuable, the ethnic Bulgarians improved their relative position.     

Growth with or without Equity? The distributional impact of Indonesian development

This paper surveys articles that have examined and sought to explain the distributional change experienced in Indonesia during the past 30 years of rapid economic development. The literature is critically evaluated, and methodological difficulties and current data limitations are highlighted and point the way for advances in future research.     

State dependency in youth unemployment: A lost generation?

Utilizing a job search framework and survey data on both completed and uncompleted spells of unemployment we present in this paper maximum likelihood estimates of the determinants of re-employment probabilities of young workers in Britain. The model used allows us to examine the importance of state dependency in youth unemployment as well as ethnicity, educational qualifications, and unemployment income. Results suggest that there is strong evidence of negative duration dependence in the transition from unemployment to employment for young workers in Britain.     

Commercial release of first-generation genetically modified food products in New Zealand: using a partial equilibrium trade model to assess the impact on producer returns in New Zealand

In the present paper, the impact of genetically modified (GM) food production on producers, consumers and trade in New Zealand is simulated under various scenarios using the Lincoln Trade and Environment Model (LTEM). The LTEM simulates, against various assumptions of proportions of GM/GM-free production, the impact of various scenarios relating to preference for or against GM production. The results from this preliminary analysis show that the greatest positive impact on New Zealand income is from following a GM-free strategy, where it is assumed such markets as the European Union and Japan have a large switch in preference away from GM food, followed by the scenario when there is a 20% preference for GM-free.     

The cost of being late? The case of credit card penalty fees

This paper is the first in the literature to examine the determinants of US credit card penalty fees. Many critics of credit card fees – including a number of US Senators – have argued that credit card penalty fees reflect banks’ market share. Using a unique data set we find that fees are increasing in customer risk which supports the position of defenders of penalty fees, such as banks. However, our finding that fees are increasing in a bank's market share is consistent with the concerns expressed by politicians and regulators. We also find card penalty fees are direct substitutes for card interest rates.