Voter decisions on eminent domain and police power reforms

One unresolved issue arising from the use of eminent domain power involves how the perceived benefits and costs of eminent domain power affect people’s positions on the reform of eminent domain and police power law. The paper addresses this issue by estimating a voting model that explains voters’ decisions on eminent domain and police power reform referenda in the US. Estimates indicate that eminent domain referendum outcomes hinged on voters’ fundamental values and ideology, and voters’ immediate self-interest. Voters’ fundamental values and ideology affects referendum outcomes insofar as educational attainment in a county has a statistically significant effect on support for reform. Despite the greater incidence of eminent domain in low income and poorer communities, success of reform referenda in this study was found to be greater in counties with higher incomes and lower unemployment rates. This implies that whatever asymmetry exists in the exercise of eminent domain law across income groups does not affect voter reaction to eminent domain reforms. Moreover, counties with high unemployment rates consider the larger potential benefits from urban renewal projects in vote decision-making providing a link between self-interest and voting behavior.     

The standard-setters’ toolkit: can principles prevail over bright lines?

We study lease accounting in an international panel data set to examine how accounting outcomes vary with two features of accounting standards: the emphasis on using professional judgement to apply principles, and the presence or absence of bright-line tests. We study four countries—Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US—and companies in two lease-intensive industries—retail and transportation. Our primary study period spans the time when Australia and the UK switched from domestic to international accounting standards, and in one test, we also consider Canada’s transition to international standards. We find that neither an explicit requirement to apply a principle nor omitting bright-line tests materially increases the use of capital lease treatment among these firms. Overall, we conclude that this financial reporting outcome is relatively insensitive to these standard-setting tools.     

Market quality changes in the London Stock Market

This paper examines the impact that the introduction of a closing call auction had on market quality at the London Stock Exchange. Using estimates from the partial adjustment with noise model of Amihud and Mendelson [Amihud, Y., Mendelson, H., 1987. Trading mechanisms and stock returns: An empirical investigation. Journal of Finance 42, 533–553] we show that opening and closing market quality improved for participating stocks. When we stratify our sample securities into five groups based on trading activity we find that the least active securities experience the greatest improvements to market quality. A control sample of stocks are not characterized by discernable changes to market quality.     

South Africa’s transition from apartheid: The role of professional closure in the experiences of black chartered accountants

As apartheid gave way to political freedom in South Africa in the last quarter of the 20th century, chartered accounting firms began to hire black South African trainees for the first time. The study examines the oral histories of black chartered accountants within the context of social closure theory and South Africa’s changing political and ideological landscape. The evidence indicates that processes of professional closure and credentialing excluded the majority population from the ranks of the profession on basis of race and class throughout the period 1976–2000.     

Changing the Concepts to Justify the Standards*

In this paper, I discuss the current project to converge the IASB and FASB conceptual frameworks, specifically efforts to purge the converged framework of concepts that hinder the promotion of balance sheet valuation using fair values. I discuss why I believe these efforts to be misguided, based on how investors who analyze financial statements employ accounting information. I focus on stewardship, reliability, and earnings — terms either demoted in importance or at risk of being eliminated in the framework convergence project. I explain their salience to financial statement users and argue against their deletion or demotion.     

The relationship between motivation,learning approaches,academic performance and time spent

Previous literature calls for further investigation in terms of precedents and consequences of learning approaches (deep learning and surface learning). Motivation as precedent and time spent and academic performance as consequences are addressed in this paper. The study is administered in a first-year undergraduate course. Results show that the accounting students have a slightly higher score for deep learning compared to surface learning. Moreover, high intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation have a significant positive influence on deep learning. Next, deep learning leads to higher academic performance; surface learning on the other hand leads to lower academic performance. The effect of deep learning on performance still holds, when we control for time spent, gender and ability. Consequently we can conclude that a deep learning approach is much more than ‘simply’ spending a lot of time on studying.     

Accounting Undergraduates' Perceptions of Cooperative Learning as a Model for Enhancing their Interpersonal and Communication Skills to Interface Successfully with Professional Accountancy Education and Training

To interface effectively with professional accountancy training, accounting educationalists should ensure that they turn out graduates who possess the interpersonal and communication skills required of today's accountant. Attainment of these skills is promoted by group work. However, little empirical evidence exists to help academics make an informed choice about which form of group learning enhances interpersonal and communication skills. This paper addresses this deficiency by comparing perceptions of skills enhancement between accounting students who experienced traditional or simple group learning and those who undertook cooperative learning. The findings reveal that the cooperative learning cohort perceived their learning experience to be significantly more effective at enhancing interpersonal and communication skills than that of the simple group learning cohort. This study provides evidence that cooperative learning is a more effective model for delivering interpersonal and communication skills than simple group learning, thereby creating a more successful interface between academic accounting and professional accountancy training.