The ethics of using Chapter XI as a management strategy

In the past decade, the use of the Chapter XI has soared to the detriment of many creditors, workers, and consumers. A good number of cases were not based on imminent insolvency, but on firms attempts to avoid litigation claims against them, to terminate labor or other contractual obligations, or to gain new financing.These filings for Chapter XI highlight the use of bank-ruptcy as a strategic option used by management in running a viable organization. This usage is even advised by some academics and management consultants.While such uses may not be illegal, this paper questions the seeming ease with which a firm may use bankruptcy to escape contractual obligations to customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. It also questions the ethics of the academics and management consultants who recommend such usage. Finally, the paper calls for a change in the law in order to minimize the opportunity for the unethical abuse of the bankruptcy law.Dr. Mahmoud Salem is a lecturer, consultant, and executive training specialist. He is President of The Center for Organizational Synergy in Uniondale, New York. His major areas of interest are Global Strategic Management, Organizational System Transformation, Executive Integrity and Business Ethics.Ms. Opal-Dawn Martin is on the administrative staff of Science Applications International Corporation in McLean, Virginia. Her major areas of interest are International Business and Finance.     

Separating a mixture of two normals with proportional covariances

We propose a simple affine equivariant clustering method, based on the idea of best linear classification, for samples from a mixture of two multivariate normal distributions with different mean vectors but proportional covariance matrices. To ameliorate the curse of dimensionality, a non-parametric approach to find candidates for a best linear discriminant function is presented. By using simulation studies and a real example, we show that for large samples in high dimensions, the proposed method can be a useful supplement to general-purpose multivariate outlier detection methods.     

A Synthetic Approach to Projecting Input–Output Tables

This paper describes an approach used in the Canadian input–output (IO) accounts, which seeks to enhance the timeliness of the tables. It combines traditional updating methods, balancing techniques and the most recent data. To assess the performance of this approach, aggregate estimates from the synthetic accounts are presented for two years, and compared with estimates from benchmarks and with estimates obtained from a mechanical estimation technique. The results show that most IO components can be estimated with a relatively small estimation error and that substantial accuracy is gained from using the synthetic approach compared with a mechanical technique. Results based on data which are two years away from IO benchmarks are obtained at the cost of large errors. Synthetic estimates of the IO accounts improve the timeliness problem by at least a full year.     

Board monitoring and capital structure dynamics: evidence from bank-based economies

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - We examine the impact of board characteristics on the speed of adjustment and the capital structure dynamics of firms in bank-based economies. Using...