The theory of economic price and quantity indicators

Summary. This paper develops the theory of economic price and quantity indicators, being the difference analogue of indexes. The properties of indicators and indexes are compared. Observable bounds for the indicators will be derived, as well as two exactness results for Bennet (1920)-type price and quantity indicators.Received: 3 January 2002, Revised: 2 December 2002, JEL Classification Numbers: C43Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Economic Measurement Group Workshop 2001, School of Economics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 March 2001, and at a seminar at the School of Economics, University of New England, Armidale NSW, 7 September 2001. The authors thank Erwin Diewert for helpful comments on a previous version. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect any policy of Statistics Netherlands.     

Finance as a Driver of Corporate Social Responsibility

Finance is grease to the economy. Therefore, we assume that it may affect corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the sustainability of economic development too. This paper discusses the transmission mechanisms between finance and sustainability. We find that there is no simple one-to-one relationship between financial development and sustainable development but there are various – often indirect – linkages. It appears that most of the literature concentrates on the role of public shareholders when it comes to changing corporate policy and performance in a more sustainable direction. However, this focus neglects the potential impact of the credit channel and private equity on a firm’s non-financial policies and performance. These very powerful mechanisms can govern business policies and practices. Therefore, there appears to be much more scope for finance to promote socially and environmentally desirable activities and to discourage detrimental activities than has been acknowledged in the academic literature so far.Bert Scholtens received his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam in 1994. Since 1999 he has been working at the Department of Finance of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research particularly looks into the interactions between financial institutions and sustainable development/corporate social responsibility. He has recently published in, among others, Ecological Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Finance letters, Journal of Investing, and Sustainable Development.     

How suitable is CBA for the ex-ante evaluation of transport projects and policies? A discussion from the perspective of ethics

Nowadays in most western countries CBA is the standard method to ex-ante evaluate transport policy options. Despite its popularity CBA has often been criticized for several reasons, most of them related to the utilitarian perspective and related ethical considerations. This paper gives an overview of ethically relevant critics on CBA. Rather than rejecting CBA as the method to be preferred the paper concludes that researchers should be aware of its limitations and gives guidance on how to deal with the weaknesses of CBA from an ethical point of view.     

Revising the myth of gay consumer innovativeness

Non-academic literature often refers to gay people as innovators, but academic evidence is lacking. To test whether gays and heterosexuals differ in innate and realized innovativeness, and whether the relationships between the variables in an innovativeness model differ for both groups, 833 Flemish respondents from a homosexual-tolerant region (i.e., Flanders) filled out a questionnaire that was posted on forums and newsgroups targeted at either a general or a homosexual population. MANOVA results reveal an important interaction effect between gender and sexual orientation. The gay men in the study are slightly more innovative than the heterosexual men, but the opposite holds true for the gay and heterosexual women. The relations between the constructs in the innovativeness model do not differ for the different groups.     

9/11 Impact on Teenage Values

Did the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. cause the values of teenagers in the U.S. to change? Did their previously important self-esteem and self-actualization values become less important and their survival and safety values become more important? Changes in the values of teenagers are important for practitioners, managers, marketers, and researchers to understand because high school students are our current and future employees, managers, and customers, and research has shown that values impact work and consumer-related attitudes and behaviors. Further, studies that compared higher to lower performing for-profit and not-for-profit companies have found that higher performing organizations had strong values that permeated their organizations [Collins J. C., and J. I. Porras: 1994, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (New York, Harper Business); O’Reilly, C. A. and J. A. Chatman: 1996, in B. M. Staw and L. L. Cummings (eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior, vol. 18 (JAI Press, Greenwhich, CT), pp. 157–200; O’Reilly, C. A.: 1989, California Management Review 31(4), 9–25; Posner, B. Z., and W. H. Schmidt: 1996, Public Personnel Management, 25(3), 277–298; Rousseau, D.: 1990, Group and Organization Studies 15(4), 448–460; Schein, E. H.: 2004, Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco, Jossey Bass)]. While one study of adults found value changes, no known studies have explored if the values of teenagers also changed post-9/11. This study filled that research gap by exploring the values of a random sample of 1000 U.S. teenagers in grades 9 to 12 pre- and post-9/11, using a demographic questionnaire and the Rokeach Value Survey. The research results indicated that teenage survival, safety, and security values (a world at peace, freedom, national security, and salvation) increased in importance while their self-esteem and self-actualization values (a sense of accomplishment, inner harmony, pleasure, self-respect, and wisdom) decreased in importance, mirroring the changes for adults. The meaning of these findings for practitioners, managers, marketers and researchers was discussed.     

The Saga of a Disallowed Accounting Standard

In 2000, the Australian Senate disallowed two paragraphs of the accounting standard AASB 1015 Acquisition of Assets, an unprecedented action that sent shockwaves through the business community. As a consequence, a legal dispute erupted between ASIC and MYOB Limited in relation to the application of the disallowed paragraphs, culminating in a recent decision in the Victorian Supreme Court. This paper describes the circumstances surrounding the Senate's decision and the ensuing legal action taken by ASIC against MYOB. It discusses the implications for accounting standard-setting in Australia, and the process by which an accounting standard is made by the AASB and may be disallowed in whole or in part by parliament.