The effect of SOX on small auditor exits and audit quality

We find that over six hundred auditors with fewer than 100 SEC clients exit the market following SOX. Compared to the non-exiting auditors, the exiting auditors are lower quality, where quality is gauged by: (1) avoidance of AICPA peer reviews and failure to comply with PCAOB rules, and (2) severity of the peer review and inspection reports. In addition, clients of exiting auditors receive higher quality auditing from successor auditors, as captured by a greater likelihood of receiving going concern opinions. Our results suggest that the PCAOB inspections improve audit quality by incentivizing low quality auditors to exit the market.     

Housing booms and media coverage

This article analyses news media coverage of the housing market. Building on theories of media influence where word of mouth is the final mechanism of opinion change but media initiate discourse, I examine the relationship between news media and the recent UK house price boom. Over 30 000 articles on the UK housing market from the period 1993 to 2008 are analysed, and it is found that media Granger-caused real house price changes, suggesting the media may have influenced opinions on the housing market. However, media sentiment on the housing market did not change with the secular increase in house prices in the 2000s, suggesting that the media did not contribute to the UK’s housing boom and may have helped constrain it.     

The reporting of industrial relations on breakfast-time television

Breakfast-time television offers a different approach from more established television output; but how significant are the differences? This article analyses the scope and presentation of industrial relations issues on breakfast-time television and evaluates the qualitative implications they are given.     

Attitudinal Barriers to Women's Career Progression in Accounting in Australia

The literature on women's career progression in the professions has suggested a number of categories of factors that may explain the observed gender differences. This study uses data from a survey of Australian accountants to show the extent of differences between male and female accountants in their attitudes towards their careers. There are some differences between the genders in their ideas about requirements for promotion (although these are generally small) and in aspects of job satisfaction. Males aged more than 30 have higher levels of ambition and place more emphasis on career planning than do females over 30.     

Polls apart! Political,research and ethical lessons from UK pressure groups' use of opinion polls

Pressure groups use opinion polls to help further political agendas, as in the case of hunting with dogs. The authors evaluate the two types of poll that have featured in the campaigning: ‘scientific’ (representative) polls and ‘straw’ polls. The shortcomings of straw polls are well known and the new problem of ‘piling in’ where pressure groups direct their supporters to such polls is described, raising a number of potential ethical issues. The apparent discrepancy in ‘scientific’ opinion polls commissioned by the two sides of the debate is examined and an attempt to reconcile the differences is made. The authors' observations raise questions about the value and limitations of polling as well as technical and ethical issues the polling industry and professional bodies need to address. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Ethics in the Petrochemical Industry

The public attitude towards the petrochemical industry tends to be one of ethical disapproval and suspicion. But how justified is it? A knowledgeable look at how the industry in general, and one major company in particular, addresses its ethical responsibilities provides a quite different picture. The author has long experience of the petrochemical industry and was most recently Public Affairs Director of ARCO Chemical Europe Inc. He now runs his own Corporate Affairs Consultancy at 82 St George’s Square, London SW1V 3QX.     

Common factors in conditional distributions for bivariate time series

A definition for a common factor for bivariate time series is suggested by considering the decomposition of the conditional density into the product of the marginals and the copula, with the conditioning variable being a common factor if it does not directly enter the copula. We show the links between this definition and the idea of a common factor as a dominant feature in standard linear representations. An application using a business cycle indicator as the common factor in the relationship between U.S. income and consumption found that both series held the factor in their marginals but not in the copula.     

book reviews

WOMEN FOR HIRE, A STUDY OF THE FEMALE OFFICE WORKER London School of Economics and Political Science A HANDBOOK OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS PRACTICE Personnel Director British Aluminium VOTES, VIRTUES AND VICES: TRADE UNION POWER THE TROJAN HORSE: UNION POWER IN BRITISH POLITICS School of Industrial & Business Studies University of Warwick WHITE COLLAR UNIONISM: THE REBELLIOUS SALARIAT Manchester Business School THE INTERNATIONAL YEARBOOK OF ORGANIZATION STUDIES Centre for European Industrial Studies University of Bath     

Segmental Disclosure Practice: Thirteen Years On

In an age of financial disclosure directed by professional standards, the changes in practice voluntarily undertaken by companies are sometimes difficult to detect. By focusing on a period prior to the introduction of SSAP 25, the segmental disclosure issue offers an opportunity to consider whether practice has voluntarily changed. An examination of the extent and quality of segmental disclosure, for a specific group of companies over an extended period, offers an indication of the need for a standard or further regulation. If it can be demonstrated that disclosure practice has improved under a primarily self-regulatory framework, the need for a standard like SSAP 25 may be questioned. The segmental disclosure practices of the same group of seventy companies are compared for the reporting years 1975–6 and 1988–9. Whilst an underlying improvement in respect to business activity disclosure is revealed, the same cannot be claimed for geographic segmental disclosure. Not only has the number of companies reporting profit by geographic segment declined but also the consistency with other aspects of the annual report has reduced.