Housing Tenure and Mortgage Choice

This paper examines the relationship between housing tenure and mortgage contract. We present a model showing that, given expected mobility, borrowers will have incentive to self-select into the appropriate mortgage product such that their fixed-rate period is directly related to their probability of moving. We empirically test this hypothesis using housing tenure data derived from a large national database of repeat mortgage transactions. After controlling for borrower characteristics, the mobility hazards of 3/1, 5/1 and 7/1 ARMs, compared to a 30-year fixed rate, are estimated to be 28%, 14% and 11% higher, respectively     

Revisiting faultline conceptualization: measuring faultline strength and distance

The purpose of this research is to develop a conceptually and methodologically sound measure of group faultlines (demographic alignment of members along multiple attributes within a group). This measure takes into account the concept of faultline strength (the extent of a demographic alignment across members within a group) and, thus far neglected in past work, the concept of faultline distance. This faultline distance measure reflects how far apart the emerging subgroups are on demographic characteristics. This new, more elaborate conceptualization of faultlines is validated by presenting a number of hypothetical examples that demonstrate the distinct properties of faultline measures. We also validate our measures by empirically examining the relationships between faultline strength and distance, and active, or perceived, faultlines.     

How Leadership and Commitment Influence Bank Employees’ Adoption of their Bank’s Values

Retail banking is facing many challenges, not least the loss of its customers’ trust and loyalty. The economic crisis is forcing banks to examine their relationships with stakeholders and to offer greater reassurance that their brand promises will be delivered. More than ever, banks need to stand for something positive and valued by stakeholders. One way to achieve this is through paying more attention to brand values. Our article explores how values are adopted by employees within a bank. When employees ‘live’ their brand’s values, their behaviour during customer interactions reflects this, encouraging the strengthening of customer relationships. Specifically, we test the relationship between leadership style, employee commitment, and the adoption of values. Data was collected from a survey of 438 branch employees in a leading Irish retail bank. The study found that a structured and directive leadership style was effective at encouraging the adoption of the bank’s values. Moreover, when employees are committed to the organisation, this has a significant impact on their adoption of values. Thus, this study supports the literature which suggests that leadership and commitment are prerequisites for values adoption.     

Ethics in Tax Practice: A Study of the Effect of Practitioner Firm Size

While much of the empirical accounting literature suggests that, if differences do exist, Big Four employees are more ethical than non-Big Four employees, this trend has not been evident in the recent media coverage of Big Four tax practitioners acting for multinationals accused of aggressive tax avoidance behaviour. However, there has been little exploration in the literature to date specifically of the relationship between firm size and ethics in tax practice. We aim here to address this gap, initially exploring tax practitioners’ perceptions of the impact of firm size on ethics in tax practice using interview data in order to identify the salient issues involved. We then proceed to assess quantitatively whether employer firm size has an impact on the ethical reasoning of tax practitioners, using a tax context-specific adaptation of a well-known and validated psychometric instrument, the Defining Issues Test.     

User needs in sustainability reporting: Perspectives of stakeholders in Ireland

Abstract

By means of a questionnaire survey, this paper ascertains and analyses the views of a number of Irish stakeholders regarding the adequacy and potential of corporate sustainability reporting to meet their information needs and help them hold corporations to account. The study focuses on ascertaining the views of a sample of Irish social and environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who we argue constitute an important group of non-financial stakeholders. This emphasis on examining NGO perceptions represents an attempt to fill a gap in the academic sustainability reporting research literature whereby the views of non-managerial stakeholders are largely absent. The paper represents the second phase of a determined effort to examine the adequacy of sustainability reporting from the perspective of less economically powerful stakeholders in Ireland and responds specifically to O'Dwyer's (2002) call for research to examine the nature of stakeholder demand for sustainability reporting in Ireland in order to inform the future development of Irish sustainability reporting practices. The results present evidence of a widespread demand for mandated, externally verified sustainability reporting in either the annual report or a separate stand-alone report. This demand is primarily driven by a desire to gain knowledge of companies' commitment to responsible business practices but is also, albeit to a lesser extent, influenced by the perceived ability of sustainability reporting to facilitate increased NGO pressure on companies. Current sustainability reporting practice is viewed negatively with regard to its credibility and sufficiency, as well as the opportunities it provides for engagement with companies, particularly among environmental NGO respondents. While respondents tended to be suspicious of corporate motives for sustainability reporting, many were optimistic about the potential for NGO engagement with companies aimed at tackling social and environmental issues and improving current sustainability reporting practice. Drawing on the survey results, the paper makes some recommendations for future research aimed at improving sustainability reporting practices in Ireland and more broadly.     

Discretionary disclosure and the market reaction to restatements

This paper presents evidence that management’s disclosure choices related to a restatement are associated with the market reaction at the time the restatement is announced. The two aspects of pre-restatement disclosure choice we examine are the amount of disclosure, hypothesized to reduce information asymmetries, and the tone of disclosure, hypothesized to exacerbate the effect of subsequently-disconfirmed market expectations. Our results provide support for both hypothesized effects, controlling for characteristics that previous research has shown to affect market reaction to restatements—financial attributes of restatements, and concurrent disclosure choices such as prominence of the announcement. We also find that concurrent and prior disclosure characteristics have equivalent and complementary power in explaining market reaction to restatements, while interactive effects indicate that pre-restatement disclosure choices reduce the marginal market impact of concurrent disclosure characteristics.     

The impact of persistence with therapy on inpatient admissions and emergency room visits in the US among patients with multiple sclerosis

Objective:

Disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for multiple sclerosis (MS) can reduce relapses and delay progression; however, poor adherence and persistence with DMT can result in sub-optimal outcomes. The associations between DMT adherence and persistence and inpatient admissions and emergency room (ER) visits were investigated.

Methods:

Patients with MS who initiated a DMT in a US administrative claims database were followed for 1 year. Persistence to initiated DMT was measured as the time from DMT initiation to discontinuation (a gap of >60 days without drug ‘on hand’) or end of 1-year follow-up. Adherence to initiated DMT was measured during the persistent period and was operationalized as the medication possession ratio (MPR). Patients with an MPR <0.80 were considered non-adherent. Claims during the 1-year follow-up period were evaluated for the presence of an all-cause inpatient admission or an ER visit. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for inpatient admission or ER visit comparing persistent vs non-persistent and adherent vs non-adherent patients were estimated using logistic regression models adjusted for patient characteristics.

Results:

The final sample included 16,218 patients. During the 1-year follow-up period, 35.3% of patients discontinued their initiated DMT and 13.9% were not adherent while on therapy. During that same period, 10.0% of patients had an inpatient admission and 24.9% had an ER visit. The likelihoods of inpatient admission and ER visit were significantly decreased in persistent patients (AOR [95% CI]?=?0.50 [0.45, 0.56] and 0.65 [0.60, 0.69], respectively) and in adherent patients (AOR [95% CI]?=?0.83 [0.71, 0.97] and 0.86 [0.77, 0.95], respectively).

Conclusions:

Persistence and adherence with initiated DMT are associated with decreased likelihoods of inpatient admission or ER visit, which may translate to improved clinical outcomes.