CHANGES IN THE INTERNATIONAL REGULATION OF AUDITORS: (IN)STALLING THE EIGHTH DIRECTIVE IN THE UK

In 1984 the European Commission issued the Eighth Company Law Directive requiring each member State to ensure that its national rules met common standards for the education, training and qualification of statutory auditors (84/253/EEC; OJ 1984 L126/20). The Directive insisted that national governments take responsibility for the regulation of auditors, a requirement that clashed with the autonomy which many professional bodies believed they possessed. In this article we explore the processes through which the Eighth Directive on the regulation of auditors has been implemented in the UK. We argue that the Eighth Directive illuminates the effects of political and economic discourses on the development of accounting and auditing regulations and the protocols involved in installing such regulations into particular national contexts. The Eighth Directive represents a revealing moment in the shifts in political discourse (towards neo-liberalism) in the UK and the problems of reconciling new modes of economic and political thinking withinternationalregulatory programmes and institutions. Moreover, the implementation of the Eighth Directive in the UK cannot be comprehended outside of (i) an analysis of the problems the British Government has had in “managing” the accountancy profession in the UK and (ii), understanding the powerful image of the auditing industry as a key contributor to the UK economy.     

A review of human resource accounting measurement systems from a measurement theory perspective

Currently, a large number of diverse methodologies exist which apply to the measurement of human resources. This paper attempts to clarify and evaluate these methodologies by the application of a measurement theory frame of reference. The first two sections discuss the measurement theory perspective and then its application to human resource accounting. The last section focuses upon the operational steps necessary to apply measurement theory to the human resource accounting area.     

Bridging the distance: Managing cross-border knowledge holders

This article examines the micro-level operational difficulties for multinational corporations (MNCs) to generate value from its highly geographically dispersed cross-border knowledge and studies the strategies for overcoming them. Using China as the research context, we identify key geographical, institutional and cultural features of cross-border knowledge holders and examine the dimensions of distance that separates them. We then link these dimensions to the conditions that facilitate cross-border knowledge building processes. In doing so, we propose a conceptual model for overcoming these context-specific knowledge management barriers.     

Developing-island economies — tourism v agriculture

During the peak years of international tourism in developing countries, 1960–1974, the anti-tourism literature claimed that tourism was destroying other sectors, particularly agriculture, by competing for labour and land resources, and by increasing their reserve prices. Evidence is derived mainly from islands where movement of food, and labour supplies, were restricted, and many were suffering from the long-term decline in the sugar and copra trades. The article casts doubt on Bryden's proof by cost-benefit analysis that tourism had a poor social return, and even questions whether agriculture did decline in the critical period. Labour and land competition are shown to be inherently implausible, although the reserve price of labour may have been raised by the construction industry.     

FUNCTIONAL ESTIMATES OF JAPANESE GOVERNMENT DOMESTIC EXPENDITURES, FISCAL 1952–1963

The purpose of the paper is to describe current and constant price estimates of Japanese central and local government postwar domestic expenditures by economic type and function recently completed by Miss Yoshiko Kido, International Christian University, Tokyo, and myself. The rationale of the functional classification is to estimate those government expenditures which enhance the economy's productive capacity. Expenditures are divided into four broad functional categories: developmental, disaster repair and prevention, social welfare, and general government. These four categories are subdivided to two levels of disaggregation. We were able to break down government fixed investment, government enterprise inventory investment, current domestic transfers and subsidies into 42 functional components. For constant price series, each functional component by economic type was deflated by separate price indexes. We followed the Economic Planning Agency's procedure for the official national accounts of assuming no productivity change in the provision of government services. Our results are generally comparable to the official national accounts estimates. The major difference is that we attribute considerably more fixed investment to local governments, and correspondingly less to the central level. Government expenditures had the following characteristics. Growth was rapid; in real terms the public sector use of the economy's resources in 1963 was 2.2 times more than in 1952. The elasticity of government expenditures to GNP was unity in current prices, slightly less in real terms. The government postwar share in GNP has been smaller than in European nations and, unlike them, was not rising. This reflects the underlying growth strategy of emphasis upon private business fixed investment. Government consumption expenditures declined relative to GNP, and investment rose. Developmental expenditures comprised the largest share (40–45 per cent) of the government total. The elasticities to GNP of government expenditures by economic and functional categories are provided and discussed. A simple test was made of the cyclical relationship of government expenditures (both total and by category) to GNP. The results suggest that government expenditures, rather than contra-cyclical, were pro-cyclical in effect.