Communication skills in accounting education: Perceptions of academics,employers and graduate accountants

Communication skills are central to intellectual interaction between the providers and the recipients of information. The importance of accounting starts with the gathering and processing of information and ends with the communication of processed information. This paper examines the communication skills which employers, academics and graduate accountants consider necessary to the newly graduated accountant. It also identifies and considers the differences in perception which occur between these groups and suggests solutions to the communication gap. This study confirms findings from previous research that new graduate accountants experience communication-related problems in early employment. In addition, it provides evidence that the Australian accounting curriculum has contributed to the development of communication skills. However, the paper highlights the need for the reconsideration of an emphasis on communication skills in the accounting curriculum, a role which arises from the very nature of accounting as the processing and communication of information.     

The effect of the WIC program on consumption patterns in the cereal category

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a federally-funded food assistance program for low income participants who are at nutritional risk. Beneficiaries receive vouchers for specific foods and brands, selected for their nutritional value. While the program is designed to improve nutrition, it may also induce changes in consumption behavior that persist beyond participation in the program. In this paper, we study how participation in WIC impacts the consumption patterns and preferences during and after the program. Our analysis focuses on the cereal category, in which the subsidized brands must meet certain nutritional guidelines. As expected, during the program households increase cereal consumption volume and shift their choices towards the WIC-approved brands. More interesting is that once households exit the program, the higher category consumption rate and elevated share of WIC brands persist. To understand the behavioral mechanism underlying these consumption patterns, we estimate a choice model and find an increased preference for WIC brands after controlling for state dependence. The evidence suggests that this targeted food subsidy program is effective in creating behavior change that persists even after the incentive is withdrawn.     

Early Mortality Declines at the Dawn of Modern Growth*

We explore the hypothesis that demographic changes which began in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are at the root of the acceleration in growth rates at the dawn of the modern age. During this period, life tables for Geneva and Venice show a decline in adult mortality; French marriage registers reveal an important increase in literacy; historians measure an acceleration of economic growth. We develop an endogenous growth model with a realistic survival law in which rising longevity increases individual incentives to invest in education and fosters growth. We quantitatively estimate that the observed improvements in adult mortality account for 70% of the growth acceleration in the pre‐industrial age.     

Asian economic integration: a perspective on South Asia

This paper argues in favor of open regionalism and continent-based integration in Asia. These are the effective instruments of outward-oriented development. The enlargement of trading blocs into continent-based integration also serves as a countervailing power to stem the excesses of economic globalism. The case made in the paper shows the need for institutional changes for promoting economic development. Institutional changes along with open regionalism are essential to enhancing outward-oriented development in South Asia. Respectable progress has been made in these areas across the continents in general, and in Asia in particular (ASEAN, SAARC, APEC). Efforts on these initiatives must be redoubled as we start the 21st century.     

The demand for money and the variability of the rate of inflation : An emperical note

In this note we incorporate the effect of inflation variability on the demand for money in Pakistan. It is found that this variable has a significant impact on money demand function. Our results are similar to those of Klein while they differ with Blejer.     

Simulation of a blood-inventory-bank system in a hospital

A blood-bank inventory system has been analysed viewing it as an inventory-hank system where the demand forecasting forms a part of the inventory model. A simulation model incorporating the “desired-beginning-inventory-level” policy has been used for the analysis of system-performance. Optimal inventory policy-guidelines have been suggested for a hospital blood-bank using blood shortage and blood out-dating as the two important components of the measure of effectiveness. Numerical results have been given.     

Triggers,templates and twitches in the tracking of emerging strategic issues

A longitudinal investigation of group tracking of potential new applications and markets created by an emerging technology (cellular telephones) is used to gain more understanding of the shifts of cognitive frames of reference in the environmental tracking of emerging strategic issues. The dynamics of frame of reference shifts is examined through the derivation and operationalization of the concepts of templates, triggers and twitches. The results posit that examining the frame of reference shifts can be more informative than examining the frames themselves. Implications for strategic management practice and research are addressed.