Concerns and perceptions immediately following Superstorm Sandy: ratings for property damage were higher than for health issues

Governmental officials, health and safety professionals, early responders, and the public are interested in the perceptions and concerns of people faced with a crisis, especially during and immediately after a disaster strikes. Reliable information can lead to increased individual and community preparedness for upcoming crises. The objective of this research was to evaluate concerns of coastal and central New Jersey residents within the first 100?days of Superstorm Sandy’s landfall. Respondents living in central New Jersey and Jersey shore communities were differentially impacted by the storm, with shore residents having higher evacuation rates (47% vs. 13%), more flood waters in their homes, longer power outages (average 23 vs. 6?days), and longer periods without Internet (29 vs. 6?days). Ratings of concerns varied both among and within categories as a function of location (central vs. coastal New Jersey), stressor level (ranging from 1 to 3 for combinations of power outages, high winds, and flooding), and demographics. Respondents were most concerned about property damage, health, inconveniences, ecological services, and nuclear power plants in that order. Respondents from the shore gave higher ratings to the concerns within each major category, compared to those from central Jersey. Four findings have implications for understanding future risk, recovery, and resiliency: (1) respondents with the highest stressor level (level 3) were more concerned about water damage than others, (2) respondents with flood damage were more concerned about water drainage and mold than others, (3) respondents with the highest stressor levels rated all ecological services higher than others, and (4) shore respondents rated all ecological services higher than central Jersey residents. These data provide information to design future preparedness plans, improve resiliency for future severe weather events, and reduce public health risk.     

Perceptions of the Royal Mail case in the Netherlands

The 1931 Royal Mail case, as a landmark event in the history of British accountancy, did not go unnoticed in the Netherlands. Awareness of the case is reflected by a fairly wide scattering of references in contemporary Dutch documentary sources, notably in the literature of the auditing profession. Because of this, the case provides a convenient opening for studying the comparative development of accounting and auditing in Britain and the Netherlands. This paper documents Dutch references to the Royal Mail case from the 1930s to the early 1950s and it presents an interpretation of the pattern and nature of these references. The materials brought together in this paper show that in interpreting the Royal Mail case, Dutch auditors paid more attention to general issues of auditor responsibility than to the issue of secret reserve accounting with which the case is traditionally associated. The case provided support for those who argued with Limperg that the Dutch profession was ahead of Britain in its views on auditor responsibility.     

U or Inverted‐U? That Is the Question

Fields ( The Economic Journal , vol. 103, 1993, pp. 1228–35) provides a forceful argument in favor of a U-shaped path for inequality during a period of high-income-sector enlargement in a dual-economy model. This paper explores the assumptions necessary to derive Fields's controversial result and demonstrates that in fact a U-shaped pattern is possible using the Atkinson index, but some bizarre assumptions about inequality aversion are required.     

Institutional investor sentiment and aggregate stock returns

This paper examines the equity market return predictability of institutional investor sentiment, in comparison to individual investor sentiment. Our findings suggest that institutional traders are informed and that their sentiment helps to tilt stock prices towards the intrinsic value. This is because the sentiment of institutions encompasses news regarding expectations on future cash flows of underlying firms that impounds itself into future price expectations. In this study, we add to the large number of studies that investigate the role and implications of investor sentiment, which has long been viewed as a pure behavioural phenomenon, on market efficiency and price discovery.     

Why so Serious? Theorising Playful Model-Driven Group Decision Support with Situated Affectivity

An integrative approach to theorising behavioural, affective and cognitive processes in model-driven group decision support (GDS) interventions is needed to gain insight into the (micro-)processes by which outcomes are accomplished. This paper proposes that the theoretical lens of situated affectivity, grounded in recent extensions of scaffolded mind models, is suitable to understand the performativity of affective micro-processes in model-driven GDS interventions. An illustrative vignette of a humorous micro-moment in a group decision workshop is presented to reveal the performativity of extended affective scaffolding processes for group decision development. The lens of situated affectivity constitutes a novel approach for the study of interventionist practice in the context of group decision making (and negotiation). An outlook with opportunities for future research is offered to facilitate an integrated approach to the study of cognitive–affective and behavioural micro-processes in model-driven GDS interventions.     

Fiscal Consolidation and the Public Sector Balance Sheet in South Africa

Between 1994 and 2008 the South African government reduced its debt/GDP ratio from almost 50% to 27%. Unfortunately this reduction was accompanied by a significant decrease in government's fixed capital/GDP ratio from 90% to 55% – fiscal sustainability might have been restored, but government's balance sheet did not improve. A similar story can be told for State Owned Enterprises. Since the Great Recession the fiscal situation worsened markedly – the public debt ratio again approaches 50%. To restore fiscal sustainability this article suggests that the government faces two options: (1) to create room for future countercyclical policy, the government must cut current expenditure and reduce the public debt/GDP ratio to its pre‐crisis level, or (2) substitute much‐needed infrastructure capital expenditure for current expenditure while stabilising the debt/GDP ratio at its post‐crisis level. Given that the much lower fixed capital/GDP ratio inhibits economic growth, the latter option might be more sensible.     

News and notes

New Perspectives on Technology and Organization.

Innovative Banking: Competition and the Management of a New Networks Technology J. Howells &; J . Hines Eds) Ldon, Routledge, 1992, 252pp., £40.00 (hbk), ISB-V 0-415-05941-0. Technology and Organization: Power, Meaning and Design H. Scarborough &; J.M. Corbett London. Routledge. 1992, 178pp., ,£15.00, (pbk), ISBN 0-415-05941-0.

Beyond Partnership-Strategies for Innovation &; Lean Supply Richard Lamming Hemel Hempstead, Prentice-Hall International, 1993, ix + 299pp., £19.95 (hbk).

From Anticipation to Action: A handbook of Strategic Perspective Michel Godet.