Efficient contracting and accounting

This paper examines the role of accounting in an efficient contracting perspective of the firm. The firm is an alternative to the market when the costs of using the market become excessive. When a firm replaces the market, authority substitutes for the price mechanism in determining how decisions are made. This paper examines accounting's role in controlling the firm to ensure resources are put to their highest-value use. Accounting, together with employment contracts, compensation arrangements, debt contracts, internal and external auditors, and the board of directors including its audit and compensation committees comprise a package of mechanisms that have evolved to govern the firm. These institutional devices become the firm's efficient contracting technology. As accounting is part of that contracting technology, the accounting controls and systems that evolve and get implemented are efficient and the accounting methods that are used in calculating the numbers that form part of the firm's contractual arrangements are, likewise, efficient.     

Canadian trade unionism and wage parity for women: Putting the principle into practice

This article examines the conceptual impact of equal pay legislation on Canadian trade unionism. Ambiguous, largely voluntary, legislation poses major challenges to unions negotiating wage parity for their members. Furthermore, the movement finds itself caught between conflicting responsibilities as champion of the underpaid and protector of traditional interests. The authors examine this challenge within the context of the historic development, and fundamental principles of trade unionism. They conclude that many of the conflicts discussed arise directly from established union practices and must, therefore, be resolved by the movement and other affected parties together.     

Information structure and stochastic control performance

The linear quadratic control problem with unknown parameters is analytically intractable. To obtain an analytically tractable strategy the statistical assumptions frequently considered are (1) fixed known parameters, (2) independent random parameters, and (3) independent path dependent stochastic parameters. Also considered are three information structures — (1) no observations, (2) observations without anticipation, and (3) observations with anticipation. Treating the assumptions as true, the performance of the strategies is shown to monotonically improve with respect to the information structure in order 1, 2, 3 and with respect to the statistical assumptions in order 2, 3, 1. The results provide estimates of the performance losses due to position and parameter uncertainty for the unknown parameter case.     

Intra-industry foreign direct investment: Its rationale and trade effects

Zusammenfassung Intra-industrielle Direktinvestitionen im Ausland: Ihre Gründe und Auswirkungen auf den AuΒenhandel. — Der Aufsatz zeigt, daΒ intra-industrielle Direktinvestitionen oder die daraus finanzierte Produktion im Ausland Formen des internationalen wirtschaftlichen Engagements sind, die ihre Begründung sowohl im intra-industriellen Handel als auch in der inter-industriellen Produktion finden. Dies wird an Hand einer Taxonomie aufgezeigt. Es wird argumentiert, daΒ intra-industrielle Direktinvestitionen im Ausland eine natürliche Folge der gleichen Faktoren sind, die zu intra-industriellem Handel führen, wobei unternehmensspezifische Vorteile wichtiger sind als die in einem Land begründeten Vorteile. Intra-industrielle Auslandsinvestitionen bedeuten auΒerdem, daΒ internationale Transaktionen am besten in hierarchischer Form und nicht über (Kassa-)M?rkte durchgeführt werden, und zwar aus Gründen, die den g?ngigen Theorien über multinationale Operationen entnommen werden k?nnen. Ganz sicher folgt sowohl aus der Theorie als auch aus den verfügbaren Daten, daΒ die intra-industrielle Produktion wahrscheinlich an Bedeutung gewinnen wird, vor allem dann, wenn keine Eingriffe durch die Regierungen erfolgen.

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Résumé Investissement étranger direct intra-industriel: sa base raisonnée et ses effets commerciaux. — L’article démontre que l’investissement étranger direct intra-industriel (IE-DII) ou la production correspondante comme forme d’engagement international économique est soumise à des motifs rationnels qui basent sur le commerce intra-industriel (Cll) et la production inter-industrielle. Les auteurs arguent que l’IEDII est une conséquence naturelle des facteurs économiques qui ménent au CII et qui même sont déterminés par la nature de ?l’industrie? dans laquelle le CH se passe. En plus, cependant, l’IEDII implique que les transactions internationales sont conduites le mieux par des hiérarchies et non par des marchés à cause des raisons qui peuvent être déduites par des théories recues des opérations internationales. Il apparait clairement, de la théorie aussi bien que des données disponibles que probablement la production intra-industrielle gagnera en importance, particuliérement si elle restera libre de l’intervention gouvernementale.

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Resumen Inversion extranjera directa en la industria: razón de su impacto sobre el comercio. — El artfculo muestra como la inversión extranjera directa intra-industrial o la producción como forma de participación económica internacional tiene una razón de ser basada en el comercio y en la producción intra-industrial. Se propone que la inversión extranjera directa es una conscuencia natural de los factures económicos que llevan el comercio intra-industrial, los que a su vez están determinados por la naturaleza de la industria en el que el comercio tiene lugar. La inversion extranjera directa implica adicionalmente sin embargo que las transacciones internacionales se ejecutan mejor a travès de jerarqufas que a travès de mercados por razones que pueden ser derivadas de conocidas teorias sobre operaciones multinacionales. Es evidente, por medio de la teoria y de las estadisticas disponibles, que se puede esperar un crecimiento de la producci?n intra-industrial, especialmente si se le libèra de interferencia gubernamental.

     

Mimic,an alternative programming language for industrial dynamics

One of the recent quantitative tools available to economists and planners, in business and government, is a technique known as industrial dynamics (Refs. [2, 3, 5, 8]). After briefly describing this technique, this article shows how the MIMIC language can be used as a short-cut to industrial dynamics computations. The intent is to describe this programming language in sufficient detail to allow the reader to judge its capabilities and ease of use.