Transactions Costs and New Institutions: Will CBLTs Have a Role in the Saskatchewan Land Market?

Increases in farm foreclosures in the last decade have created pressures for individuals and organisations to seek alternatives to the traditional debt financing of farm land. A model of a Community Based Land Trust (CBLT) was developed by Brown, Gray and Molder as an alternative form of land tenure. The transaction cost economics literature suggests that a new institution will be adopted only if the institution results in an overall reduction in transaction costs. This paper evaluates the CBLT proposal by comparing the transactions costs with this form of tenure with the transaction costs of the more traditional form of tenure. The qualitative analysis revealed that no existing form of land tenure clearly dominates the CBLT thus porn a transaction cost perspective, the CBLT may have some probability of acceptance in the marketplace.     

The implications of the national minimum wage for training in small firms

This article investigates the extent to which small firms' training practices have altered since the introduction of the national minimum wage (NMW). Low pay is particularly widespread among small firms and they are thus likely to have been disproportionately affected by the NMW. Drawing on survey data collected from 258 establishments, the study provides information about training practices and identifies the steps that employers have taken to offset the impact of the NMW. The study also assesses the extent to which firms have made use of lower ‘development’ rates for young workers and new adult recruits, and whether this has been associated with an increase in training activity. The findings suggest that the NMW has provided a positive boost to training in some cases, although this has primarily come about as a result of efforts by firms to offset increases in labour costs, as opposed to take‐up of the development rate.     

A Methodology for Calculating the Allowance for Loan Losses in Commercial Banks

Severe disturbances in the financial markets in many countries during the 1980s and 1990s caused many stakeholders to examine whether commercial banks had adequate reserves for future loan losses. In the United States, bank regulators considered an adequate Allowance for Loan Losses a 'safety and soundness' issue while the SEC became increasingly concerned over the possibility of banks using the Allowance as a method to 'manage earnings'. Both regulators demanded more rigorous calculations from banks to support their accounting entries. Also the FASB and the IASB have expressed concerns about a lack of harmonization and convergence in standards. An analysis of measurement standards in the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the IASB, reveals the partially conflicting goals for the Allowance: (a) promote harmonization (IASB), (b) increase transparency (SEC), (c) promote safety and soundness (bank regulators) and (d) maintain reasonable flexibility in recognition of the subjective aspects in determining an appropriate Allowance (bankers). The article offers a methodology which an individual bank may utilize to reconcile the conflicting goals of all interested parties.     

Identifying Strategies to Mitigate Handling Risks in the Canadian Grain Supply Chain

The introduction of new generation agricultural products has generated an increased need for efficient and accurate product segregation across a number of Canadian agricultural sectors. As a key component of wheat handling in the Canadian grain industry, grading of wheat for value‐added blending has historically been accomplished by visual identification. As of 2008 in Canada, visual identification was eliminated for all primary classes of wheat and replaced by an alternative system of wheat declaration. Given the high costs of testing each truck and railcar for quality assurance, the declaration system must rely on incentives and trust as there is now considerable potential for accidental or opportunistic misrepresentation throughout the grain supply chain. This research attempts to identify cost‐effective handling strategies and policies so as to maintain the integrity of the supply chain under the new declaration system. An agent‐based simulation model is developed to capture the effects of individual heterogeneity as well as behavioral adaption to the declaration system within the modern wheat supply chain. The simulated results are used to identify superior testing strategies for handlers, along with the relative risks and costs associated with each of the testing strategies.     

And no birds sing—reviving the romance with international entrepreneurship

This article contributes to the emerging debate over the nature and future directions of international entrepreneurship (IE). Our study extends the research of Jones et al. (2011) through a ‘review of the reviews’ of IE studies as well as a census of the articles published in the Journal of International Entrepreneurship (JIEn) between its inception in 2003 and the beginning of 2012. The results suggest relatively few studies focus on the nexus of international business and entrepreneurship (e.g. by investigating how innovative and entrepreneurial firms can internationalise rapidly). Although definitions of IE and INVs have become more ‘entrepreneurial’ over time, there has been a limited critique of the INV definitions of Oviatt and McDougall. We propose an updated definition of IE research that includes three elements that have been under-researched but which could help revive IE as a fruitful area of study: (1) clarification of the links between innovation, entrepreneurship and internationalisation, (2) greater emphasis on the nexus of international entrepreneurship and (3) a better understanding of the dynamic aspects of international new venture development, including networking, organizational life cycles and business model development.     

Dynamic, nonparametric hedging of European style contingent claims using canonical valuation

The canonical valuation, proposed by Stutzer [1996. Journal of Finance 51, 1633–1652], is a nonparametric option pricing approach for valuing European-style contingent claims. This paper derives risk-neutral dynamic hedge formulae for European call and put options under canonical valuation that obey put–call parity. Further, the paper documents the error-metrics of the canonical hedge ratio and analyzes the effectiveness of discrete dynamic hedging in a stochastic volatility environment. The results suggest that the nonparametric hedge formula generates hedges that are substantially unbiased and is capable of producing hedging outcomes that are superior to those produced by Black and Scholes [1973. Journal of Political Economy 81, 637–654] delta hedging.     

Perspectives of Accountability in Charities in New Zealand

This study identifies three perspectives of accountability in charitable organizations: agency, stewardship, and stakeholder in relation to the availability of financial information. To examine current accountability practices, 75 interviews and informal conversations were undertaken with participants in charities in New Zealand. Many of the interviewees operated under some form of stewardship milieu. They regarded the need to discharge accountability by providing financial information as a low priority. Education may provide a way to resolve this issue by advancing stakeholders’ perspectives of accountability. This could result in reduced support for charities that do not uphold a certain standard of financial information.     

Central European foreign exchange markets: a cross-spectral analysis of the 2007 financial crisis

This article investigates co-movements between currency markets of Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Euro in the year following the drying up of money markets in August 2007. The article shows that assessing the degree of foreign currency co-movement by correlation can lead to concluding, erroneously, that financial contagion has not occurred. Using cross-spectral methods, the article shows that defining contagion as changes in the structure of co-movements of asset prices encompasses more of the complex nature of exchange rate dynamics. What is shown is that, following August 2007, there is increase in the intensity of co-movements, but non-linearly. Focusing on the activities of a mix of banks and currency managers, it is suggested that changes in the structure of currency interaction present an unfavourable view of the contagion experienced by at least three of these currencies.