A libertarian theory of rights and future generations

The central question in preserving the rights of future generations is how to ground a theory of rights that is also acceptable to the present generation, including staunch Republicans, without self-contradiction. Such a theory of rights consists of the three principles of a minimalist liberatarian theory (that of Robert Nozick), and demonstrates that environmental degradation is a violation of this theory of rights; a theory that is compatible with a free enterprise corporate culture. It is shown that no appeal to liberalism is necessary. It is shown that the case is not based on some ideals of justice but on three politically conservative principles that all modern societies accept as being fundamental to the continuation of those societies. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at Cornell University and at Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Berlin. I would like to thank Dr Udo E. Simonis for his helpful comments, but I alone am responsible for any remaining errors. This research is financed by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, grant#410-94-1221.     

Debt Relief and Credit to the Private Sector in African Countries

Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to empirically investigate the link between debt relief and credit to the private sector in African countries using a panel method over the period 1988–2004. The motivation for investigating the relationship between debt relief and credit to the private sector follows Christensen's (2004) hypothesis that domestic debt has a negative impact on the credit to private sector; therefore debt relief is expected to alleviate domestic debt and thereby create space for domestic credit, which if it is mostly constituted of public sector credit, crowds out credit to the private sector. The main results of the paper are as follows: (1) debt relief has a significant and positive effect on credit to the private sector in the short term; (2) in the long term, debt relief has positive effects on domestic credit to the private sector only when associated with good initial institutional quality.     

The dynamics of the Monday effect in international stock indices

This examination of the temporal dynamics of the international Monday effect is based on 50 countries. Observed between-country differences are characterised by an economic factor based on four indices. The prior day effect captures the tendency for price changes to follow those on the prior day. A bad (good) day occurs when the price change on the prior day is negative (positive). A panel regression with panel corrected standard errors, is used to characterise the way that the Monday effect and the cognate prior day effect systematically vary between countries over the period 1994 to 2006. At the start of the data in 1994, there is a considerable prior day effect which is larger for poor countries. This between-country difference declines over time and has essentially disappeared by 2006. The bad non-Monday effect and the bad-Monday effect also decline over time. Further analysis with six leading economies provides evidence that the prior day influence on Mondays and non-Mondays dates back to at least 1973.     

Pragmatism to Dogmatism: The Laissez Faire Myth and the Disabling of the American Fisc

The authors argue that the recent upsurge in anti-tax sentiment has its roots evolving social conditions and adherence to the laissez faire myth. Content analysis reveals that political anti-tax rhetoric increased in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a time of social distress in the US. This increased political attention provided a rhetorical punctuation whereby a substantial portion of Americans moved toward a much more dogmatic adherence to the laissez faire myth. The result has been to convert the laissez faire myth into a disabling myth that severely limits open discussion of fiscal issues and reduces the options in public finance decisions.     

Do investment in and the sourcing arrangement of the internal audit function affect audit delay?

This paper investigates the association between the internal audit function attributes and audit delay using a sample of 432 publicly traded firms in Malaysia in 2009. In this unique setting, we capitalize on the publicly available data concerning the investment in and the sourcing arrangement of internal audit function. We find a negative relationship between the costs incurred for the internal audit function and audit delay. However, we do not find any significant association between the internal audit function sourcing arrangements and audit delay. Additionally, we find that greater audit committee independence and longer auditor–client tenure shorten audit delay, and more frequent audit committee meetings and higher misstatements in the preliminary unaudited earnings are associated with a longer audit delay.     

Co-movement of oil and stock prices in the GCC region: A wavelet analysis

This paper examines the short term and long term dependencies between stock market returns and OPEC basket oil returns for the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) and two non-oil producing countries in the region (Egypt and Jordan), over the period 2002–2011. We utilize the wavelet coherency methodology in our empirical analyses. The empirical evidence indicates lack of market dependencies in the short term in these countries, indicating that oil and stock returns are not strongly linked in this interval. However, we show that oil returns and the stock markets returns co-move over the long term. The results also suggest that the long term dependencies are much stronger for OPEC oil returns and Jordan stock market returns relative to OPEC oil returns and Egypt stock market returns, implying a variation in the dependencies between oil prices and stock markets across countries. We further note an increasing strength in the market dependencies after 2007, signifying enhanced diversification benefit for investors in the short term relative to the long term.     

沧州市2016年"8.24"暴雨过程及影响分析

介绍了2016年8月24~25日沧州市出现的暴雨过程及时空分布情况,分析了这次暴雨对河道行洪、地下水位抬升、防洪排涝及土壤墒情的有利影响.这次暴雨也造成了沧州市主城区的严重积水,很多道路交通中断,在一定程度上影响了当地人民群众的正常生活.     

The impact of patent rights on international trade: evidence from Canada

The extent to which Canadian manufacturing exports are sensitive to national differences in patent rights are examined. The conclusion is that, overall, Canadians tend to export more to those countries where their patent rights are highly safeguarded. Stronger patent protection induces Canadians to export relatively more to high-income countries than to low-income countries. In addition, the effect of stronger patent rights is to increase exports to those countries that pose a strong threat of imitation and to reduce exports to those countries that pose the weakest threat of imitation. JEL Classification: F13; O34
Impact de la propriété des brevets sur le commerce international: résultats pour le Canada . Ce mémoire examine jusqu'à quel point les exportations manufacturières canadiennes sont sensibles aux différences dans la propriété des brevets entre pays. L'étude conclut que les Canadiens tendent à exporter davantage vers les pays où la propriété des brevets est hautement protégée.Il appert que la plus forte protection de la propriété des brevets tend à faire que les Canadiens exportent relativement plus vers les pays à hauts revenus que vers ceux à plus faibles revenus. De plus, il appert que l'effet de la plus forte protection des brevets est d'accroître les exportations vers les pays qui posent une forte menace d'imitation et de réduire les exportations vers les pays qui posent la plus faible menace d'imitation.     

Consumer ethics: An investigation of the ethical beliefs of elderly consumers

Business and especially marketing ethics have come to the forefront in recent years. While consumers have been surveyed regarding their perceptions of ethical business and marketing practices, research has been minimal with regard to their perceptions of ethical consumer practices. In addition, few studies have examined the ethical beliefs of elderly consumers even though they are an important and rapidly growing segment. This research investigates the relationship between Machiavellianism, ethical ideology and ethical beliefs for elderly consumers. The results indicate that elderly consumers, while generally being more ethical than younger consumers, are diverse in their eithical beliefs. Dr Scott J. Vitell is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Macromarketing, the Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of The Academy of Marketing Science, Research in Marketing, various national and regional proceedings, and elsewhere. Dr James R. Lumpkin is the Gene Brauns Professor of Marketing at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He has been published in such journals as the American Journal of Small Business, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, The Gerontologist, Psychological Reports, Industrial Marketing Management, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and other scholarly journals. Mohammed Y. A. Rawwas is a doctoral student of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. His publications have appeared in Medical Marketing and Media and national proceedings.