Genetic risk and value

A conceptual truth about risks is that they involve a possible and future adverse effect or a negative value of some kind. The genetic risks that individuals may face in the health care setting differ in some crucial respects to other kind of risks. The aims of this paper are to analyse the notion of value in the context of genetic risk in the setting of health care, and to suggest a conception of the evaluative aspect of genetic risk that is fruitful for genetic risk information. Two influential and relevant approaches to value, preferentialism and the capability approach, are discussed in the light of certain distinctive features of genetic risk and a third, a sensibility theory of value is suggested. According to this view, the concept of risk is a so-called ‘thick’ evaluative concept that has both a world-guiding function as well as an action-guiding or normative function. It is argued that this provides a more promising way to think about genetic risks in the clinical setting.     

Sociology,risk and the environment: a material-semiotic approach

Abstract

Sociology has made significant contributions to the conceptualisation of risk and critique of technical risk analysis. It has, however, unintentionally reinforced the division of labour between the natural/technical and social sciences in risk analysis. This paper argues that the problem with conceptualisations of risk is not a misplaced emphasis on calculation. Rather, it is that we have not adequately dealt with ontological distinctions implicit in both sociological and technical work on risk between material or objective risks and our socially mediated understandings and interpretations of those risks. While acknowledging that risks are simultaneously social and technical, sociologists have not, in practice, provided the conceptual and methodological tools to apprehend risk in a less dualistic manner. This limits our ability both to analyse actors and processes outside the social domain and to explore the recursive relationships between risk calculus, social action and the material outcomes of risk. In response, this paper develops a material-semiotic conceptualisation of risk and provides an assessment of its relevance to more sociologically informed risk governance. It introduces the ideas of co-constitution, emergent entities and enactment as instruments for reconciling the material and social worlds in a sociological study of risk. It further illustrates the application of a material-semiotic approach using these concepts in the nuclear industry. In deconstructing social–material dualisms in the sociology of risk, this paper argues that a material-semiotic conceptualisation of risk enables both technical and social perspectives on risk not only to coexist but to collaborate, widening the scope for interdisciplinary research.     

Credit Risk Research: Review and Agenda

This article provides a comprehensive review of scholarly research on credit risk measurement during the last 57 years applying bibliometric citation analysis and elaborates an agenda for future research. The bibliography is compiled using the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science (WOS) database and includes all articles with citations over the period 1960–2016. Specifically, the review is carried out using 1695 articles across 72 countries published in 442 journals by 2928 authors. The findings suggest that credit risk research is multifaceted and can be classified into six streams: (1) defaultable security pricing, (2) default intensity modeling, (3) comparative analysis of credit models, (4) comparative analysis of credit markets, (5) credit default swap (CDS) pricing, and (6) loan loss provisions. The article contributes through synthesizing and identifying existing as well as emerging research streams.     

Responsiveness of Auditors to the Audit Risk Standards: Unique Evidence from Big 4 Audit Firms

We examine the effect of changes in audit risk standards on the conduct of financial statement audits in a European setting. We investigate this by analysing the audit hours and audit fees for clients of Big 4 audit firms in Finland in 1996 and 2010. Our results show that audit firms became more sensitive to clients’ business risk due to the introduction of the new audit risk standards, with more audit hours allocated to owner-managed companies in 2010 than in 1996, and fewer audit hours allocated to low-risk clients in 2010 than in 1996. Also, the labour mix in the audit team changed for owner-managed companies, with a greater work load carried by junior auditors in 2010 than in 1996. Regarding the price of audit, we find an increase in audit fees for clients with high business risk, while audit fees remained at roughly the same level for low-risk clients. These findings should be of interest to the auditing profession and those involved in the development of auditing regulations.     

Fair value disclosures and crash risk

In response to the public criticism of the inadequate disclosures mandated by SFAS No. 157, Fair Value Measurements, the FASB issued ASU (Accounting Standards Update) 2010–06, Improving Disclosures about Fair Value Measurements, and ASU 2011–04, Amendments to Achieve Common Fair Value Measurement and Disclosure Requirements, in an effort to increase the reporting transparency. We examine whether the increased fair value disclosures required by these two updates effectively decrease crash risk, defined as the frequency of extreme negative stock returns. In support of the hypothesis, we find that increased transparency from these updates reduces crash risk among U.S. banking firms and that the reduction is greater in banks that have a higher level of Level 3 financial assets.     

基于流程图法的EIRMCIS过程分析

基于流程图方法研究建立了企业集成风险管理控制信息系统(EIRMCIS)过程分析模型。分析指出了企业整体风险的影响因子,明确了企业集成风险目标,根据企业业务运行的一般流程建立了EIRMCIS的基本框架。该过程分析模型使企业能够对各风险进行有效控制,并为企业制定战略计划提供了保障。     

重点国有林区改革风险防范与对策

为规避重点国有林区改革引发乱砍滥伐森林的高风险,提出重点国有林区由中央直接管理,由国务院设立重点国有林区改革领导组,和实行总体规划科学生产力布局三点对策。     

高外贸依存度下的出口退税政策

改革开放初期,我国外汇短缺,为此国家实施“创汇战略”,实行出口退税。近年来,我国已成为全球第一大外汇储备国,形成一种全新的外贸环境。但另一方面也显现出我国经济对国际市场的依赖大大提高,外贸依存度不断上升。因此,我国对现行的出口退税政策进行了调整,此次调整将有利于进一步优化产业结构,促进外贸增长方式转变,推动进出口贸易均衡发展。     

基于ERP的企业管理变革分析

ERP推动了企业管理变革,提高了企业的科学管理水平.文章在对ERP的管理思想进行论述的基础上,对ERP的应用给企业的管理思想、业务流程、组织结构、企业文化、能力建设等层面带来的变革进行了研究,并对基于ERP的管理变革的效益与风险进行了分析,提出了规避风险的方法.     

地方政府债务、金融营商环境与实体企业融资约束

文章基于“财政金融关联”视角,利用2015至2020年省级层面的面板数据,实证检验了地方政府债务、金融营商环境与实体企业融资约束三者间的作用效果。研究结果表明：地方政府债务与企业融资约束存在正向推高关系,而良好的金融营商环境对实体企业融资约束存在负向抑制关系;异质性检验显示,地方政府债务对民营实体企业、中西部实体企业融资约束的推高作用更强;交互效应结果显示,金融营商环境的优化能有效缓解地方政府债务对实体企业融资约束的推高作用。因此,提出改善地区金融营商环境、对差异化企业性质实施优惠帮扶政策以及严控地方政府隐性债务增量是缓解实体企业融资困境,促进地区经济平稳发展的重要措施。