Gender-responsive budgeting: The case for Botswana

Various conferences on women's rights have identified a relationship between gender, power, decision-making and resource allocation. Considering it is a given that pockets of gender inequality in many developing countries, including Botswana, the women will always be disadvantaged in resource allocation. The disadvantage manifests itself in many fronts, particularly feminised poverty and HIV infection. Since the effects of the global financial crisis are not gender-neutral, women and girls, as vulnerable groups, must be protected by gender-responsive budgeting. This paper argues that while Botswana has chalked up some successes in gender equality initiatives, sufficiently instanced by the ratification of gender conventions, public budgeting largely lacks gender responsiveness. Since literature advocating for gender-responsive budgeting in Botswana is lacking, this paper attempts to fill the gap and encourage debate. Finally, it argues that such budgeting will ensure equality in resource allocation and also empower women.     

VONNA(HBP)

ABSTRACT

In this paper, a new learning package, VONNA(HBP), which provides an interactive and online environment for novices to study and practice hotel budget planning, is introduced. Its design philosophy will be discussed thoughtfully with special focus on how to make use of the multimedia and Internet. According to literatures, learning packages are faced to be more effective in delivering teaching material. Researchers indicate that students using a self-paced learning package score higher than in a traditional classroom setting. Moreover, the learning package provides different scenarios for students to explore themselves in a practical environment and is more cost effective and systematic than lectures. Currently, most learning packages in hotel education are not implemented using multimedia with Internet access. Our paper describes a new learning package that fills the gaps.

VONNA(HBP) requires participants to investigate operational budgets on various areas such as sales levels, payroll, inventory level, promotion strategies, and facilities planning, etc. Eventually, the students/novices are required to practice their skills in a comprehensive case about a hypothetical hotel. They need to solve managerial problems by a combination of budgetary planning on human resources, staff training programmes, facilities' maintenance and replacement, or promotion schemes. Analytical tools are available for students/novices to judge an appropriate decision in handling constrained resources.     

Division Manager Lobbying Power and the Allocation of Capital

We investigate whether division manager lobbying power affects the allocation of capital in multi-divisional firms. We find that firm-level disparities in division manager lobbying power (measured by tenure, time-in-position, board membership, and top executive status) affect capital allocation in expected ways. Managers with greater relative lobbying power compete for capital expenditures from a position of strength. Evidence is also provided which suggests that division manager ownership mitigates lobbying efforts. Furthermore, disparity in division manager lobbying power is associated with lower firm excess value. These results support the view that division manager influence activities impact the operation of internal capital markets.     

A model and case for supporting participatory public decision making in e-democracy

In this paper, focusing on participatory public decision making processes, I propose a framework for group support systems and discuss related research issues. As a case illustrating the feasibility of participatory public decision making, I present the participatory budgeting experience in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The case is analyzed based on the proposed framework.     

Multinationals do it better: Evidence on the efficiency of corporations' capital budgeting

With U.S. multinational enterprises playing increasingly important roles in the global economy, it is important to understand the efficiency of their capital budgeting decisions. We examine an unbalanced panel of 332 U.S. firms from 1992–2000. Using the deviation of a firm's estimated marginal Tobin's q from a benchmark as an indicator of effective resource allocation, we find that widespread multinationals make more efficient capital budgeting decisions. We also test whether this reflects the MNEs' investment locations, but do not obtain support for the hypotheses that they might be monitored by more agents or more successfully resist pressures from interest groups and governments.     

A Survey of Capital Budgeting Techniques in the Public and Private Sectors of a Less Developed Country (LDC)

ABSTRACT

This study surveys the capital budgeting practice in private and commercially-oriented public sector enterprises in the Sudan, an African Less Developed Country (LDC). The study attempts to fill a gap in the existing literature by documenting the capital budgeting practice in an LDC where the economic environment is different than the developed and developing counterparts and where public sector still plays a major role in the economy.

The study found a sizable number of commercially-oriented public corporations that do not use capital budgeting techniques in their capital investment decisions while the majority of private sector companies use these methods. Among the corporations that use capital budgeting methods, both in the public and private sector, the payback method (PB) is the most widely used method, followed by the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPV) in the private sector and the public sector respectively.

The study also revealed additional factors such as cost, size, quality, experience and hard currency requirements that affect the capital budgeting process in both sectors. However, there are differences in the level of importance of these factors between the two sectors.     

Incorporating price elasticity in financial forecasting models: From theory to practice and implementation

The authors use a capital budgeting example to show students how to incorporate price elasticity into financial analysis as an application of what students learn in their microeconomics course. They present simple as well as more advanced price-quantity relationships, and using various “what-if” scenarios; the authors show how risk analysis can be used to improve revenue projections and valuation models. A project analysis example is employed to illustrate results for negative predictive value and IRR based on three models of price elasticities across a range of potential product pricing. Students are then encouraged to replicate and create similar models, helping them improve their vital Excel and financial modeling skills.     

会计脆弱性原因剖析及对策选择

会计脆弱性借用了金融脆弱性概念,由于信息不对称和盈余管理的客观存在、稳健性原则和应计制原则等的运用,导致会计信息具有极大的脆弱性。本文对造成会计脆弱性的原因进行了剖析,并提出了一些对策建议。     

盈余信息风险的权益风险溢价研究——基于中国上市公司财务数据

盈余信息是公司金融与投资决策的主要依据之一。以三因素定价模型、流动性定价模型和多因素定价模型为比较检验基准模型,利用中国上市公司财务数据,本文探讨了总应计和线上项目的盈余信息风险对权益风险溢价是否具有显著的增量解释能力。研究表明,权益风险报酬对总应计利润信息风险的因素载荷为正,其反应比较显著;权益风险报酬对线上项目利润信息风险的因素载荷也为正,但是其反应程度不太显著。在综合考虑多种风险因素的情况下,总应计利润信息风险的因素载荷较大。     

权责发生制在高校会计核算中的应用研究

近年来,我国高等教育发展迅速,高等教育规模不断扩大,现行高校的会计核算基础收付实现制,已经不能满足高校的财务管理的需要。我国高校现行采用的收付实现制存在弊端,以权责发生制加以取代十分必要。