Halifax Henna: The Art of Manageable Growth*

This case explores the dilemma many young women face when they begin a family: juggling a full‐time job as a young Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) with a government job, continuing to grow a small business as a henna artist, and caring for a new baby. Even before the arrival of the first child, the combination of continuing to do both jobs was not sustainable. The case provides information to enable students to assess the financial health of a small business and provides a recommendation to the owner. In addition, information regarding paying childcare costs while continuing with a government job provides a realistic comparison for students. Often students jump to the money, which is currently in her accounting job, and forget that passion, dreams, and objectives for work–life balance, although earning less at the moment due to the part‐time nature, may be the best way forward.     

The determinants of the model-free positive and negative volatilities

In this paper we analyze the role of macroeconomic and financial determinants in explaining stock market volatilities in the U.S. market. Both implied and realized volatility are computed model-free and decomposed into positive and negative components, thereby allowing us to compute directional volatility risk premia. We capture the behaviour of each component of implied volatility and risk premium in relation to their different determinants. The negative implied volatility appears to be linked more towards financial conditions variables such as uncertainty and geopolitical risk indexes, whereas positive implied volatility is driven more by macro variables such as inflation and GDP. There is a clear shift in importance from macro towards financial determinants moving from the pre towards the post financial crisis. A mixed frequency Granger causality approach uncovers causality relationships between volatilities and risk premia and macro variables and vice versa, a finding which is not detected with a conventional low frequency VAR model.     

Do lower yielding farmers benefit from Bt corn? Evidence from instrumental variable quantile regressions

There have been serious questions about whether lower-yielding farmers in developing countries, who are typically poor smallholders, benefit from genetically-modified crops like Bacillus thuringensis (Bt) corn. This article examines this issue by estimating the heterogeneous impacts of Bt corn adoption at different points of the yield distribution using farm-level survey data from the Philippines. A recently developed estimation technique called instrumental variable quantile regression (IVQR) is used to assess the heterogeneous yield effects of Bt corn adoption and at the same time address potential selection bias that usually plague impact assessment of agricultural technologies. We find that the positive yield impact of Bt corn in the Philippines tend to be more strongly felt by farmers at the lower end of the yield distribution. This result suggests that Bt corn could be a “pro-poor” technology since most of the lower-yielding farmers in the Philippines are poor smallholders with low incomes.     

The impact of digitalisation on remittances. Evidence from El Salvador

This paper carries out a microeconomic analysis of the determinants of remittances from a receiving perspective in El Salvador. Specifically, using data from the ‘Encuesta de Hogares de Propósitos Múltiples of 2016’ (2016 Multi-purpose Household Survey -EHPM16), the characteristics of households that affect the reception of remittances in El Salvador in 2016 were analysed, focusing on the level of digitalisation in households. Determinants of remittances are not everlasting and are affected by social and economic changes. In this sense, the effect on remittances caused by an increase in the widespread use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is not an exception. Based on a two steps selection model, the results point out that the household's level of digitalisation significantly increases the probability of receiving remittances, not their amount.     

Do public account financial statements matter? Evidence from Japanese municipalities

Many governments are introducing business-like accounting systems. This paper examines the fiscal effects of compiling business-like financial statements on the expenditures of local governments in Japan as a complement to cash-based reporting. Using the variation in the deadlines for compiling new statements given by the central government in a difference-in-differences instrumental variable approach, we found that business-like financial statements have limited effects on municipalities’ expenditures but have short-run effects on social assistance expenses. This might be a part of the reconstruction of their expenditure structure.     

Supervisory shocks to banks' credit standards and their macroeconomic impact

Credit standards reported in the Bank Lending Surveys (BLS) of the European Central Bank (ECB) summarize banks’ sentiment about credit market tightness, and they strongly comove with credit growth. This paper introduces a new external instrument that captures an exogenous source of variation in credit standards, allowing us to identify a structural shock that negatively affects the credit supply. The instrument accounts for mandatory rotations of external auditors within credit institutions of nine euro-area countries. By estimating local projections, this paper finds that an unexpected supervisory measure at the banking-system level features significant dynamic causal effects at the macroeconomic level, which are also state-dependent.     

Firm size and cost system sophistication: The role of firm age

The costing literature has failed to conclusively explain why some companies implement sophisticated costing systems while others do not. Although some contingency variables were proposed, inconclusive results were reported which raised concerns about their underlying theory. Focusing on firm size, as the most examined and confusing variable in this contingency literature, we develop and test more complex relations than in prior studies to provide more insights into its role. More specifically, we test potential indirect positive relations between firm size and cost system sophistication (through product diversity and cost structure) and bring to light the role of firm age largely neglected in the cost accounting literature. Using two different statistical analyses (i.e. SEM and PLS) and data from manufacturing firms, our findings suggest, in contrast to the majority of prior studies, that not all larger firms should be expected to have sophisticated costing systems. The impact of firm size on cost system sophistication depends on firm age and is mediated by product diversity but not cost structure. We conclude by emphasizing the need for more complex models to further advance the theory on costing systems. Such models should go beyond explaining the potential impact of each contextual variable in isolation.     

The shale oil revolution and the global oil supply curve

We focus on the implications of the shale oil boom for the global supply of oil. In order to derive testable implications, we introduce a simple stylized model with two producers, one facing low production costs and one higher production costs but potentially lower adjustment costs, competing à la Stackelberg. We find that the supply function is flatter for the high cost producer and that the supply function for shale oil producers becomes more responsive to demand shocks when adjustment costs decline. On the empirical side, we apply an instrumental variable approach using estimates of demand-driven oil price changes derived from a standard structural VAR of the oil market. A main finding is that global oil supply is rather vertical, with a short-term elasticity around 0.05. A rolling sample reveals that the shale oil boom does not appear to have fundamentally changed the contours of global oil production, but there is evidence for the oil supply curve to become more vertical in Saudi Arabia and more price responsive in the United States.     

Labour market rigidity and expansionary austerity

This study provides new evidence on how labour market rigidities affect the transmission of fiscal consolidations using a sample of 17 OECD countries. Owing to a novel empirical approach, the outcomes of consolidations are modelled as a function of employment and wage rigidities. The evidence confirms that tax-based consolidations are distortionary, while expenditure-based consolidations have wealth effects. These effects are then magnified by flexible employment and rigid wages, while they are moderated by rigid employment and flexible wages. This indicates that labour market conditions influence how fiscal consolidation is propagated in the economy by affecting both the magnitude and the transmission channels of consolidation plans. This result has crucial policy implications and suggests that the design of consolidation plans should account for the labour market structure.