Do Australian companies manage earnings to meet simple earnings benchmarks?

Measurement error in unexpected accruals is an important problem for empirical earnings management research. Several recent studies avoid this problem by examining the pooled, cross–sectional distribution of reported earnings. Discontinuities in the distribution of reported earnings around key earnings thresholds may indicate the exercise of management discretion (i.e. earnings management). We apply this approach to the detection of earnings management by Australian firms. Our results generally indicate significantly more small earnings increases and small profits than expected and conversely, considerably fewer small earnings decreases and small losses than expected. These results are much stronger for larger Australian firms. We undertake an exploratory analysis of alternative explanations for our results and find some evidence consistent with management signalling its inside knowledge about the firm's expected future profitability to smooth earnings, as opposed to 'management intent to deceive' as an explanation for our results.     

Inequality, Crime and Economic Growth. A Classical Argument for Distributional Equality

This paper studies the dynamic general-equilibrium interactions between inequality, crime and economic growth by embedding the rational choice-theoretical approach to criminal behavior in a heterogeneous-agents endogenous-growth OLG model. Based on their respective opportunity costs, individuals choose to specialize in either legal or criminal activities. While legal households contribute to aggregate goods supply over time by either working or building human capital, criminals make a living by expropriating legal citizens of part of the latter's income. An increase in inequality lowers the economy's growth rate and possesses negative welfare effects for all agents with endowments equal to or above average and for agents with endowment below average that are born sufficiently far in the future.     

Industrial distributors: Can they survive in the new economy?

As e-commerce evolves and gains power in the business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, what lies ahead for the industrial distributor? The fundamental issue from the distributor's point of view is how to compete more effectively and profitably, given the changing business environment of the new economy. This paper reviews the literature on the distributor's role and relationships and introduces a conceptual model of distributor viability. The model identifies sources of value that distributors offer to manufacturers and customers, including customer relationship management (CRM), production and operations management (POM), and knowledge management (KM). The paper explores the managerial implications of distributor relationships and sources of value. This provides the foundation for better understanding of the viability of industrial distributors in the new economy.     

On the Distribution of CBOE Option Trade Prices Occurring Between Consecutive Stock Trades

This paper examines the volume distribution of option trade prices that occurs when the underlying stock price remains constant. The width of these option trade price bands provides direct evidence on the law of one price and the redundancy of options assumed in many option models. We find that index option bands are narrower than equity option bands. Furthermore, for both equity and index options, puts have narrower bandwidths than calls. In general, option price bandwidth is narrow and can be explained by the minimum price movement allowed by the Chicago Board Options Exchanges (CBOE). This supports the single price law and the redundancy assumption. The existence of bid/ask quotes on the option does not materially affect the above results although it does alter the frequency of multiple option trade prices for a given underlying stock price. We note that over 53% of option trading volume occurs without bid/ask quotes on the CBOE compared to less than 15% a decade ago. Our results suggest that the effective bid/ask spread on options is probably no larger than the minimum price movements allowed by the CBOE. Furthermore, the need for the liquidity services of market makers may be declining if the decline in quoting activity stems from cross trading (i.e. trades not involving market makers).     

Subordinated Market Index Models: A Comparison

The paper compares various processes subordinated to the Wiener process tomodel the leptokurtic characteristics of index returns. Empirical analysisis performed on the Dow Jones and Nikkei 225 indexes. A good model to capturethe typical tail behaviour of these indexes turns out to be a long Studentt distributed one.     

未确知有理数的定义运算及其应用

本文给出未确知有理数的定义、运算。并把它应用到煤矿立井建设中,为矿井施工管理提供了可靠的数学处理方法。     

电网企业优化购电成本方法研究与实证分析

通过购电成本结构分析,指出了当前发电计划编制及执行中存在的问题和当前发电计划编制对电网购电费的影响。重点研究了有关降低电网购电成本的方法及实证,并为政府价格相关部门提出创建节能型社会的政策建议。     

国有商业银行费用偏好与组织绩效的实证分析

单一国有产权结构、出资人监督缺位和委托代理问题共同决定了国有商业银行费用扩张偏好.实证结果表明,费用规模扩张侵蚀了出资人利润性收益空间,成为国有商业银行利润率指标偏低的解释因素.因此,国有商业银行制度变迁必然包含能够抑制费用偏好的制度工具创新.政府宏观经济目标的退出可以使出资人硬化利润约束,但在政府效用函数不可能全面退出国有商业银行的现实背景中,通过引进在位寡头之间的竞争可以为国有商业银行利润目标约束硬化提供外在制衡条件;同时,产权多元化改革基础上的银行治理结构完善则是解决委托-代理问题下经营者费用偏好问题的彻底措施.     

油气田开发项目平均投资利润率和利税率的确定

行业平均投资利润率和行业平均投资利税率是投资者进行投资机会选择的主要参考依据之一，是投资者对其投资项目收益的最低期望要求。从投资者角度来讲，恰当地确定平均投资利润率和行业平均投资利税率是一个相当重要而又比较棘手的问题。文章主要讨论了如何确定油气田勘探开发项目经济评价中平均投资利润率和行业平均投资利税率的一种简单方法。     

潜油电泵泵轴寿命可靠性分析

统计了大庆油田近五年应用的4123套潜油电泵机组，针对248件失效泵轴的寿命进行分布检验分析，验证了其符合威布尔分布规律,并进行了可靠性评定。应用编制的工程软件可计算不同样本下泵轴寿命的概率分布规律，确定其可靠性指标，实现对泵轴使用可靠性的定性分析和定量评定，为进一步开展潜油电泵机组可靠性研究提供必要的基础数据和数据处理手段。