Audit committees’ social capital and financial reporting quality

We draw on social capital theory to examine the relationship between audit committee (AC) members’ social capital and financial reporting quality. Using US data for the period 2001–2010, our results suggest that non-AC directors’ social capital does not appear to be relevant to financial reporting quality. As far as AC members are concerned, our findings show a negative relationship between their social capital and financial reporting quality, suggesting a ‘dark side’ to social capital. Specifically, we find that sitting in multiple ACs (centrality) has a negative impact on reporting quality only for those AC members designated as financial experts. When other proxies for social capital are considered (connectedness, brokerage position and strong ties), our results show that the quality of financial reporting significantly decreases with the social capital of non-financial experts sitting in the AC. We contribute to prior research by: (i) relying on social capital theory, which is widely neglected in accounting research, (ii) using multiple metrics to capture the complex dimensions of social capital, and (iii) discriminating between the effects of financial and non-financial experts’ social capital on reporting quality. Our results suggest policy-makers might wish to limit financial experts’ multiple directorships as well as assess the actual contribution of non-financial experts to AC effectiveness.     

Russian experts: missing actors of the budget process

Abstract

This article provides an examination of the role of experts in the Russian budget process. Experts are those whose role is based on specialised knowledge and technical skills, rather than affiliation to an agency, association or political party. Ideally their contributions are impartial. In the first part of the article the channels of expert influence are described, primarily within the executive branch. Features are found in these channels that mean that impartial advice is not always guaranteed. In the second part, on the basis of a survey of experts, the answers to two questions are sought: whether they feel that impartial advice is expected of them and whether they provide it. There are negative elements in the responses on both counts, suggesting that despite some evidence of demand for such advice on the part of policy-makers, expert advice is often not impartial.     

企业会选择与竞争对手共享审计师吗?——基于经营范围相似度的分析

在选择最适合自身需求的审计师方面,企业会关注竞争对手的选择,并在享受审计专家服务与保护专有信息外溢之间寻求平衡。以企业的收入排名和经营范围的相似度衡量竞争对手,检验竞争对手间的审计师共享行为。研究发现,当行业内经营范围高度相似的两个企业互为竞争对手时,共享审计师的可能性较低;行业竞争激烈程度会放大竞争对手共享审计师的负向关系;但当外部审计师为审计专家时,会改变同行竞争对手不愿共享审计师的倾向;从经济后果来看,聘用同一会计师事务所的同行企业会有相似的经济决策。从财务层面构建衡量竞争对手的方法,验证竞争对手间的共享审计师问题,发现审计师不仅是财务报表的鉴证者,也是知识与资源丰富的信息中介与来源。     

China's National Oil Reserve Center was Born

Aseries of events that occurred in October 2007, are rewriting the history of China's energy industry: November 3 an Energy Law Committee asked the public for suggestions on improvements; forty top experts came together to form the National Energy Expert Advisory Committee on November 6; and the National Oil Reserve Center (NORC)became the nerve centre of oil reserves on November 18. Yet, behind the progress of these recent activities remains the fact that international oil prices still hover around a very high price of US$ 90/barrel, and China's oil imports are close to accounting for half of its total oil reserves.     

The relation between Australian wine show results and prices

This paper assesses wine show results and their relation with wine prices across seven Australian shows. Consistent with previous studies, only a moderate degree of agreement for medals exists among shows. The correlation of wine show points across shows is also only moderate. Hedonic wine price functions, which employ show medal/points as direct measures of quality, indicate that for some shows estimated premiums are statistically significant and may possibly be practically important. The relation of show opinion with prices, however, is reduced for models which recognise the separate impact of objective quality and show opinion on prices. The results imply that producers should seek to improve the objective quality of their wines to achieve price premiums. Producers could also selectively target some wine show opinions to gain additional higher prices.     

Austerity and repressive politics: Italian economists in the early years of the fascist government

The historical forerunners of contemporary austerity are still largely unexplored. This essay considers the “liberal phase” of Fascist Italy (1922–1925) as a case study to explain austerity as a full-blown rationality, that is intrinsically, and simultaneously, theory and practice, encompassing the moral, the economic and the political. My explanation moves beyond the interpretation of austerity as the post-1980, neoliberal recipe of price deflation and budget cuts. The Italian case draws attention to a neglected connection: that between austerity and repression. Austerity was the guiding principle of the Fascist economic agenda during the 1920s. It served to extinguish the effects of the democratisation process of the post-WWI years. The paper examines the work of four distinguished economists, Maffeo Pantaleoni, Luigi Einaudi, Alberto De Stefani and Umberto Ricci, who – in different roles as professors, journalists, advisors, and policy-makers – can be considered the source, the guardians and the enforcers of Fascist austerity.     

基于胜任力的保险职业经理人绩效评价体系构建

在基于胜任力的保险职业经理人绩效评价体系构建中,首先引入了胜任力的概念,在相关研究成果的基础之上采用关键词频法,筛选保险职业经理人胜任要素;然后结合胜任素质词典和咨询相关专家意见,设计关于保险职业经理人的胜任力要素的调查问卷;最后对调查问卷的结果数据,使用SPSS软件进行分析,确定了我国保险职业经理人生日人力评价指标,得出保险职业经理人5因子评价模型,确定了各个胜任要素的权重,最后建立保险职业经理人绩效评价模型。     

Peak Oil: a hidden issue? Social representations of professional tourism perspectives

Peak Oil, the peaking of global oil production, is a collective risk highly relevant to the tourism sector. Public discourse on Peak Oil, however, is limited. To better understand what “sense” tourism experts make of Peak Oil, and provide a platform for future debate and action, this research used the theory of social representation to explore core and peripheral elements that constitute Peak Oil representations and help tourism stakeholders to conceptualize and address this issue. Using free association methodology, 101 tourism experts worldwide provided up to five words and three mental images describing their thoughts and feelings about Peak Oil. The analysis highlights the importance of economic impacts and alternative energy sources, as well as anchoring effects to more established concepts such as sustainability and climate change. Notably, each of the four professional sub-groups approached (academics, consultants, government and industry representatives) had markedly different core beliefs. There was no agreement on whether Peak Oil was concerning or not, and whether action is required by the tourism sector to address negative impacts. This was particularly evident with the industry sub-group. Future research and policy implications are outlined, including the role of the media, and its responsibility to facilitate this discourse.     

未确知有理数在优化专家意见中的应用

本文基于专家主观认识的不确定性,以不确定性信息数学处理理论为基础,建立了一类优化专家意见的不确定性量化表达式,运用未确知有理数来描述和处理专家信息的不确定性,定义了表达式间的运算法则,给出了此类专家意见优化的不确定性模型,同时给出了专家组的量化模型.通过实例表明,该方法较好处理了专家意见中定性指标和定量指标中质和量的转化,减少了数值量化的损失,给出了信息融合的一种简便方法.较传统方法更有效、实用.