Corporate accountability and human rights disclosures: A case study of Barrick Gold Mine in Tanzania

Analysis and debate on the roles of accounting in human rights issues is an emerging topic of research. This study draws attention to certain human rights dilemmas arising from investment initiatives of transnational corporations within the Tanzanian socio-political and economic context. Evidence is provided on how accounting operates in resolving such dilemmas through an examination of foreign direct investment episodes where the state has agreed contracts with transnational corporations in the mining sector of Tanzania. The study finally considers the possibility of corporate governance reforms informed by accounting ideas in order to promote realisation of human rights alongside other interests.     

Modelling spillovers between stock market and FX market: evidence for Nigeria

Abstract

The need to capture the foreign exchange (FX) and stock markets nexus in Nigeria is underscored by the rapidly expanding financial markets integration due to trade and financial liberalization policies which seem to have enhanced the inflow of capital as well as accelerated investment/business interactions. Using variants of the VARMA-AMGARCH model of McAleer, Hoti, and Chan (2009), we find that volatility persistence in the stock market is accentuated by bad news in the market and moderated by good news in the FX market. Finally, we establish that ignoring the asymmetric effects may exaggerate the spillover results.     

Influence of unplanned versus planned factory locations on worker commitment to industrial employment in Nigeria

The level of commitment to industrial employment of a purposive sample of Nigerian factory workers is found to be higher among workers in factories located in the unplanned commercial and residential areas than among workers in factories located on specially planned industrial estates. This relationship persists when certain variables were in turn held constant. These variables are (1) the workers gross income, (2) the number of fringe benefits available and (3) their valuation of material possessions. That the original relationship is best interpreted within the framework of the principle of acculturation rather than in the light of an economic theory of motivation is indicated by the tendency for the relationship to decline in strength when a number of socio-cultural integration variables are used as control variables. These variables are (1) the political and economic role of the migrants from the ethnic communities from which the workers originate play in the receiving urban communities, (2) the number of friends and acquaintances workers have in their work neighbourhood and (3) the number of voluntary associations to which workers belong. Implication of finding for economic, industrial and political development of the new nations is indicated.