Comparisons of the Educational Value of Distance Delivered versus Traditional Classroom Instruction in Introductory Agricultural Economics

As many universities are promoting distance courses, the comparative advantages and disadvantages over conventional classroom delivery are being debated. Student attitudes and test performance in an introductory microeconomics course are compared across the two different course delivery formats. Results show that students with average or below-average college aptitude test scores perform more poorly in the distance class.     

A regional diffusion theory explanation for states’ proposal and adoption of anti-passive investment company laws

We investigate the propensity of states to propose and adopt laws prohibiting the deduction of intercompany interest or royalties in response to the passive investment company tax minimization strategy (anti-PIC statutes). Using event history analysis with panel data from 1991–2005, we investigate whether regional diffusion theory explains the proposal and adoption of anti-PIC statutes. Our results provide support for the regional diffusion theory explanation, in that both proposing and adopting states have a higher proportion of adopting states in their particular Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) region. We find no relationship between decreases in states’ real corporate income tax revenues and their adoption of anti-PIC statutes, but do find that proposals are more common in states with slower growth in real personal income. This study contributes to existing state and local tax policy research by demonstrating that certain types of policy decisions may arise from reasons closely linked to herding behavior.     

Do actions speak louder than words? An empirical investigation of corporate environmental reputation

In this study, we investigate the extent to which firms’ environmental performance is reflected in perceptions of their environmental reputation and whether environmental disclosure serves to mediate the negative aspects of poorer environmental performance associated with those assessments. We also examine whether differences in environmental performance and environmental disclosure appear to be associated with membership selection to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), a factor we also believe may be associated with perceptions of environmental reputation. Based on a cross-sectional sample of 92 US firms from environmentally sensitive industries, we find that environmental performance measured using Trucost environmental performance scores is negatively related to both reputation scores and membership in the DJSI. We argue this is due to the more extensive disclosure levels of firms that are worse performers and the finding of a significant positive relation between environmental disclosure and both the environmental reputation measures and DJSI membership. Finally, we show that the DJSI designation positively influences perceptions of corporate reputation. Overall, our results suggest that voluntary environmental disclosure appears to mediate the effect of poor environmental performance on environmental reputation. Perhaps more troubling, our results also suggest that membership in the DJSI appears to be driven more by what firms say than what they do. Thus, like voluntary disclosure, the DJSI may actually be hindering improved future corporate environmental performance.     

加强和改进思想政治工作适应煤炭工业改革发展的新形势新任务

现就如何做好新时期的思想政治工作和加强后备干部管理工作,讲三个问题,与大家一起讨论. 一、抓紧做好新形势下的思想政治工作,注重实践与创新 朱镕基总理在今年一季度的形势报告中指出,今年是搞好国有大中型企业的管理年.主持这次会议的中央政治局委员、书记处书记丁关根同志说,在加强思想政治工作方面,今年是思想政治工作年.6月28日江泽民同志在中央政治思想工作会议的讲话中明确指出:"加强和改进思想政治工作,是经济工作和其它一切工作的生命线,是团结全党和全国各族人民实现党和国家各项任务的中心环节,是我们党和社会主义国家的重要政治优势".     

Revisiting Error‐Autocorrelation Correction: Common Factor Restrictions and Granger Non‐Causality*

The paper questions the appropriateness of the practice known as ‘error‐autocorrelation correcting’ in linear regression, by showing that adopting an AR(1) error formulation is equivalent to assuming that the regressand does not Granger cause any of the regressors. This result is used to construct a new test for the common factor restrictions, as well as investigate – using Monte Carlo simulations – other potential sources of unreliability of inference resulting from this practice. The main conclusion is that when the Granger cause restriction is false, the ordinary least square and generalized least square estimators are biased and inconsistent, and using autocorrelation‐consistent standard errors does not improve the reliability of inference.     

两者都是最棒的

Jon Roll在他还是大学生的时候就已经打算将来要做建筑师。于是，他去了一家建筑公司做了一段时间的学徒，但是在那之后，他发现在建筑这一行想晋升很难，除非自己能接到很大的设计项目。所以Jon Roll准备运用他的创造力。     

Using journal entries to teach partnership tax: An illustrative case

The use of journal entries to teach partnership taxation concepts provides students with a visual tool that liberates them from the memorization of formulas that has long been a staple in partnership tax education. Employing journal entries as our pedagogy, we present a case designed to be a comprehensive project for a stand-alone graduate partnership taxation course. We also provide guidance for how individual components within the case can be assigned, which could be particularly useful to instructors of business entity tax courses. Our case provides a resource that will assist instructors in teaching and students in understanding (1) the book accounting requirements, and (2) the interrelationship between the tax and book reporting requirements. Graduate tax students who completed this case in its entirety agree that the case meets its stated learning objectives, and that journal entries are an effective tool for analyzing partnership tax transactions and make learning partnership taxation easier.     

Assessments of the Educational Value of Web-Based Instructional Tools for Introductory Agricultural Economics

A web site was designed and introduced to an introductory agricultural microeconomics course. The web site provided students with supplemental reviews, practice problems, self-tests, and a simulation exercise. A variety of quantitative assessments were conducted to determine whether the web site influenced student learning, perceptions, and motivation. Results indicate the web site provided small to modest educational benefits.