The development of socially responsible investment in South Africa: experience and evolution of SRI in global markets

Sustainability practices, particularly those relating to Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), have still to be fully evolved in a developing country context. This article considers international trends in SRI and how these may relate to South Africa. It considers how, internationally, SRI has become increasingly motivated by the business case for risk-management and therefore how it may have the potential to offer superior returns (as demonstrated by recent experience in the United States). It examines the relevance of SRI trends to South Africa, where the concept of SRI still faces further structural development, and reviews the performance of funds operating in the South African SRI arena.     

Historic District Influence on House Prices and Marketing Duration

Historic property designations have been lauded for spurring renovation beyond the historic structures themselves through positive externalities in surrounding neighborhoods. Previous historic district research focuses on whether historic designation results in a price premium. This paper takes a more comprehensive look at the buying process, which must consider marketing duration within the historic district as well as influences on the sale of properties adjacent to the historic district. We examine how historic district designation in Baton Rogue, Louisiana is capitalized either through a price premium or marketing duration and how that mechanism differs between neighborhoods inside and outside the historic district boundaries. We employ a three stage least square, 3SLS, model to account for the effects of endogenous marketing duration on price capitalization estimates. The estimates are consistent with search-market theory in that marketing duration absorbs part of the capitalization of historic designation. We find that the more certain benefits from historic designation within the district are reflected in a price premium while the reduced regulation coupled with the cachet of being located near but not inside the district result in shorter marketing duration.     

Generational accounting as a tool for modelling social expenditure in Europe

Exerting an increasing pressure for reform, the demographic ageing process currently under way in Europe will be a main determinant of the development of social expenditure. This article gives an introduction to the method of generational accounting, an instrument designed to capture the effects of demographic change on future public budgets. The method is illustrated by generational accounts for France and a cross-country comparison of implicit public liabilities in Europe. Weighing the method’s advantages and shortcomings against each other, the article discusses the role that generational accounting can and should play in modelling the future of social expenditure in Europe.     

Brand value accounting: an international comparison of perceived managerial implications

Data concerned with the managerial implications of brand value accounting were collected from accountants and marketing managers working in strongly branded companies in New Zealand (N.Z.), the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the United States (U.S.). Since the external reporting climate in the U.S. prohibits the inclusion of brand value as a separate asset in the published balance sheet, it was anticipated that U.S. managers would be the least positively disposed to the potential of beneficial managerial implications deriving from brand valuation. Contrary to this expectation, managers in the U.K are the least positively disposed to potential managerial implications associated with brand value accounting. This result is particularly interesting as brand value accounting has commanded considerable attention from the U.K. accounting profession since the late 1980s when several large U.K. companies elected to capitalize brand values in their external financial statements. In addition to the international differences noted, the degree of commonality of findings across the three countries is also noteworthy. The data reported provide strong support for the view that there is considerable potential for positive managerial implications from brand value accounting.     

On the asymptotic normality of Fourier flexible form estimates

Rates of increase in the number of parameters of a Fourier factor demand system that imply asymptotically normal elasticity estimates are characterized. This is the multivariate analog of work by Andrews (1991). Our proof strategy is new and consists of relating the minimum eigenvalue of the sample sum of squares and cross-products matrix to the minimum eigenvalue of the population matrix via a uniform strong law with rate that is established using results from the empirical processes literature. In its customary form, the minimum eigenvalue of the Fourier sum of squares and cross-products matrix, considered as a function of the number of parameters, decreases faster than any polynomial. The consequence is that the rate at which parameters may increase is slower than any fractional power of the sample size. In this case, we get the same rate as Andrews. When our results are applied to multivariate regressions with a minimum eigenvalue that is bounded or declines at a polynomial rate, the rate on the parameters is a fractional power of the sample size. In this case, our method of proof gives faster rates than Andrews. Andrews' results cover the heteroskedastic case, ours do not.