Contagion Effects from the 1994 Mexican Peso Crisis: Evidence from Chilean Stocks

The contagion, or informational spillover, effects of the 1994 peso crisis from the Mexican market to the Chilean market, and to the Chilean American Depository Receipts (ADRs) trading in the U.S., are examined. Significant excess returns are observed for Chilean stocks for the event dates of the Mexican Peso crisis, providing evidence of contagion effects. Significant excess returns on these Chilean ADRs are also observed for each of the five event dates associated with the Peso crisis, suggesting that the contagion effects spilled over to the ADRs. A multiple regression model shows that the spillover contagion effects were very efficiently transmitted from the Mexican market to the Chilean market to the Chilean ADRs. Multifactor regressions show that the most significant influence on the pricing of Chilean ADRs is the raw Chilean Index, rather than the Chilean Index expressed in U.S. dollars.     

Performance Evaluation of Audit Assistants in Chartered Accounting Firms

The development of efficient and competent staff in accounting firms is enhanced by the use of formal performance evaluation systems. This paper reports on a study which examined the objectives and uses of performance evaluation, the methods used, the dimensions evaluated, the development of overall assessments, the provision of feedback and the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the systems in use. In general, the performance evaluation process in these firms is effective, but there is scope for improvement in a number of areas.     

A Profile of Poverty in Egypt

This paper presents a profile of poverty in Egypt for 1997. It assesses the magnitude of poverty and its distribution across geographic and socioeconomic groups, provides information on the characteristics of the poor, illustrates the heterogeneity amongst the poor, and helps identify empirical correlates of poverty. This poverty profile is constructed using data from the Egypt Integrated Household Survey (EIHS), which is a nationwide, multiple‐topic household survey. One of the more striking set of findings relates to the differences between the poor and the non‐poor in their educational attainments. Our results indicate a significant literacy and schooling gap between the poor and the non‐poor. On average the poor have 2.6 fewer years of schooling than the non‐poor, and their literacy rate is 27 percent lower than the non‐poor. Our results also indicate that augmenting educational attainment of the poor does not require building more schools, but reducing the poor’s opportunity cost of attending schools and increasing their returns from extra schooling, both suggesting the importance of income generating activities as a policy instrument.     

Estimating the impact of rural investments in Nepal

As a largely rural society, most people in Nepal still depend upon agriculture as their major livelihood strategy. Therefore, it is important to improve the allocation efficiency of limited public expenditures to promote agricultural growth and poverty reduction. However, evaluating the returns of public investment is limited by methodological challenges. We use hedonic and panel data methods to examine the returns to different types of rural public investments including roads, irrigation and extension advice. The use of diverse identification strategies reduces the risk of using a narrower set of results driven primarily by a particular methodology. We find that rural roads and irrigation are one of the most productive public expenditures according to the benefit-cost ratio calculations, though the magnitudes of these ratios depend on methodology.     

Resurrection of traditional communities in postmodern societies

Modern societies seem to have recognised the importance of communities and the community capacity to be self reliant, and to reduce burden on the state, at least to some degree. Thus it is hardly surprising that several western countries’ current policies have been reverberating with the idea and vision of community responsibilities, participation and decision making. What kind of communities do these policies envision? Can western societies resurrect traditional communities in postmodern societies? To address such questions, this paper argues that though highly challenging, it is possible to rebuild some elements of traditional communities in postmodern societies. In fact, such creation is an ideal world to live in. For that to occur western societies should give adequate time, resources and commitment to it, as they did to create modern societies. Most importantly, they also need to somewhat alter their ‘life style’: “When you throw ‘individuals’ from the window, communities rush in through the door”.     

Management Controls in Public–Private Partnerships: An Analytical Framework

Drawing on transaction cost economics and organisational theory, this paper proposes a framework to analyse management controls in Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs). The paper contributes to the related literature at a conceptual level by showing how three control archetypes, namely market, bureaucratic and clan, in conjunction with two control strategies, namely performance evaluation and trust‐based strategies, could be used by public partners to minimise relational and performance risk, thereby achieving value for money. Practitioners could also use the linkages identified in this paper to develop management control systems for PPPs.     

Management Accounting Education In Australian Universities: A Review Of The Current State

The teaching of management accounting at tertiary institutions drew criticism in the mid-to-late 1980s on the grounds that course content and teaching methods were not keeping pace with changes in manufacturing technologies and the business environment. A study of management accounting programs in 30 Australian universities shows that the criticisms are largely being addressed, with most programs being well up-to-date in their coverage of many of the new topics and practices that have emerged in management accounting in recent years. Nonetheless, management accounting educators continue to see a number of constraints on effective teaching in this area.     

ECONOMIC SYSTEMS, POLITICAL STRUCTURES AND HUMAN RIGHTS

The paper deals with the estimation of comparable human rights ratings (defined as a composite of political rights, civil liberties and state power indices) for 154 countries, excluding territories, of the world in 1983. It then develops a theory to gauge the sensitivity of these ratings to a specific disaggregation suggested by the theory of political economy and establishes the close nexus existing between economic systems, political structures and human rights. The results indicate that increasing government intervention, whether economic or political, unequivocally tends to worsen the human rights situation. Moreover, it is seen that affluence and income distribution are significant predictors of human rights ratings across countries.     

How do bond investors perceive dividend payouts?

We explore how bond investors view corporate cash distributions through dividends and how that view influences corporate cost of debt. Explaining between 45 and 67 percent of variance in credit spreads at the time of issuance, our model reveals a non-linear association between dividend payouts and investment return expected by bondholders. In particular, while bondholders view cash disbursements in small amounts as a positive signal, large dividend payouts are viewed negatively. Our results thus provide support for both the signaling hypothesis and for the agency-cost-of-debt hypothesis. The results are robust even after controlling for firm size, growth opportunities, profitability, leverage, business risk, asset tangibility, and term structure. Exploiting the 2003 dividend tax cut as an exogenous shock, we demonstrate that our results are not vulnerable to endogeneity problems. Finally, we find no evidence of corporations timing the payouts strategically to influence the cost of debt.