Financial Reporting in Agriculture: In Need of A Reliable System

Farm managers and lenders are becoming increasingly aware of the need for thorough and accurate farm financial management.1 The current extended agricultural recession magnifies this need. Increased current loan losses and the increasing financial stress of farm operators have prompted lending institutions, government agencies and farmers to determine what has gone wrong in the area of farm financial management and, more importantly, to search out ways to reduce the frequency of farm business failure. The use of inadequate financial reporting systems is viewed as one source of the problem.     

Place image and urban regeneration in Liverpool

It is recognized that to date there has been an overemphasis on received images and their impact on the selection and evaluation of tourist destinations; this paper will therefore focus on projected images. While the merit of both semiotic and discursive approaches to analysing place image are recognized, it is proposed that the discursive approach is more appropriate as it takes into account the advantage of deriving meaning from its broader context. Drawing on examples from Liverpool, UK, the discussion indicates firstly, how projected image is formed by a complex and dynamic network of agents and secondly the implications for urban regeneration. Particular reference is made to the influence of the media, the circle of growth and the promotion of culture. Importantly, it is argued that while projected images can influence perceptions, the consumer also plays a key role in this process. It is concluded that while image campaigns can play a role in the regeneration of the urban landscape, drawing on the cultural dynamics of the local population could enhance it further.     

Self-employment dynamics and self-employment trends: a study of Canadian men and women, 1982–1998

Self‐employment has risen dramatically in Canada, accounting for a disproportionate share of job growth since the 1980s. Using hitherto unexploited information on labour force transitions from sixteen waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances between 1982 and 1998, we show that the changes in transition patterns underlying these increases were very different for women and men. For women, most of the increase in self‐employment is attributable to an increase in retention rates in self‐employment. For men, most is attributable to a decrease in the stability of paid employment. Self‐employment thus rose both in secularly improving (women's) and deteriorating (men's) labour markets. JEL Classification: J23, J63 Dynamique et tendances du travail autonome: une étude des hommes et des femmes au Canada, 1982–1998. Le travail autonome a augmenté dramatiquement au Canada et a été une source relativement importante de la croissance des emplois dans les années 1980. En utilisant des données qu'on n'avait pas utilisées auparavant sur seize transitions dans l'expérience de travail (données obtenues par les Enquêtes sur les finances des consommateurs entre 1982 et 1998), les auteurs montrent que les changements dans les patterns de transition qui soustendent cet accroissement dans le travail autonome sont très différents pour les hommes et les femmes. Pour les femmes, le gros de l'accroissement est attribuable à un accroissement du taux de rétention d'emploi dans le travail autonome. Pour les hommes, le gros de l'accroissement est attribuable à un déclin dans la stabilité de l'emploi rémunéré. Le travail autonome croît donc à la fois dans les secteurs où le marché du travail a le vent dans les voiles (pour les femmes) et dans ceux où le marché du travail se détériore (pour les hommes).     

The American Put Option and Its Critical Stock Price

We derive an expression for the critical stock price for the American put. We start by expressing the put price as an integral involving first-passage probabilities. This approach yields intuition for Merton's result for the perpetual put. We then consider the finite-lived case. Using (1) the fact that the put value ceases to depend on time when the critical stock price is reached and (2) the result that an American put equals a European put plus an early-exercise premium, we derive the critical stock price. We approximate the critical-stock-price function to compute accurate put prices.