Business Commons^™

Issues On Macro-Economic Management In Nigeria., Gianni Zanini

Bullion

This paper examines the main source of inflationary pressures, and established the source of destabilization of the exchange and interest rates as the Budget deficit which has been increasing at an unsustainable pace since 1990. It also ascertain that stabilizing the economy will require a significant and sustained budget surplus with no additional domestic bank borrowing. It states that economy stabilization will also require a liberalization of foreign exchange and credit markets.

The New Auditor's Report: Have The Benefits Of Wording Changes Been Acknowledged Outside The Cpa Profession?, Marshall A. Geiger

Accounting Faculty Publications

CPAs use the auditor's report to communicate their opinions of an entity's financial statements and related disclosures. Concerned parties, in turn, use the report to assess the integrity of the financial statements and the accuracy of the disclosures.

In 1988, the American Institute of CPAs auditing standards board established new wording for the standard unqualified audit report. It also revised the reporting requirements and types of audit reports allowed (for example, the subject-to report for uncertainties and except-for report for consistency departures were eliminated). The new wording appears in Statement on Auditing Standards no. 58, Reports on Audited Financial Statements …

Cost Management Competencies For Department Of Defense Program Managers, Brent R. Baxter, Kurt R. Bolin

Theses and Dissertations

The magnitude of money involved in the acquisition of defense systems and the public scrutiny resulting from cost overruns and program failures make cost management competence critical to program success. This research examined the cost management competencies required of defense program managers. A cost management competency model was developed from a foundation of past research. The model was evaluated through a mail survey of 682 intermediate and senior level military program managers in Air Force Materiel Command. The results provided by the 330 respondents indicate that 29 of the 47 competencies in the model were valuable to the program managers. …

Public Information Arrival, Thomas Berry, Keith Howe

Thomas D Berry

The authors develop a measure of public information flow to financial markets and use it to document the patterns of information arrival, with an emphasis on the intraday flows. The measure is the number of news releases by Reuter's News Service per unit of time. The authors find that public information arrival is nonconstant, displaying seasonalities and distinct intraday patterns. Next they relate their measure of public information to aggregate measures of intraday market activity. The authors' results suggest a positive, moderate relationship between public information and trading volume but an insignificant relationship with price volatility. Copyright 1994 by American …

1994-1995 Operating Budget: Southern University And A & M College, Southern University System. Office Of Finance & Administration.

All Southern University System Budgets

The 1994-1995 Operating Budget of the Southern University and A & M College Campus.

1994-1995 Operating Budget, Southern University System. Office Of Finance & Administration.

All Southern University System Budgets

The Southern University System Board and System Administration Operating Budget 1994-1995.

1994-1995 Operating Budget, Southern University System. Office Of Finance & Administration.

All Southern University System Budgets

The 1994-1995 Operating Budget of the Southern University Law Center.

Analyzing Growth Of Egyptian Industry With Endogenous Technological Change, Nihal Magdy El Megharbel

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Taxes And Dividend Policies: An International Study, Chinwe Edna Nweke

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The tax effects hypothesis states that dividends have a negative impact on the value of a firm due to the preferential treatment given to capital gains over dividend income in some countries. This study tests the tax effects hypothesis in five countries: Australia, France, Germany, Japan and United States. The countries are selected because each had a significant tax law change within the period of study (1983-1991) and therefore provides an excellent opportunity for validation of this hypothesis.

The tax effects hypothesis is tested by first examining the effects of tax law changes on dividend payout ratios and then by …

Financial And Economic Viability Of The Projects Established Under The Egyptian Investment Law No. 230 Of 1989, Karim Badr El Din Attia Hassanein

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Informal Sector In Development, Jago Arop Yor

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Financial Statements With Environmental Concerns: An Exploratory Study Of The Impact On The Auditor's Role And Responsibilities, Lori Burton

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

Benefits Of Using Team Choice For Windows As A Multi-Criteria Decision Making Group Decision Support System, Eddie Goggans

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Various experiments have been conducted over the past ten years using several different types of group decision support systems (GDSSs). Many previous GDSS designs have had success in these experiments with brainstorming but have been limited in providing judgment and choice support. TeamChoice for Windows is a multi-criteria decision making GDSS that is currently under development in an effort to overcome the limitations of previous systems and to significantly advance the capabilities of GDSSs. This paper discusses some of the general aspects of GDSSs, existing limitations, and explains the developments and use of TeamChoice for Windows as a multi-criteria decision …

Central Bank Of Nigeria Monetary, Credit, Foreign Trade And Exchange Policy Guidelines For 1994 Fiscal Year: Monetary Policy Circular No. 28., Central Bank Of Nigeria Central Bank Of Nigeria

Bullion

This paper contains the outlines of the monetary, credit, foreign trade and exchange policy guidelines for banks and other financial institutions in Nigeria during fiscal 1994. The circular is structured into three sections and Appendix. Section one reviews developments in the economy and the policy environment in 1993 and thus provides the background to the policy measures for 1994. Section two details the monetary and credit policy measures and guidelines for banks and other financial institutions. The foreign trade and exchange policy measures for 1994 are highlighted in section three and list of prohibited import and export items is provided …

The Management Of Development, Abukar Mohamud Ga'al

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Fuzzy Knowledge-Based Approach To Treating Uncertainty In Inventory Control, Dobrilla Petrovic, Edward Sweeney

Articles

Inventory control in complex manufacturing environments encounters various sources of uncertainity and imprecision. This paper presents one fuzzy knowledge-based approach to solving the problem of order quantity determination, in the presence of uncertain demand, lead time and actual inventory level. Uncertain data are represented by fuzzy numbers, and vaguely defined relations between them are modeled by fuzzy if-then rules. The proposed representation and inference mechanism are verified using a large numbers of examples. The results of three representative cases are summarized. Finally a comparison between the developed fuzzy knowledge-based and traditional, probabilistic approaches is discussed.

Investor Views Of Audit Assurance: Recent Evidence Of The Expectation Gap, Marshall A. Geiger

Accounting Faculty Publications

Investors and financial statement users long have agreed on the usefulness of the audit in financial reporting. Over time, however, auditors have been expected to provide assurance in varying degrees and for different purposes. Differences in perception -- especially regarding assurances provided -- between users, preparers and auditors have been termed the "expectation gap. This article provides some startling evidence of the existence of such a gap in investor perceptions of the assurance provided by an audit.

Journal Of Actuarial Practice, Volume 2, No. 1, 1994, Colin Ramsay , Editor

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

ARTICLES

Health Insurance Reform and its Effects on the Small Employer Market: A Review of H.R. 3626 • P. Anthony Hammond

An Introduction to Individual Disability Income Insurance • Mark J. Chartier

Cost Containment in Workers' Compensation: Evaluating Medical Fee Schedules • David L. Durbin and Barry I. Llewellyn

The Markov Chain Interest Rate Scenario Generator Revisited • Sarah L.M. Christiansen

Managing the Costs and Risks of Housing Finance: A New Role For Actuaries • Anthony Asher

Reconciling Two Rate Level Indications: A Chain Rule Approach • Cheng-Sheng Peter Wu

Tax Assistance to Qualified Retirement Savings Plans: Deferral or Waiver? …

Disenrollment Patterns Of Elderly In Managed Care And Fee For Service, Kenneth G. Manton, Dennis H. Tolley, Robert Newcomer, James C. Vertrees, Charlene Harrington

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

As the trend to provide health care through managed care facilities increases, the need to examine ,vhy insured individuals voluntarily terminate managed care coverage grows. Voluntary termination of coverage, or dis enrollment, has both social and fiscal implications. Particularly among the elderly, patterns of disenrollment likely are related to self assessment of care needs and levels of health. In this paper we examine the patterns of dis enrollment among elderly enrollees as a function of health status and disability. We focus on disenrollment patterns from an experimental prepaid extended care facility, called a social HMO (S/HMO) and compare this pattern …

Modeling Insurance Cash Flows For Universal Life Policies, Robert E. Hoyt

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

This paper develops a methodology that can be used by insurers to construct predictive models for their own insurance cash flows. The insurance cash flow components evaluated include premium flows, policy loans, and cash value surrenders. Also, the paper evaluates several hypotheses in the insurance literature that attempt to explain insurance cash flows. Though the results are theoretically consistent, they produce some interesting contrasts to findings of similar studies for whole life policies. For example, these results confirm that: (i) the credited rate strategy is important to policy performance; (ii) the emergency fund hypothesis appears to apply to policy loan …

A Statistical Approach To Ibnr Reserves, Bradford S. Gile

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

This paper develops a three dimensional statistical approach to the estimation of the mean and the standard deviation of pure incurred but not reported (IBNR) reserves. This means that the time of occurrence, the reporting lag, and the claim severity are separately modeled. It is assumed that, beyond any fixed time t, the claim number development process is Poisson and that the severity of loss depends on the length of the reporting lag. Two key assumptions are made to simplify the estimation of model parameters: for a given reporting lag, (i) the conditional mean of the claim size is a …

Cost Containment In Workers' Compensation: Evaluating Medical Fee Schedules, David L. Durbin, Barry I. Llewellyn

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

Medical expenditures in workers' compensation programs have been subjected to few cost containment strategies. As workers' compensation costs have escalated, however, increasing attention is being given to the role of medical fee schedules in containing the prices of medical services. To this end, we develop a model for estimating the potential cost savings from implementing medical fee schedules. A market basket of medical services received by injured workers is constructed. This basket is used to estimate the parameters of the model. In addition, the basket is used to determine the impact of imposing a fee schedule linked to usual and …

The Markov Chain Interest Rate Scenario Generator Revisited, Sarah L.M. Christiansen

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

This paper furthers the development of the Markov chain interest rate generator. Though the basic technique remains essentially unchanged, there are still many significant changes to the model. For example: (i) the long (key) rates are now are generated by a mean reversionary process; (ii) the number of shapes is increased from seven to 11; (iii) the limitation of changing by only two shape codes per year is removed; and (iv) the random walk matrix that determines the shapes is revised to be more realistic. An algorithm is developed to determine the shape code of the original yield curve, thus …

An Introduction To Individual Disability Income Insurance, Mark J. Chartier

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

There are several actuarial software packages purporting to calculate expected benefit cash flows on disability income insurance policies. To the author's knowledge, however, there is no published text that explains how to perform these calculations. This paper is intended to fill this gap in the literature. It describes some of the more common techniques for pricing disability income insurance. Those techniques for which claim costs can be used and those for which the pricing actuary must project cash flows are identified.

Discussion Of Robert L. Brown's "Tax Assistance To Qualified Retirement Savings Plans: Deferral Or Waiver"*, Mark W. Campbell

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

In the paper entitled "Tax Assistance to Qualified Retirement Savings Plans: Deferral or Waiver," Robert L. Brown concludes that "the nontaxation of investment income on qualified funds until taken is a tax waiver or tax subsidy from the government to participants of qualified plans". I believe, however, that this conclusion is based on flawed assumptions pertaining to:

• The behavioral responses of taxpayers to the withdrawal of such tax assistance;

• The definition of an appropriate benchmark tax system against which to measure the cost of such tax assistance; and

• The appropriate basis of comparison of alternative government tax …

Tax Assistance To Qualified Retirement Savings Plans: Deferral Or Waiver?, Robert L. Brown

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

There exist significant tax incentives for retirement savings plans in Canada and the United States. Qualified employer and employee contributions, within limits, are tax deductible to the employer and nontaxable to the employee. Also, investment income is not taxed until taken. On the other hand, monies received from funds having such tax incentives are taxable in full as income to the recipient when taken. This paper analyzes the two tax advantages of qualified retirement savings plans: the tax deductibility of contributions and the nontaxation of investment income until it has been distributed. The algebraic analysis shows that the deductibility of …

Safety First And Ambiguity, Lawrence A. Berger, Howard Kunreuther

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

There is considerable empirical evidence suggesting that ambiguity (i.e., parameter risk) impacts pricing decisions by actuaries and underwriters and their desire to provide coverage. Stone proposed a safety first model of choice that provides a possible explanation for this behavior. This paper analyzes Stone's proposed stability and survival constraints and compares the results with those predicted by expected utility theory. The analysis is motivated by insurers' increasing reluctance to provide coverage for certain specific risks such as earthquake damage insurance where the probability of loss is ambiguous. We show that such behavior is consistent with safety first but is difficult …

Managing The Costs And Risks Of Housing Finance: A New Role For Actuaries, Anthony Asher

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

Housing finance is a nontraditional field where actuarial expertise could be applied fruitfully. The development of mortgage instruments requires the application of financial mathematics, while the evaluation and management of the financial risks to which borrowers and lenders are exposed require a knowledge of insurance principles. This paper splits the financial costs of home ownership into several components: those that arise from inflation, risk, administration, and the residual real interest charge. The risk component further is partitioned into life contingencies, economic contingencies, and various moral hazards. This analysis provides a basis for future financial innovation, highlights where government intervention may …

Reconciling Two Rate Level Indications: A Chain Rule Approach, Cheng-Sheng Peter Wu

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

The problem considered is that of reconciling two rate level indications that are based on several common factors, but have been made at different review periods. A popular approach to this problem is the so-called sequential replacement method, which calculates the impact of each individual factor. Unfortunately, this method has a serious deficiency: the estimated impact of a factor depends upon the order of the replacement. To counteract this defect, a new approach, called the chain rule approach, is developed. Using this approach, an explicit formula is given for calculating the impact and the marginal impact of each factor.

Modal Premium Factors In Ordinary Life Insurance, James B. Ross, Criss G. Woodruff

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

For ordinary life policyholders who want to pay more frequently than annually, insurers construct schedules of modal premium factors that reflect additional charges for the costs of collection, forgone interest, and premiums uncollected or refunded in the year of death. Competition within the industry forces convergence of such schedules. On the other hand, if such factors for a given company reflect its own experience (in expense, interest, mortality, and persistency), the differences between companies will force schedules apart. Analysis of a large group of life insurers over the 1972-1982-1992 period shows that modal premium factors are dustered closely, that they …