Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Financial Crisis Viewed From The Perspective Of The Social Cost Theory, L. Randall Wray

Social Cost Workshop

The talk examines the causes and consequences of the current global financial crisis. K.W. Kapp’s “social costs” theory is contrasted with the recently dominant “efficient markets” hypothesis to provide the context for analyzing the functioning of financial institutions. Rather than operating “efficiently,” the financial sector has been imposing huge costs on the economy—costs that no one can deny in the aftermath of the economy’s collapse. While orthodox approaches lead to the conclusion that money and finance should not matter much, the alternative tradition—from Veblen and Keynes to Galbraith and Minsky—provides the basis for developing an approach that puts money and …

The Social Cost Of Labor And Its Importance For Labor Economics, Robert E. Prasch

Social Cost Workshop

The starting point and core notion of neoclassical or mainstream economics is a reductionist vision of the exchange of commodities. Missing is the historical, social, and legal environments within which exchanges occur. A parallel and equally problematic notion is that labor exists as something of a “found object.” By contrast, the classical school of economists understood that laborers must earn a wage equal to or greater than “subsistence” if society was to be an ongoing enterprise. Laborers must be fed, sheltered, socialized, and educated before they arrive in the labor market. This, in a phrase, is the Social Cost of …

Environmental Sustainability From A Social Cost Perspective, James Swaney

Social Cost Workshop

Over a quarter century, efforts to build global environmental governance institutions have been thwarted by ideology and vested interests, while ecological degradation has accelerated and disparities in wealth, living standards and economic opportunities have grown. Nonetheless, the sustainability idea remains appealing and valid: Future generations can be protected from debilitating ecological degradation only if we, the present generation, redirect development to begin restoring ecological balance to key earth systems (e.g., oceans, climate, biodiversity). The social cost perspective (SCP) of institutional economics, rooted in the contributions of Karl Polanyi (1944) and K. William Kapp (1950), provides a framework for thinking about, …

The Discourse On Social Costs: Heterodox Vs. Neoliberal Economics, Sebastian Berger

Social Cost Workshop

This presentation analyzes the discourse on social costs, focusing on how neoliberal economists in the 1950s and 1960s embarked on the successful project to marginalize the heterodox view that social controls of the economy are a good thing because markets otherwise cause too many social damages. The paper mainly looks at the intellectual project of the institutional economists John M. Clark and K. William Kapp. Both collaborated in the 1940s in crafting the institutional theory of social costs as a critique of the neoclassical theory of costs and externalities (Arthur C. Pigou), as well as the rising post WWII neoliberalism …

Economic Benefits Analysis Of Mining Industries In Png And Solomon Islands, Deogratias Harorimana Sr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

This paper discusses mining and mineral operations in the two countries Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands with regards to its contribution to the overall Gross domestic Product and the economic development of each country.

Our finding shows that mining is an excellent contributor to economic growth and development as in the case of Papua New Guinea.Tax revenue from PNG Mining industries contributions to the PNG fiscal basket remains strong and growing steadily. The mining and minerals tax revenue remains an important contributor to the government fiscal budget over the last 10 years. This has been a strong contributor to …

Acknowledge Your Inner Leader Worksheet, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Before you lead others, you must first lead yourself! The Inner Leader program walks participants through four phases of developing their inner leader: Discover, Decide, Design and Dare.

Each phase of the Inner Leader Coaching Ecosystem can be used for personal innovation. Participants in this session will take Innovation Actions focused around personal and professional fulfillment.

Accounting For Emission Rights: An Environmental Ethics Approach, Emma Zhang-Debreceny, Mary A. Kaidonis, Lee Moerman

Mary Kaidonis

We argue that the International Accounting Standard Board's difficulty in arriving at a standard for accounting for emission rights, which is central to Emission Trading Schemes, is an opportunity to re-examine the issues from an environmental ethics approach. We critically evaluate the IASB approach which privileges profits, and views emission rights as tradeable entitlements to pollute. We consider social ecology, an example of an environmental ethical perspective which holds that humans' survival and the environment's sustainability are inextricably linked. We conclude that social ecology can inform accounting standard setters about the accounting treatment of emissions rights.

Will The Social Housing Profession Be Politically And Socially Influential Or Irrelevant? Lessons From Other Professions, Mary A. Kaidonis

Mary Kaidonis

The emerging social housing profession in Australasia is poised to be an empowered base for influence or to it can be irrelevant. The information of the Australasian Housing Instutute (AHI) represents a new phase in social housing, offering a unique opportunity to re-define the notion of professionalism.

Commentary: Reflections On The Critical Accounting Movement: The Reflections Of A Cultural Conservative, Mary A. Kaidonis

Mary Kaidonis

The editors described this as provocative and I was eager to be informed and challenged. O'Regan's claim to be sympathetic to Critical Accounting and his promise to "articulate in sober terms" gave way to O'Regan's frustration, distain and ultimately to reveal his confusion. If previous authoritive writers have failed to inform or enlighten, what contribution could I make? Do I respond the emotive phrases used. Do I sensor me responses? Or should I be amused and have some fun too? I have decided to do all three by offering two commentaries; one which takes O'Regans's paper seriously and I also …

Towards Improving Learning Outcomes For International Students: The Master Of Professional Accounting Embedded Literacy Project, A. Abraham, M. Kaidonis

Mary Kaidonis

This paper presents the University of Wollongong’s collaborative project to embed English literacy in key accounting subjects of the Master of Professional Accounting (MPA). The project will develop a curriculum prototype for embedding literacy which enhances learning in general as well as English literacy at an academic/professional level. Embedding both situated and transported literacies will also assist students in understanding discipline related material and enable critical evaluation of issues within the subject. The overall aim of the project is to improve the teaching and learning of MPA students who are predominantly international and not proficient in English, so that both …

Corporate And State Mining Legitimated: Transferring Future Economic Benefits Or Passing The Buck?, Mary A. Kaidonis, Natalie P. Stoianoff

Mary Kaidonis

The responsibility for pollution resulting from mining, according to the OECD's Polluter Pays Principle (PPP) rests with the owners of the mining entity. This principle relies on a number of legislative instruments and often a mix of command and control mechanisms are advocated.

Balancing The Seesaw: How Australia's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Can Fail, Andrew S. Tan, Mary A. Kaidonis, Lee C. Moerman

Mary Kaidonis

Australia’s ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and the recent release of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper affirm the Government’s commitment toward carbon emissions reduction and the advancement of the environmental cause. Using a naïve model which maximises the environmental cause at the expense of financial impact on the economy, this paper highlights how the failure of the first phase of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme can be attributed to the over-relaxation of parameters crucial to the success of the scheme as measured by verified reduction in emissions. The Government’s preferred position as elucidated in the Green Paper …

Standard Setting For The Extractive Industries: A Critical Examination, C. L. Cortese, H. J. Irvine, M. Kaidonis

Mary Kaidonis

This study examines the players involved in the setting of an international accounting standard for the extractive industries. Publicly available data is used to expose connections between key constituents involved in the process, to enhance understanding of how the international accounting standard setting process occurred, and to identify future research possibilities.

A Framework To Audit Intellectual Capital, Indra Abeysekera

Indra Abeysekera

Until recently few firms have attempted to measure and assess Knowledge, the new intangible. Previous research shows that key components of intellectual capital are poorly understood, inadequately identified, inefficiently managed and inconsistently reported. Two types of audit are available: auditing by competence, and auditing individual or a spectrum of items. There are several methods for auditing these types, and selection depends both on the type of audit, and whether the aim is to quantify monetarily, to make comparisons, or to set benchmarks. A better way to approach the audit is to combine more than one method and audit object, so …

Human Capital Value Creation Practices Of Software And Service Exporter Firms In India, V. Murthy, Indra Abeysekera

Indra Abeysekera

This study explored the human capital (HC) value creation practices of the top seventeen software and service exporter firms in India. The study used HC disclosure attributes as a tool to the contents of the annual reports for the year 2003-04, to evaluate the type and amount of HC disclosed by the software firms. The study conducted semi-structured interviews with the Heads of Human Resources of fourteen software firms to obtain a greater understanding of the similarities between reporting and managed HC practices. The study identified most reported and least reported attributes of HC using content analysis and explained their …

Intellectual Capital Reporting Between A Developing And Developed Nation, Indra Abeysekera

Indra Abeysekera

Purpose - This paper examines the patterns of intellectual capital reporting (ICR) of large listed firms in a developing nation, Sri Lanka. The aim of this study is to highlight the differences in ICR practice between developing and developed nations. Design/methodology/approach - The paper begins by examining each of the top 30 firms by market capitalization listed on the Colombo stock exchange in 1998/1999 and 1999/2000. Using the content analysis method, it reviews the annual reports of these firms to determine the types of intellectual capital (IC) items reported in Sri Lanka. It then compares these findings with a similar …

Earnings Management And The Effect Of Earnings Quality In Relation To Stress Level And Bankruptcy Level Of Chinese Listed Firms, Feng Li, Indra Abeysekera, Shiguang Ma

Indra Abeysekera

This paper investigates the link between earnings management and earnings quality for the Chinese firms listed in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2003 to 2007. The earnings quality is measured by four separate earnings attributes: accruals quality, earnings persistence, earnings predictability, and earnings smoothness. We find that the stressed/bankrupt firms prefer opportunistic earnings management; the non-stressed/non-bankrupt firms are more likely to choose more efficient earnings management than the stressed/non-bankrupt firms. We find that earnings management performs better than earnings quality in predicting future profitability. We also find that the earnings quality has deteriorated over the sample period; the …

Accounting Meets Politics: Theoretical Interpretation Of Key Events (1940 To 2003) Of The Accounting Profession In Australia, Indra Abeysekera

Indra Abeysekera

This paper examines some key developments in the Australian accounting profession and the changing nature of the authoritative influence of that profession on accounting and auditing activities. The purpose of this investigation is to demonstrate the shift in power between the political constituent (the government) and the accounting profession. The paper attempts to demonstrate how the corporatist view can help us understand the social nature of accounting and how the accounting profession can gain a greater awareness of this reality. Finally, the paper questions whether the accounting profession in Australia has entered an episode of liberal ideals imposed by the …

How Is Intellectual Capital Being Reported In A Developing Nation?, Indra Abeysekera, J. Guthrie

Indra Abeysekera

To ascertain the status of intellectual capital reporting in a developing nation, this study examined annual reports of the top 30 companies in Sri Lanka. These were analysed using content analysis, and data were recorded in a theoretically backed coding framework with 45 intellectual capital items that were categorized into internal, external and human capital. The findings indicated that the most reported was external capital by frequency and human capital by line count. Only a small proportion of intellectual capital items reported were quantified.

The Role Of Emotional Assets And Liabilities In A Firm, Indra Abeysekera

Indra Abeysekera

There is an absence of research addressing the process by which emotional (also called sensational) assets and liabilities interact with the intellectual and accounting assets and liabilities of a firm. This conceptual paper discusses the relationship between these types of assets and liabilities, and examines the way in which emotional assets and liabilities (emotional capital) influence the fair value, profits and cash flow of a firm. It outlines how the core emotions related to products and services can influence customers in making purchasing decisions that maximise the value of a firm. It also offers indicators for the managing and reporting …

Trips And The Pharmaceutical Industry: Prescription For Profit?, Lee C. Moerman, S. L. Van Der Laan

Lee Moerman

The impact of global patent regulation in the form of the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement has far reaching effects for the research based pharmaceutical industry and global public health This paper explores the role of accounting in reinforcing the primacy of capital interests over global public interest by its ability to capture and measure an abstraction - knowledge. This commodification of knowledge serves to transfer the responsibility of the global health agenda to the market. However, this market based solution is not sensitive to many important issues faced by governments in relation to the global pharmaceutical research and development agenda, such …

Launching Research: Experiences With And Achievements Of A Research Mentoring Platform For Academic Women, M. Barrett, Sara Dolnicar, M. Kaidonis, L. C. Moerman, Melanie J. Randle, C. Wood

Lee Moerman

Due to the continuing under-representation of women in academic positions of higher rank, the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Wollongong tested a mentoring platform for female researchers. This article reviews the first eight months of the platform’s lifetime and analyses experiences, achievements and failures in both a qualitative and quantitative manner. The quantitative analysis is based on a benchmark survey at the first research platform meeting and a second follow-up survey after the eight-month test period. The majority of female researchers participating in the Women in Commerce Research Platform (WICRP) were already interested in the research component of …

Centrelink Prosecutions At The Employment/Benefit Nexus: A Case Study Of Wollongong, Freda Hui, Lee Moerman, Kathy Rudkin

Lee Moerman

This report examines financial and social issues pertaining to Centrelink prosecutions for overpayments of unemployment‐related social security benefits. Specifically, it examines the circumstances of prosecutions of those returning to work, and those in precarious casual employment. A sample of overpayment prosecutions in the Wollongong area of New South Wales from July 2008 to June 2010 is profiled and analysed.

Investigating Iternational Accounting Standard Setting: The Black Box Of Ifrs 6, Corinne L. Cortese, Helen J. Irvine

Corinne Cortese

This paper examines the role of powerful entities and coalitions in shaping international accounting standards. Specifically, the focus is on the process by which the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) developed IFRS 6, Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources. In its Issues Paper, the IASB recommended that the successful efforts method be mandated for pre-production costs, eliminating the choice previously available between full cost and successful efforts methods. In spite of the endorsement of this view by a majority of the constituents who responded to the Issues Paper, the final outcome changed nothing, with choice being retained. A compelling …

The Hollow Promise Of An Accounting Standard Setter, C. L. Cortese, H. J. Irvine, M. Kaidonis

Corinne Cortese

Purpose – This paper applies a power framework to critically analyse the international accounting standard setting process for the extractive industries. Design/methodology/approach – Publicly available data, including comment letters, annual reports, company websites, and IASC/IASB pronouncements, is used to make connections between the key plays involved in the international accounting standard setting process for the extractive industries. Findings – Lukes’ (1974) conception of power is used to explain the community of interests that developed between the IASC/IASB and extractive industries constituents. This community of interests is shown to have enabled the extractive industries to mobilise its power to paralyse the …

Digging Deeper: Uncovering Constituent Discourse In The International Accounting Standard Setting Process For The Extractive Industries, C. L. Cortese, H. J. Irvine, M. Kaidonis

Corinne Cortese

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is illuminate the way in which key constituents have influenced the process of setting an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for the extractive industries. Design/methodology/approach – Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is used to identify some of the key players involved in the international accounting standard setting process for the extractive industries, analyse their discourse and its implications, and assess the outcomes. A case study of one international accounting firm, one global petroleum corporation, and one petroleum industry lobby group was used to provide a cross-section of key players and explicate their influence on …

Standard Setting For The Extractive Industries: A Critical Examination, C. L. Cortese, H. J. Irvine, M. Kaidonis

Corinne Cortese

This study examines the players involved in the setting of an international accounting standard for the extractive industries. Publicly available data is used to expose connections between key constituents involved in the process, to enhance understanding of how the international accounting standard setting process occurred, and to identify future research possibilities.

Board Composition, Board Activity And Ownership Concentration, The Impact On Firm Performance, Shiguang Ma, Gary Tian

Gary Tian

This paper provides a parallel investigation on the impact of board composition, board activity and ownership concentration on the performance of listed Chinese firms. We find that independent directors enhance firm performance effectively than other board factors. The frequency of shareholder meetings, rather than board meetings, is positively associated with firm value. Tradable share ownership concentration has a positive and linear relationship with firm value, while state and total share ownership concentration represent U(V) shapes. Importantly, companies with the highest levels of both total share and tradable share ownership concentration have a greater firm values than companies with the highest …

The Effects Of Currency Appreciation On Share Market Return: Ardl Approach, Gary G. Tian, Shiguang Ma

Gary Tian

This study employs the ARDL cointegrating approach to examine the impact of financial liberalization on the relationships between three Chinese main bilateral exchange rates and its share market performance. We discovered that a long-term equilibrium relationship measured by cointegration has emerged between the exchange rate of the RMB against the Japanese Yen and, to a lesser extent, the exchange rate against both the US dollar and Hong Kong dollar and the Shanghai Composite Index since 2005 when the Chinese exchange rate regime changed from a peg system to a more flexible managed floating system. We found that the exchange rate …

Interday And Intraday Volatility: Additional Evidence From The Shanghai Stock Exchange, G. Tian, M. Guo

Gary Tian

After examining both the interday and intraday return volatility of the Shanghai Composite Stock Index, it was found that the open-to-open return variance is consistently greater than the close-to-close variance. Examining the volatility of interday returns and variance ratio tests with five-minute intervals reveals an L-shaped pattern, or more precisely, two L-shaped patterns, starting with a small hump during both the morning and the afternoon sessions, with the morning session having a much higher interday volatility than the afternoon session. This L-shaped interday volatility is supported by the similarly shaped intraday volatility pattern. This result suggests that the high volatility …