This note provides an alternative approach to the subject of variable cost variance analysis based on the concept of incremental cash flow. Explanation of the idea is assisted with the use of an accompanying worksheet. An illustration of the approach concludes the presentation.
The article comments on a study about the relationship of pollution indices to financial indicators in stock investment decisions. The five financial indicators used were profitability, size, total risk, systematic risk, and price/earnings ratio. The study showed that the evidence presented rests on spurious relationships created through one or more intervening variables. An outline on constructing a model, based upon statistical relationships, is also presented. The relationship among size, pollution control and other financial characteristics is illustrated.
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the communication and reporting by large corporations on their social performance. Most of the attention has been devoted to either the need or the appropriate mode for corporate social disclosure. This study attempts to assess the impact of the capital markets of the social disclosure that already exists on a voluntary basis. The returns to portfolios composed of securities of socially disclosing firms are compared to the returns to portfolios of equivalent (systematic) risk composed of securities of non-disclosing firms. The findings indicate that social disclosure has information content and that the market values this disclosure positively.
This study investigates whether the market-determined systematic risk of the companies that used leasing extensively was affected by ASR 147, the FASB's August, 1977, exposure draft on lessee accounting, and SFAS 13. Three samples of companies were used in the study: (1) companies which engaged in a lot of leasing, (2) companies which did very little leasing, and (3) a random sample of companies. The leasing sample and the non-leasing sample were matched by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code. There was no significant change in the systematic risk of the sample companies pre- and post-June, 1973. There was no significant change in the systematic risk of the three groups of companies pre- and post-August, 1975. This leads to the conclusion that the SEC's ASR 147 and the FASB's pronouncement had little effect on the market's assessment of systematic risk.