Journal Article The Carnegie Histories of Commerce and of Manufactures Get access Arthur H. Cole Arthur H. Cole Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 31, Issue 2, February 1917, Pages 319–340, https://doi.org/10.2307/1883913 Published: 01 February 1917

Empirical evaluation of the effect of school quality, or type and amount of resources per student, on adult earnings requires a conceptual framework. A model of the returns to schooling in a simple human capital growth context is extended to illustrate how factors such as consumption benefits of students, parental concern over equity between siblings, and use of schools to facilitate parental labor supply can alter the apparent return to school quality. The need for microlevel time diary and other data on human capital formation in both classrooms and families is highlighted.

The purpose of this paper is to examine certain received theories of the firm, trade union behavior, and bargaining in order to derive testable implications concerning the conditions under which labor disputes are more likely to occur. There are at least three reasons why an investigation of industrial strike activity seems fruitful. First, it might be argued that, because of their relatively frequent disruption of key sectors of the economy, work stoppages are the most important public policy issue raised by the existence of trade unions. It would therefore be useful to know whether, as Hicks thought, the majority of actual strikes are doubtless the result of faulty negotiation [18, p. 146] or whether they are an inevitable part of the functioning of an institutionalized market economy. Although it has long been known that the level of strike activity follows the business cycle [23] [20] [29], this leaves open the questions of the behavioral relations involved and their stability over time. Second, data on industrial disputes provide a potentially rich source of material for testing the implications of bargaining theories which purport to explain the outcome of labor-management negotiations.' Yet little work seems to have been done to date on the application of bargaining theoretic models to nonexperimeiltal data. A third reason for undertaking a study of this problem stems from the continuing interest in the effect of unions upon both the relative wage structure and the rate of change of aggregate money wages. Most union power is derived from the threat of the strike, and, accordingly, we agree with Charles Holt's recent suggestion that . the theory and analysis of industrial disputes may belp to clarify the role that unions play in the determination of wages [19, p. 50].

Reviews the book "Cash Flow Analysis and the Funds Statement," by Perry Mason.

Governments’ net assets balances are viewed as a measure of fiscal health and have been linked to municipal credit ratings. This study explores the extent to which ambient socioeconomic factors are captured in aggregated restricted and unrestricted net assets balances (termed “liquid net assets”) to understand why such balances are relevant to credit analysts and others. We model liquid net assets balances using observable nonaccounting factors (e.g., unemployment rates) to learn whether they reflect such influences. We use panel data for fiscal years 2007–2011 so our results comprehend effects of recent economic fluctuations. We find that liquid net assets balances impound a rich array of influences, bearing a positive association with the mayor‐council form of government, community wealth, the incidence of property crimes, and increases in governments’ business‐type net assets. Liquid net assets balances bear a negative association with liabilities for postemployment benefits, unemployment, and violent crime. The results indicate that net assets balances capture noteworthy debt burden, administrative, and socioeconomic influences and, as such, have meaning beyond their basic accounting interpretation.

This study examines whether the length of the relationship between a company and an audit firm (audit‐firm tenure) is associated with financial‐reporting quality. Using two proxies for financial‐reporting quality and a sample of Big 6 clients matched on industry and size, we find that relative to medium audit‐firm tenures of four to eight years, short audit‐firm tenures of two to three years are associated with lower‐quality financial reports. In contrast, we find no evidence of reduced financial‐reporting quality for longer audit‐firm tenures of nine or more years. Overall, our results provide empirical evidence pertinent to the recurring debate regarding mandatory audit‐firm rotation — a debate that has, to date, relied on anecdotal evidence and isolated cases.

Résumé. Les auteurs s'intéressent ici à la nature des représentations cognitives qu'utilisent les vérificateurs en situation de fraude potentielle dans les états financiers. Ils divisent le problème de détection de la fraude en deux parties: la détection de la mise en scène élaborée par la direction pour masquer la fraude et la détection de la fraude. Ils examinent les deux méthodes de détection des mises en scène proposées par Kahneman et Tversky (1986): 1) l'utilisation de représentations multiples aboutissant à différentes interprétations possibles des données contenues dans les états financiers; et 2) l'utilisation d'une méthode permettant de transposer les données contenues dans les états financiers sous forme de représentation normalisée. Vingt‐quatre associés de vérification ont participé à l'étude. Chacun d'eux devait procéder à la contre‐révision d'un dossier de vérification. Tous les vérificateurs examinaient quatre cas dans lesquels la direction avait présenté une image trompeuse de l'entreprise (au moyen d'une mise en scène) et produit des états financiers frauduleux. Les résultats obtenus par les auteurs confirment la thèse de Kahneman et Tversky selon laquelle les mises en scène peuvent être décelées grâce à la transposition du problème sous forme de représentation normalisée. Les vérificateurs qui ont eu recours à une représentation normalisée sont parvenus à percer à jour la mise en scène de la direction, à totaliser les éléments correctement et à déceler la fraude dans tous les cas. Ils ont, pour cela, appliqué des procédés conformes aux normes de vérification généralement reconnues (Institut Canadien des Comptables Agréés, 1988; American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 1984) pour totaliser les éléments. Les vérificateurs qui ont eu recours à des représentations multiples ont aussi détecté la mise en scène élaborée par la direction dans les quatre cas. Ils n'ont cependant pas appliqué les procédés de totalisation recommandés dans les normes de vérification et ne sont parvenus à détecter la fraude dans aucun des quatre cas.