The discussion about new international financial architecture in the last several years is the most extensive debate about international monetary reform since the 1960's. The motivation for the current debate has been the sharp declines in GDP that resulted from the recent financial crises in Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea. The 1990's debate about international monetary reform differs from the earlier debate in two important ways-one is certainly important and the other may be important. In the 1960's there was a clear identification of the problem that had to be resolved; a mechanism was needed that would enable Germany, Japan, and numerous other countries to satisfy their demand for international reserve assets without inducing a persistent U.S. payments deficit. The problem involved the consistency between the demand and supply of reserves at a global level. In contrast, currently there is no agreement on the problem that must be resolved, as is strikingly evident from the diversity of proposals to reform the architecture. One view is that capital flows are too volatile, another is that bank regulation in many countries is inadequate (transparency and accountability are the buzzwords), and a third is that exchange rates have been pegged when they should have been allowed to float. A fourth is that there is need for an international lender of last resort. The debate in the 1960's originated with individuals in the universities; for several years those in the financial establishment were reluctant to accept the definition of the problem. They slighted the connection between the increase in demand for international reserve assets in Germany, Italy, Japan, and a number of other countries and the U.S. payments balance. In contrast, in the 1990's the discussion of reform initially involved individuals in official institutions. The uniqueness of the recent events was the combination of the sharp sudden depreciation of national currencies and the large loan losses incurred by the domestic banks that appear to have been in the range of 15-20 percent of GDP in the affected countries. The extent of currency overshooting was more extensive than in any previous episode. The debate about whether the Asian Financial Crisis is primarily a domestic banking and real-estate crisis or instead primarily a foreignexchange crisis partly stimulated by the rapid move to financial liberalization still has not been resolved. At the onset of the crisis in each of the several countries, there was a severe liquidity squeeze; asset prices declined sharply. Asset prices increased as this squeeze abated, but these prices have renmained much below their levels prior to the crisis; the implication is that these assets were substantially overvalued prior to the crisis. Much of the discussion has involved the fit or consistency among unrest-rained cross-border capital movements, the exchange-rate arrangement (and particularly whether currencies are pegged or free to float), and the central-bank monetary policies. One theme is that currencies cannot be pegged if capital flows are not constrained; the interpretation is that floating exchange rates would be preferable to pegged rates. The dominant view is that the severity of the Asian crisis reflects the fact that the central banks were reluctant to permit their currencies to depreciate when the capital inflow declined. The three papers in this session represent a tripartite approach toward restructuring institutional arrangements: one part is the role of the exchange rates, a second part is the role of international financial institutions, and the third is the role of central banks. These three institutional components can be arranged in a hierarchy, and the key is the role of central banks and their choice of monetary policies, which in turn has implications for the preferred choice of the exchange-rate regime. The central question is * Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 1101 E. 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

Dale Jorgenson has bestowed a great honor and no small challenge by inviting me to give this lecture: a great honor because of the distinguished list of economists who have preceded me; a challenge because of the standard they have set, and because there is no greater challenge for any economist than providing a coherent account of significant events to his scientific peers. I am sometimes asked by friends about the differences between academic life and life as a public official. There are many. Two stand out. First, as an academic, the gravest sin one can commit is to sign one’s name to something one did not write. As a public official it is a mark of effectiveness to do so as often as possible. Second, as an academic, if a problem is too hard and does not admit of a satisfactory solution, there is an obvious response: work on a different problem. That is not a luxury that one has in government. I have been reminded of this often in recent years as we have grappled with financial crises in a number of what had previously been considered emerging markets with unrestrained futures. Anyone who doubts the social importance of what economists do should consider the debates surrounding these crises. Hundreds of millions of people who expected rapidly rising standards of living have seen their living standards fall; hundreds of thousands if not millions of children have been forced to drop out of school and go to work; hundreds of billions of dollars of apparent wealth has been lost; the stability of large nations as nations has been called into question; and the United States has made its largest nonmilitary foreign-policyrelated financial commitments since the Marshall Plan. Almost all the issues involved in understanding, preventing, and mitigating these crises are the stuff of economics courses and research: fixed versus flexible exchange rates, moral hazard and multiple equilibria, speculation and liquidity, fiscal and monetary policies, regulation and competition. What economists think, say, and do has profound implications for the lives of literally billions of their fellow citizens. Whether it is discussing the role of derivatives in signaling exchange-rate commitments with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, or discussing an NBER working paper on inflation targeting with the Brazilian central bank governor Arminio Fraga, or discussing alternative approaches to bankruptcy law with Indonesia’s economic team, or optimal debt durations with the Mexican authorities, I am consistently struck by the impact of the kind of research discussed at the AEA meetings. The future well-being of the world’s people in large part will depend on how the ongoing process of global integration works out. This is a strong statement, but one that is supported by the global economy’s post-World War I failure and its post-World War II success. Central to global integration is financial integration: the flow of funds and of capital across international borders. And as the events of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s remind us, central to global disintegration can be international financial breakdowns. Today, I want to reflect on the issue of global financial integration in light of the dramatic and largely unpredicted events of recent years. It is perhaps a good time for reflection: there has been enough repair that priority can shift from * U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20005. This lecture reflects many things I have learned from experiences I have shared with colleagues in the United States government and governments around the world. I thank Brad DeLong, Marty Feldstein, Stephanie Flanders, Ken Rogoff, Andrei Shleifer, and Ted Truman for useful comments and suggestions. I am especially grateful to Nouriel Roubini and Stephanie Flanders for valuable discussions and assistance in the preparation of this lecture. The usual disclaimer applies

Charles R. Hulten's (1992) article suggested that very little of the productivity slowdown of the 1970's could be attributed to capital-embodied technical change. Hulten estimated that about 20 percent of total technical change (what he termed the residual growth of quality-adjusted output) in U.S. manufacturing over the period from 1949 to 1983 could be ascribed to embodied technical change in machinery and equipment. However, he found very little difference in the contribution of embodied technical change to total technical change between the periods 1949-1973 and 1974-1983, the slowdown period. In my paper (Wolff, 1991), I found a very significant vintage effect, estimated by the change in the average age of the capital stock. My data, drawn from Angus Maddison (1982), covered the G-7 countries over the period 1880-1979 and were based on figures for total capital (structures, machinery, and equipment) and for the entire economy. These results suggested that embodied technical change played a significant role in the productivity falloff of the 1970's. In this paper, I use more recent data for six OECD countries (France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States) compiled by Angus Maddison (1991, 1993a, b) and focus on the period from 1950 to 1989. I find here that the vintage effect is, indeed, a very strong determinant of the post-1973 productivity slowdown among OECD countries, explaining on average about two-fifths of the slowdown. The effect varies among countries, from a low of 23 percent in Japan to 69 percent in France. For the United States, the vintage effect appears to account for a little over half of its slowdown. Though it should be stressed that my results do not directly contradict those of Hulten, whose measure of technical change was confined to machinery and equipment within U.S. manufacturing, I will still attempt some reconciliation of my findings with those of Hulten at the end. The discrepancy in results suggests the possibility that the slowdown in investment in public infrastructure after 1973 may have played an important role in the post-1973 productivity slowdown. Moreover, since this is only a note, I will not review the rather extensive literature on the productivity slowdown of the 1970's (see, for example, Edward F. Denison's [1979] and my [Wolff, 1985] review articles), except to list a number of factors that have been examined. The main candidates have included the slowdown in the rate of capital formation, changes in the composition of the labor force, the role of energy price shocks, declines in R&D spending (and/ or the productivity of R&D), changes in the composition of output (mainly, the shift to services), and increased government regulation. Of these, the decline in investment appears to have played a major role, explaining about a fourth to a third of the slowdown in U.S. productivity growth after 1973. In Section I, I present the basic data for the analysis. The basic regression results are presented in Section II. In Section III, I consider other possible factors that may have played a role in the productivity slowdown of the 1970's. Section IV provides a decomposition of labor productivity growth into its various sources, including a vintage effect, estimated by changes in the average age of capital. Section V analyzes the relative importance of each component in the falloff of productivity growth observed among OECD countries after * Department of Economics, New York University, New York, NY 10003. The author would like to express appreciation to Moses Abramovitz, Charles Hulten, and two anonymous referees for their comments and to the Sloan Foundation and C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics at New York University for financial support

During the past fifteen years, the United States has experienced a dramatic decline in productivity growth. In the two decades before the mid-1960's, real output per hour of labor input in the private nonfarm sector grew at an average rate of 2-1/2 percent a year, fueling a dramatic rise in both the amount of goods and services produced and the average real wage of American workers. Since then, productivity performance has been much poorer, falling to about 2 percent per year between 1965 and 1973, and then to less than two-thirds of a percent per year between 1973 and 1979. Recent experience is particularly discouraging: current estimates indicate that productivity in the private nonfarm sector is still lower than it was in 1977. While the productivity slowdown has rekindled interest in the sources of growth, none of the new research has yielded a satisfactory solution to the Great Productivity Mystery. Most growth accounting studies have indicated that less than half of the observed slowdown in the growth of output per unit of labor input can be explained by the capital intensity of production, the education and experience of workers, increased regulation, and the age of the capital stock. Some researchers claim that the increase in energy prices (and the resulting reduction in energy input) is responsible for much of the decline, but their case is far from proven. Little attention has been paid to the close correlation between slower productivity growth in the United States and the other major economic development since World War II: the shift from price stability before the mid-1960's to persistent inflation since then. The timing of reductions in productivity growth strongly suggest that the productivity slowdown is related to the inflationary process. Labor productivity started increasing more slowly in the mid1960's, just as the current inflationary spiral began to gain momentum. In the 1970's, as inflation increased, productivity performance deteriorated even further. The negative correlation between inflation and productivity growth is particularly striking when the cumulative deviation of the price level from its pre-1965 trend is compared to the cumulative deviation of productivity from its trend over the same period, as in Figure 1. Abstracting from cyclical wiggles in productivity, the increases in the inflation rate closely track the reductions in productivity growth that the economy has experienced. Over the past fifteen years, each increase of one percentage point in the annual inflation rate has been accompanied by a reduction in labor productivity growth of about one-fourth of a percentage point per year. A number of sound theoretical reasons suggest that this correlation is more than a statistical accident, and that inflation has been a major cause of the recent productivity slowdown. First, by increasing the variance of relative prices, inflation may have reduced the ability of the price system to transmit information and cut into real efficiency gains. Second, inflation may have created a downward bias in the measurement of real output, producing a fictitious reduction in productivity growth. Third, energy price increases may have generated significant reductions in productivity growth, either by causing a shift toward more labor-intensive means of production or by altering the environment in which technical progress takes place. Fourth, inflation has eroded tax deductions for depreciation and raised the rental price of capital services, which may have retarded the growth of capital per worker. In addition to these possibilities, which have causation running from higher inflation to lower productivity growth, the correlation between productivity and the price level may have been *Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The views expressed in this paper are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of the Board of Governors or the staff of the Federal Reserve System. A bibliography for this article is available from the author on request

[The nature of information regulation depends on the informational efficiency of capital markets (see Beaver 1989, 152-71; Dyckman and Morse 1986, 82-91). Consequently, researchers in accounting and finance have spent considerable effort attempting to measure efficiency. Although this investigation has spanned many research designs and has been applied to many different information signals, empirical tests all suffer from the same basic problem: the benchmark of interest, an informationally efficient market, is unobservable. The asset price that would have prevailed in an efficient market must therefore be modeled, and the test of market efficiency is confounded with a test of the asset-pricing model. Because of this ambiguity, whenever a researcher claims to find an abnormal return based on some information signal another researcher invariably responds that risk was not adequately controlled. For instance, Bernard and Thomas (1989, 1990) present evidence that markets do not adequately adjust to quarterly earnings announcements (i.e., there is a significant post-announcement drift), while Ball et al. (1990) argue that the market adjustment may be correct if the level of risk during the announcement period is adequately controlled for. Unlike naturally occurring markets, the efficiency of a laboratory market can be measured directly by creating another "artificial" economy that is identical to the economy of interest, except that all information is fully disseminated. The price in the artificial economy is the efficient price by definition; it is determined endogenously and without reference to an asset-pricing model. Using this method of measuring a market's efficiency, this study investigates how efficiency is influenced by different information or market structures. Although such an investigation will not resolve the issue of whether naturally occurring markets are efficient, laboratory results can identify features of a market or information structure that aid or impede efficiency. The study compares two information structures that differ by whether there is aggregate certainty in the market; that is, whether the union of all traders' information signals perfectly identifies the value of the risky asset. Previous experimental research in market efficiency has used markets with aggregate certainty. However, many of the difficulties of decision making under uncertainty disappear when the information in the market collectively reveals the asset's payoff. On the other hand, for the experiments conducted here, there are relatively more signals to aggregate in the markets with aggregate certainty. The results show that in markets where different traders have different information signals, the presence of aggregate uncertainty significantly reduces efficiency relative to similar markets with aggregate certainty. However, the results also show that markets are very efficient when some traders have a common but imperfect information signal and other traders are uninformed. In these markets there is aggregate uncertainty but no diversity of information among informed traders. Thus, diversity of informed traders' information and aggregate uncertainty together lead to inefficient markets, but neither treatment by itself causes inefficiency. The study also manipulates the number of traders in the market. It is sometimes argued that markets are efficient because there are a large number of traders whose individual errors average out. However, there is no reason to believe that the asset-pricing relation applies equal weight to each trader's belief, so a central limit result may not hold. The results show that the number of traders has no significant impact on the efficiency of the final prices in a trading period. Within a trading period, however, markets with only a few traders converge to the efficient price much more quickly than do markets with many traders. The results also show that there is a greater diversity of behavior in the markets with many traders. It is possible that this increased diversity increases the number of "noisy" transactions, making it more difficult to infer information from market data. In any investigation of a market's efficiency, different traders must have different information at the time efficiency is being assessed; otherwise the market is efficient by definition. Although accounting disclosures are publicly available they can effectively generate different information signals to different traders. The markets presented here give two examples. In the aggregate certainty treatment, some traders received good news signals and other traders received bad news signals. An example of this type of information system is an economy where different traders having different earnings expectation models. In such an economy the same earnings report can be good news to some traders and bad news to other traders. As long as the "correct" earnings expectation model is unknown, each trader would find the other traders' signals-in this case their forecast errors-informative. In the number-of-traders treatment, some traders receive a signal while other traders do not. An example of this type of information system is an economy where some traders receive accounting disclosures very quickly by subscribing to a wire news while other traders receive the information via third-class mail. Here the uninformed traders would benefit by learning the informed traders' signal

The deadline for free position ads to be included in this section of The Accounting Review is two months prior to the desired publication in the January, March, May, July, September, or November issues. Position ads, which are free with the purchase of a job posting in the AAA Career Center, should provide all relevant information about the available positions and must include contact information or application instructions for interested candidates. For more information on how to purchase a job posting in the Career Center, or for updated, detailed information about the placement listings in this issue, please go to the AAA website at http://aaahq.org and click on “Career Center,” or call our office at 941-921-7747.IMPERIAL COLLEGE BUSINESS SCHOOL, Department of Finance is seeking qualified applicants for faculty positions in its Finance Department at the rank of Associate and Full Professor. Associate and Full Professor applicants should have a proven track record of institution building and service in addition to exceptional scholarship in Accounting. The positions require a strong record of research and demonstrated excellence in teaching and service. Candidates for a Full Professor position should be a world leader in their area of research. Your application will need to include a cv and three research papers. Candidates will need to submit their application via: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/description/BUS00416/associatefull-professor-accounting Shortlisted candidates will need to arrange for three reference letters to be emailed to: [email protected]. Imperial College is committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination, and to creating an inclusive working environment. We welcome applicants who will increase diversity within the Department of Finance.TRANSBAY JOINT POWERS AUTHORITY. Come help us transform the future of transportation in the Bay Area. We are looking for an Accounting Director to join our team! The Accounting Director plans, directs, coordinates, and manages the accounting activities of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA), which encompass financial reporting, general accounting, capital accounting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and payroll functions. The Accounting Director supervises technical professional accounting work, requiring knowledge of municipal finance functions, internal controls, government fund accounting, enterprise fund accounting and automated accounting systems. See full job position here: https://tjpa.org/uploads/2021/11/TJPA_Accounting_Director_Brochure_11-9-21.pdf/. Apply today! The salary range is 140,000–160,000 and is dependent upon qualifications and experience. In addition to competitive salaries, TJPA offers flexible benefit plans the successful candidate will be required to pass a background and credit check.REDEEMER HEALTH is seeking a candidate for Senior Director, Hospital Finance. Redeemer Health, a major health system headquartered in suburban Philadelphia with a major hospital, home health and hospice services, and life care facilities, is seeking a visionary leader to head our Hospital Finance team. Reporting to the Redeemer Health Vice President of Financial Reporting and Acute Care, this multi-faceted role oversees the daily reporting of financial and statistical information for the Hospital as compared to budget. Candidates need a college degree in Accounting, Finance, or Business Administration; M.B.A./CPA/CMA/FHFM preferred; 7–10 years of experience in a healthcare facility with knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Medicare, Medicaid regulations, and other reimbursement methodologies along with experience in general ledger and cost accounting methodologies, and budgeting systems; knowledge of forecasting/planning process, Managed Care contracts, and Hospital Cost Accounting and Budgeting Systems, Report Distribution Systems, General Ledger, and Materials Management systems. For more information and to apply, please visit: https://careers.holyredeemer.com/job/27546/Sr-Director-Hospital-Finance . EOE.UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT is pleased to invite applications for a tenure-track faculty position in the Department of Accounting at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor. For details and to apply, visit https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/20386. UConn is an AA/EEO employer.TARLETON STATE UNIVERSITY, Accounting Department is searching for an Assistant Professor of Accounting, primarily responsible for the teaching/learning process and will also participate in the necessary operations of the institution, to start in the Fall 2022 semester. Minimum Requirements: Earned doctorate degree in Accounting, approved by the University and recognized by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, with appropriate academic credentials verified by Tarleton's faculty credentialing processes. Applications only accepted at https://www.Tarleton.edu/jobs. Tarleton State University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Veterans/Disability Employer. As a member of The Texas A&M System, Tarleton will provide equal opportunity for employment to all persons regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation or gender identity, and will strive to achieve full and equal employment opportunity through The Texas A&M System.PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY, School of Business is seeking a research-active, tenure track, tax faculty to join our AACSB accredited Accounting program beginning the Fall of 2022. The accounting faculty are a friendly and collegial group of highly respected researchers (primarily behavioral) with a passion for serving the unique undergraduate and graduate students of Portland State. Come explore our beautiful urban campus and beyond. View the official posting: Link to posting and apply here: https://jobs.hrc.pdx.edu/postings/36372 Email Professor Cass Hausserman at [email protected] with any questions! School of Business Website: https://www.pdx.edu/business/THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, Terry College of Business, J. M. Tull School of Accounting seeks applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor with teaching and research interests in financial accounting. Position will begin Fall 2022 with an anticipated start date of August 1, 2022. Candidates must have a Ph.D. in accounting (completed by August 1, 2022) or a related field with a concentration in accounting. Applications received by January 17, 2022 will receive full consideration. Review of applications will continue until the position has been filled. All application documents must be submitted electronically at: https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/232613. Applications submitted in other ways will not be considered. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Questions about the position can be directed to the search committee chair, Frank Heflin, [email protected] STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE (CSUN), Department of Accounting is accepting applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level beginning Fall 2022. Qualifications: Applicants must demonstrate a commitment to a diverse student population as well as an ability to teach, mentor, and work with diverse students. Successful candidate must have the following credentials: Education: Doctoral degree from an AACSB-accredited institution in accounting or a related business discipline or a J.D. plus L.L.M. (Tax) from an ABA-accredited institution; Publications: Successful candidate must meet and maintain the criterion for Scholarly Academic under the AACSB accreditation requirement and have a demonstrated recent engagement activities involving substantive scholarly activities in their field of accounting. Applicants must submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, and three current letters of recommendation to the CSUN application website: https://www.csun.edu/careers/. For further detail information, please refer to: https://www.csun.edu/sites/default/files/22-03%20Accounting%20Posting.pdf.FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY, Department of Accounting invites applications for a non-tenure-track Lecturer position beginning August 2022. This is a faculty position. Candidates should have an ability to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in the area of taxation, as well as general accounting courses. An established record of excellent teaching at a reputable university is required. Minimum of a Master's degree, but terminal degree is preferred, from an accredited institution in an area of specialization consistent with Accounting and Taxation. Positions will remain open until filled. A criminal history background check will be performed prior to hiring. Applicants should submit their curriculum vitae and three reference letters by email to: [email protected]. Questions about the position should be directed to Allen Blay, Chair, Department of Accounting, [email protected]. FSU is an Equal Opportunity/Access/Affirmative Action/Pro Disabled and Veteran Employer. FSU Equal Opportunity Statement can be viewed at: http://www.hr.fsu.edu/PDF/Publications/diversity/EEO_Statement.pdfHUNTINGTON MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTES (HMRI) seeks to hire a Controller to join its Finance and Accounting department. HMRI is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving lives through patient-focused scientific research. Our scientists' research focuses on the connection between the brain and heart, developing diagnostic tools to help treat common diseases of these vital organs that affect every family. The Controller directs and has immediate responsibility for accounting policies and procedures, the maintenance of financial records, the budget process, and the preparation of financial reports. Grants administration experience and knowledge of laws and regulations pertaining to grants and contracts administration is required, in particular with government grant funding through the National Institute of Health (NIH). Please send application materials (cover letter, resume/cv) and a list of three professional references to: [email protected] for consideration. Visit us at https://hmri.org/ to learn about our research areas.MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY, Jones College of Business invites applicants for the Joey A. Jacobs Chair of Excellence in Accounting. This is a non-tenurable professional practice track position with open rank considered. A Fall 2022 start date is anticipated although an earlier date is possible. The position requires, at minimum, a bachelor's degree in accounting, business, economics, or a closely related field and five years of professional experience with substantial responsibility. The chairholder will engage in teaching and research in accounting; organize seminars and workshops; and collaborate with colleagues across campus and across the country. The position is permanently funded with a multi-million-dollar endowment. Located in Greater Nashville, MTSU offers an outstanding academic atmosphere and an exceptional lifestyle. Apply at: https://careers.mtsu.edu/en-us/listing/. MTSU is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer that values diversity in all its forms. Women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and protected veterans are encouraged to apply.MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY, Dillard College of Business Administration (AACSB-accredited) is seeking applicants for Accounting Department Chair, beginning Fall 2022. Located in Wichita Falls, TX, about 125 miles northwest of Dallas, MSU Texas is a 6000-student, COPLAC-member regional university. The Department's 11 full-time faculty members teach courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. Duties include overseeing and developing faculty, curriculum development and scheduling, and resolving student issues. This is a 9-month, tenure-track position normally filled by an Associate or Full Professor. The successful candidate will teach a 2-2 load of face-to-face and online courses with possible summer teaching. A terminal degree in Accounting or related discipline, preferably awarded by an AACSB-accredited university, a track record of excellent in teaching, and demonstrated research and other intellectual contributions required. To apply, please email a letter of application, cv, unofficial undergraduate and graduate transcripts, and three professional references to: [email protected]. Salary is competitive.THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, Michael F. Price College of Business, John T. Steed School of Accounting invites applications for an open rank tenured or tenure-track position starting in the 2022–2023 academic year. Applicants will be considered for appointment at the Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor rank based on achievements and experience. Endowed professorships/chairs are available for qualified candidates at the Associate or Full rank. The school's primary teaching needs are in graduate auditing. Qualified individuals may apply at http://apply.interfolio.com/100762. Application materials should include a current vita, working paper to be presented to faculty and doctoral students, evidence of effective teaching, and names and contact information for three references. Questions regarding the search may be submitted to Karen Hennes, [email protected]. Screening of applications will begin February 4, 2022, but applications will continue to be accepted until the position is filled

Variable Annuities are the subject of considerable discussion by individuals who identify themselves with life insurance companies and security dealers. The paper by Mr. Albert Linton published in the May, 1956, issue of the Journal of Finance is a case in point. This comment does not attempt to marshall arguments for or against variable annuities, but is concerned only with the major factors determining the size of the payments to be made from a variable annuity fund during the payment period. In Mr. Linton's Table 2, the assumption is made that the variable annuity payment would follow Standard and Poor's index of stock prices.1 The other major factor influencing the size of the annuity payment, the cash dividends that will be received by and added to the annuity fund during the period of the annuity payments, is omitted. This is comparable to omitting interest on the standard annuity contract. The purpose of Table 2 was evidently to display the magnitude of the fluctuations in variable annuity payments in contrast to the absolute dollar stability of the payments made under the terms of a traditional annuity contract. Mr. Linton emphasizes that “irate and disillusioned policyholders” might write letters to insurance commissioners and even congressmen when payments fall under variable annuity contracts. Such pressure might have been (or may be) the opportunity for federal regulation of those life insurance companies that issue variable annuity contracts. Column 1, Table 1, in this comment sets forth the fixed payment of $100 per month specified by Mr. Linton, Column 2 reproduces the assumed monthly payment made under a variable annuity contract as shown by Mr. Linton in his. Table 2, and Column 3 presents a revised statement of the monthly payment under a variable annuity contract taking cognizance of the dividends received by the annuity fund during each year of the life of the annuity. The period 1926 to 1954 is the period selected by Mr. Linton. According to Mr. Linton's presentation, the payments made under the variable annuity were less than those under the traditional contract in twelve of the twenty-nine years. The revised variable annuity payments fall below the fixed monthly payments of $100 in only three years. Furthermore, the lowest payment under the revised computation is $83 per month as compared with $49 per month shown by Mr. Linton. Certainly the intensity of the remarks in the policyholders' letters would be different if the variable annuity payments fell 17 per cent rather than 51 per cent below a norm established by the payment of a fixed number of dollars under a fixed annuity contract. Fixed annuity policyholders may well complain about the opportunities missed when they compare their $100 with the more than $200 monthly income in 1954 that might have been possible under a variable annuity contract. In the computation of Column 3, Table 1, the advantages accruing to the variable annuitant during the accumulation period have been foregone. Mr. Linton recognizes this advantage in suggesting that the rate of growth of funds during the accumulation period invested in a well-selected, properly diversified group of stocks has been larger than the rate of interest achieved by the investment portfolios that are the basis for traditional annuity contracts. We believe that such higher yields on equities are not dependent on inflation given the maintenance of our long-run rate of economic growth and that this relationship is very likely to continue. This position, however, must be left undefended since the space that may be alloted to a comment is very limited. Let the case of the conservative be admitted, however. The holder of a variable annuity contract, the annuitant, would take more risk with respect to the number of dollars he will eventually receive. Life insurance companies, other financial institutions, and even the structure of the capital markets will be affected by any considerable growth in the use of variable annuities. Such changes are certain to follow whether the life insurance companies themselves or some newly developed type of financial institution handles variable valued annuities

Variable Annuities are the subject of considerable discussion by individuals who identify themselves with life insurance companies and security dealers. The paper by Mr. Albert Linton published in the May, 1956, issue of the Journal of Finance is a case in point. This comment does not attempt to marshall arguments for or against variable annuities, but is concerned only with the major factors determining the size of the payments to be made from a variable annuity fund during the payment period. In Mr. Linton's Table 2, the assumption is made that the variable annuity payment would follow Standard and Poor's index of stock prices.1 The other major factor influencing the size of the annuity payment, the cash dividends that will be received by and added to the annuity fund during the period of the annuity payments, is omitted. This is comparable to omitting interest on the standard annuity contract. The purpose of Table 2 was evidently to display the magnitude of the fluctuations in variable annuity payments in contrast to the absolute dollar stability of the payments made under the terms of a traditional annuity contract. Mr. Linton emphasizes that “irate and disillusioned policyholders” might write letters to insurance commissioners and even congressmen when payments fall under variable annuity contracts. Such pressure might have been (or may be) the opportunity for federal regulation of those life insurance companies that issue variable annuity contracts. Column 1, Table 1, in this comment sets forth the fixed payment of $100 per month specified by Mr. Linton, Column 2 reproduces the assumed monthly payment made under a variable annuity contract as shown by Mr. Linton in his. Table 2, and Column 3 presents a revised statement of the monthly payment under a variable annuity contract taking cognizance of the dividends received by the annuity fund during each year of the life of the annuity. The period 1926 to 1954 is the period selected by Mr. Linton. According to Mr. Linton's presentation, the payments made under the variable annuity were less than those under the traditional contract in twelve of the twenty-nine years. The revised variable annuity payments fall below the fixed monthly payments of $100 in only three years. Furthermore, the lowest payment under the revised computation is $83 per month as compared with $49 per month shown by Mr. Linton. Certainly the intensity of the remarks in the policyholders' letters would be different if the variable annuity payments fell 17 per cent rather than 51 per cent below a norm established by the payment of a fixed number of dollars under a fixed annuity contract. Fixed annuity policyholders may well complain about the opportunities missed when they compare their $100 with the more than $200 monthly income in 1954 that might have been possible under a variable annuity contract. In the computation of Column 3, Table 1, the advantages accruing to the variable annuitant during the accumulation period have been foregone. Mr. Linton recognizes this advantage in suggesting that the rate of growth of funds during the accumulation period invested in a well-selected, properly diversified group of stocks has been larger than the rate of interest achieved by the investment portfolios that are the basis for traditional annuity contracts. We believe that such higher yields on equities are not dependent on inflation given the maintenance of our long-run rate of economic growth and that this relationship is very likely to continue. This position, however, must be left undefended since the space that may be alloted to a comment is very limited. Let the case of the conservative be admitted, however. The holder of a variable annuity contract, the annuitant, would take more risk with respect to the number of dollars he will eventually receive. Life insurance companies, other financial institutions, and even the structure of the capital markets will be affected by any considerable growth in the use of variable annuities. Such changes are certain to follow whether the life insurance companies themselves or some newly developed type of financial institution handles variable valued annuities

The deadline for free position ads to be included in this section of The Accounting Review is two months prior to the desired publication in the January, March, May, July, September, or November issues. Position ads, which are free with the purchase of a job posting in the AAA Career Center, should provide all relevant information about the available positions and must include contact information or application instructions for interested candidates. For more information on how to purchase a job posting in the Career Center, or for updated, detailed information about the placement listings in this issue, please go to the AAA website at http://aaahq.org and click on “Career Center,” or call our office at 941-921-7747.THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLOTTE, Belk College of Business, Turner School of Accountancy invites applications for a Director/Department Chair to begin in August 2022. The new Director will be hired with tenure at the rank of Professor (preferred) or Associate Professor. The primary duties of the Director include internal administration of the Turner School and external engagement with industry partners and alumni. The Turner School is named for Mr. Thomas C. Turner, who helped establish the accounting department at UNC Charlotte, and is funded with an endowment of over $4 million to support students and faculty, with additional commitments already made. Applications must be made electronically at: https://jobs.charlotte.edu/ (position #004085) or directly at: https://jobs.charlotte.edu/postings/36999/. A more detailed description of the job duties and required application materials are available at the posting. For more information, email Dr. Al Ghosh, Search Committee Chair, at: [email protected] OF CHARLESTON, Department of Accounting and Business Law is seeking a tenure-track faculty member in accounting to start Spring/Fall 2022. While all areas of teaching and research will be considered, our primary needs are in the areas of accounting information systems and data analytics. The willingness and ability to effectively teach accounting principles is required, in addition to other courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels. A Ph.D. in accounting from an AACSB-accredited (or equivalent) institution is required. Applicants should use our online application system at: https://jobs.cofc.edu/postings/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=&query_v0_posted_at_date=&435=&query_position_type_id%5B%5D=2&commit=Search/. All ranks will be considered. Those applying for Associate Professor or Professor appointments must have a successful record of teaching and research productivity over a period of at least five years. Questions concerning the position should be addressed to Robert Hogan, Associate Professor and Chair, at: [email protected]. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. The College of Charleston is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any individual or group on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, race, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, or disability.PENNYMAC is seeking applicants for the position of Investor Accountant I, who is responsible for completing low to medium complex monthly reporting and remitting for investors, which could include FNMA Actual/Actual and Private Investor Actual/Actual. The primary function may also include completing Principal & Interest (P&I), Taxes & Insurance (T&I), and/or clearing account bank reconciliations with low to medium complexity. The position also requires familiarity with understanding of the underlying governing documents (Agency and Private Investor Servicing Agreements, Regulation AB, USAP) for the assigned investor portfolio. Visit: https://careers-pennymac.icims.com/jobs/search?ss=1NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service seeks to hire a full-time contract (non-tenure track) faculty member who has expertise in healthcare financial management. The principal responsibilities include teaching in two master's-degree programs: an online Master of Health Administration (M.H.A.) and an on-campus Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) in Health Policy and Management. The faculty member will also have administrative responsibilities related to a health program. The successful candidate will join NYU Wagner's full-time faculty and should have a strong interest in interacting with faculty, students, and staff in a multi-disciplinary professional school of public service. Learn more about the position and apply here: https://apply.interfolio.com/94781UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–GREEN BAY, Austin E. Cofrin School of Business seeks applicants for a tenure-track position in Accounting. This position will be responsible for enhancing UW–Green Bay's mission-driven inclusive teaching efforts and creating and maintaining an educational environment that acknowledges, encourages, and celebrates those with diverse identities, beliefs, and cultural backgrounds. Minimum Qualifications: Earned doctorate in Accounting or Business Administration; University-level teaching experience; Experience in working in the business world; Evidence of a commitment to quality teaching; Evidence of engagement in institutional, community and professional endeavors. To apply: https://www.careers.wisconsin.edu/psc/careers/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM_FL.HRS_CG_SEARCH_FL.GBL?FOCUS=Applicant/. Need: Cover letter that specifically addresses qualifications for the essential job functions, curriculum vitae, names and contact information for three references, unofficial transcripts of all graduate work, and course evaluations. For more, visit: https://www.uwgb.edu/human-resources/employment/career-opportunities/BEMIDJI STATE UNIVERSITY (BSU) invites qualified applicants to join our team as an Assistant or Associate Professor of Accounting. BSU's vision is to educate people to lead inspired lives. To accomplish BSU's vision, the University prioritizes creating a culture in which diversity is embraced and all people are safe, welcome, and validated. BSU also prioritizes increasing engagement with Indigenous communities to become a destination university. BSU is located amid the lakes and forests of northern Minnesota and occupies a wooded campus along the shore of Lake Bemidji. BSU balances rigorous academia with the opportunity to enjoy a fun, robust, outdoor culture. For more details or to apply: https://bemidjistate.peopleadmin.com/NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Accounting Group invites applications for one tenure-track position, with employment beginning in the 2022–23 academic year. We are seeking candidates who have research and teaching interests in accounting topics that involve data analytics, Big Data, text analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Candidates are required to hold a doctorate in Accounting or a closely related business field by the appointment start date, and must have backgrounds in or commitment to working with diverse student populations and/or in culturally diverse work and educational environments. Applicants should submit materials including a letter of interest, vita, recent working papers, teaching evaluations, and letters of reference using the Northeastern University application portal at: https://careers.hrm.northeastern.edu/cw/en-us/job/508110. Inquiries may be directed to Professor Udi Hoitash, Chair of the Hiring Committee, Email: [email protected] STATE OF CALIFORNIA is seeking a State Auditor to provide accurate, unbiased, and timely assessments of state and local governments. With a staff of 160+ dedicated, talented professionals, the California State Auditor's Office promotes the efficient and effective management of public funds and programs by performing various audits, including audits requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. For more information, please contact the Joint Legislative Audit Committee at 916-319-3300 or visit: https://legaudit.assembly.ca.gov

Johannes Stroebel is the David S. Loeb Professor of Finance at New York University's Stern School of Business. Johannes joined Stern as an Assistant Professor of Finance in 2013 and received tenure in 2016. He started his career in 2012 as the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business after earning a Ph.D. in Economics at Stanford University. Stroebel's prolific body of work, which looks more like that of somebody 20 rather than only 10 years out of the Ph.D., spans a broad range of topics and uses a variety of methods. He has made important contributions to at least four areas: household finance, asset pricing, climate risk, and social networks. Several papers forge connections between these areas. I highlight key contributions to each of these research agendas. The first strand of Johannes' work focuses on household finance. In two papers published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (Agarwal et al. (2015, 2018)), Stroebel combines a large microlevel data set of credit card accounts with careful identification. The first paper finds that regulation that protected consumers by limiting fees was not undone by banks charging higher costs elsewhere, but rather resulted in higher consumer surplus. The second paper uses the cross-section of credit card accounts to show that the monetary pass-through via the bank lending channel is limited because the borrowers with a high marginal propensity to borrow and consume are those for which the banks have a low marginal willingness to lend. Another important paper in household finance is the American Economic Review paper (Giglio et al. (2021b)) that establishes a modest response of financial portfolio decisions to households' beliefs about expected returns. Johannes returns to the topic of consumer credit in a forthcoming Journal of Finance paper (Howell et al. (2023)) on lender automation and racial disparities in credit access. Much of Johannes' work, some of which I describe below, touches on housing, the largest asset in households' portfolios. Stroebel's second main research pillar is asset pricing. In three connected papers, Giglio, Maggiori, and Stroebel infer the discount rates that investors apply to cash flows that accrue in the very far future. Such very long discount rates are important, for example, for analyses of greenhouse gas abatement investments that trade off the uncertain future benefits against current costs (Giglio et al. (2021a)). More on the climate implications below. In traditional financial markets, we have very few very long-lived assets from which to infer long-run discount rates. The authors turn to real estate markets. In Singapore and the United Kingdom, investors can buy houses either as freeholds, which grant perpetual ownership rights to land and structure, or as leaseholds, which grant tradeable temporary ownership rights ranging between 75 and 999 years. From the price difference between freeholds and leaseholds of different maturities, the authors back out a term structure of discount rates under reasonable assumptions on growth rates of rents. The observed price discounts imply low long-run discount rates of 2.6% per year for very far-out payoffs. Combined with the observation that the overall (maturity-weighted) return on housing is around 6% per year, they conclude that the term structure of discount rates is downward sloping (Giglio, Maggiori, and Stroebel (2015)). These discount rate estimates suggest that there was no bubble in these housing markets in the 2000s (Giglio, Maggiori, and Stroebel (2016)). Put differently, the risk premium applied to cash flows in the very far future is high enough to make its present discounted value equal to zero; the transversality condition for long-lived assets is likely to be satisfied. The third and most recent area Johannes has focused on is climate finance, as summarized in a recent review article (Giglio, Kelly, and Stroebel (2021)). A central issue in this literature is how to think of the uncertainty associated with future benefits of climate abatement investments. More economic activity creates larger climate damages as a by-product. But climate risk also directly affects the economy, think of a natural disaster. Under the first view, states of the world with lots of climate change are states of the world with high GDP (Nordhaus (2013)), whereas in the second view, they are states with low GDP (Barro (2015), Weitzman (2012)). Whether states of the world with rapid climate change are good or bad states has major quantitative implications for the discount rate to be used when calculating the benefits of climate mitigation and the social cost of carbon. Giglio et al. (2021a) argue that real estate markets are informative for which discount rate to use when evaluating climate abatement investments. It establishes that real estate returns are risky, performing poorly in low-growth and consumption disaster states. It also documents that real estate values are indeed exposed to climate risk by studying how coastal house prices change when the perception of climate risk increases. A disaster risk model, where economic activity increases the likelihood of a climate disaster and rebounds after a disaster, generates a downward-sloping discount rate curve, consistent with the aforementioned evidence from the real estate market. Since climate abatement investments hedge climate change risk, the appropriate discount rates are below the risk-free rate at all maturities and rising in maturity. Johannes has several more interesting papers in climate finance (Engle et al. (2020), Stroebel and Wurgler (2021), van Benthem et al. (2022), Alekseev et al. (2022)) that zoom in on risk measurement and management. The fourth, and maybe most well-known area of Johannes' research portfolio is his work on how social networks affect economic decision making, summarized in Bailey et al. (2018a) and Kuchler and Stroebel (2021). Together with Theresa Kuchler and other coauthors, Johannes uses Facebook (now Meta) data to construct a social graph of friendship links and shows that this network is important for the transmission of beliefs about all kinds of real outcomes. Their first and best-known paper in this agenda is in the Journal of Political Economy (Bailey et al. (2018b)). It shows that friends' experiences with house price growth shape the homeownership choices and the price paid for houses of their geographically distant Facebook friends. This influence occurs by changing their beliefs. In Bailey et al. (2019), the authors explore how variation in house price beliefs that is induced by the same type of social network variation affects mortgage leverage choice. Kuchler et al. (2022) shows that mutual fund investment decisions are in part determined by social networks. In more recent worth with Raj Chetty, Matt Jackson, Theresa Kuchler, and other coauthors (Chetty et al. (2022a, 2022b)), Johannes investigates that the effect friendship networks have on upward income mobility. They also study the factors that influence interactions across people of different socioeconomic backgrounds and suggest policy interventions that could increase such interactions. The Fischer Black Prize honors individual financial research. It is awarded for a body of work that best exemplifies the Fischer Black hallmark of developing original research that is relevant to finance practice. The winner should either be under age 40, or under age 45 for a winner who had not been awarded a Ph.D. (or equivalent) by age 35. The American Finance Association appreciates the generosity of the original donors who made this prize possible and the recent 2018 donors who helped to substantially increase the endowment. The names of the donors can be found at https://afajof.org/fischer-black-prize