One purpose of an accounting system, or any information system, is to provide a set of signals designed to communicate descriptions of certain past phenomena believed to be decision relevant in the future.' However, it is difficult to evaluate a given or proposed information system because of its complexity. This complexity arises in part because of the interrelated problems of which phenomena to describe and how best to describe them. Since complexity hinders information system evaluation, decomposition of the total interrelated system into a number of less complex subsystems for evaluation purposes is often desirable. Unfortunately, most decomposition will introduce errors into the analysis. But if we can predict the resultant errors, decomposition can still provide a useful surrogate evaluation method. The purpose of this paper is to explore the decomposition approach to information system evaluation, at the conceptual level, relying heavily on Feltham's recently proposed model for predicting the value of information in the single decision case.2

This paper applies a single measure of investment performance to mutual fund portfolios for the 20-year period 1948–1967. It criticizes the efficacy of market indices, at least for the purpose of evaluating aggregate results of managed portfolios; it tests the predictive value of past results in forecasting future performance; and finally, it identifies two factors that are positively related to fund performance during the time period studied.

Journal Article Corporate Taxation and Dividend Behaviour Get access M. S. Feldstein M. S. Feldstein Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 37, Issue 1, January 1970, Pages 57–72, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296498 Published: 01 January 1970 Article history Received: 01 January 1969 Accepted: 01 May 1969 Published: 01 January 1970

Journal Article The Class of Homothetic Isoquant Production Functions: Programming Revisited Get access Berkeley S. Clemhout Berkeley S. Clemhout University of California, Berkeley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 37, Issue 2, April 1970, Pages 302–303, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296424 Published: 01 April 1970

Journal Article On Optimal Development in a Multi-Sectoral Economy: the Discounted Case Get access W. R. S. Sutherland W. R. S. Sutherland University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 37, Issue 4, October 1970, Pages 585–589, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296487 Published: 01 October 1970 Article history Received: 01 May 1969 Revision received: 01 January 1970 Published: 01 October 1970

The analysis of reswitching of techniques enables us to show that if stationary states are compared, low rates of interest do not necessarily go together with a high consumption per head. If a stationary state with a high rate of interest gives way to one with a low rate of interest, the corresponding switch need not necessarily be from a technique with a low consumption per head to one with a high consumption per head. It may also be from a technique with a high to one with a low consumption per head. What has not been sufficiently emphasized in the literature, however, is that whether the former or the latter is the case may depend not only on which technique replaces which but also on what is the pattern of consumption. M. Bruno, E. Burmeister, and E. Sheshinski assert I that this is not so. They argue that the hyperplanes representing the opportunity sets of consumption for the techniques which are optimal at different rates of interest never intersect, and that whatever the pattern of consumption the respective point on one hyperplane must always be above, or always below, that on the other plane. The purpose of the present note is to show by means of a numerical example that this assertion is not correct. Consider a circulating-capital model with a generalized Leontief technology. There is no joint production in it; the same goods may be used either as inputs or as consumer goods; alternative methods of production are available for each of them; and labor is the only primary factor of production. Let wages be paid at the end of the period, and all other inputs at the beginning of it. The technique actually used is then that which minimizes prices subject to the constraint that at the given wage and the given rate of interest no production processes are run at a loss. This means that if a is the optimal technique, the vector of prices may be written as (A) pa(r) =wao[I(l+r)a]'where w is the wage, r is the rate of interest, a is the matrix of input coefficients for technique a, and ao is the corresponding vector of labor coefficients. The consumption hyperplane is then L=wao [I-a] -lCa=Pa(O)Ca

I. Introduction, 347. — II. Production functions and producer equilibrium, 352. — III. Demand functions and supply of labor, 356. — IV. Equilibrium under laissez-faire, 358. — V. Ideal output, 362. — VI. Taxes, bounties, and optimality rules, 366. — VII. Analysis in terms of consumers' surplus, 373. — VIII. Dynamic stability of the adjustment process, 381.