Rural Community and Rural Resilience: What is important to farmers in keeping their country towns alive?

Many studies have highlighted the phenomenon of rural decline in parts of the developed world, summarised as a loss in agricultural employment leading to a decline in the number and size of rural settlements. This study of small towns in part of Australia’s inland rural “heartland” employs the concepts of interactional rural community of place and rural resilience to identify how farmers perceive their interactions with their local town. This study suggests that robust levels of ongoing engagement between farmers and town communities are important in maintaining rural populations and services along with both a strong local economy and environment. Face-to-face interviews with 115 farmers in two rural regions of New South Wales, Australia, highlight the importance of the local economy and jobs, the quality of the local environment and a strong sense of belonging, in contributing to a strong sense of local community and potential for resilience.     

Is there a trend towards global value chain specialization? — An examination of cross border sales of US foreign affiliates

In this study we discuss and empirically test the assertion that over the last two decades multinational enterprises' (MNEs') configuration of value-adding activities has shifted from a sparse and simple (host–home) international division of labor among the foreign affiliates to a more specialized and ‘advanced’ global value chain configuration in which MNEs locate fine-sliced parts of the value chain at the most efficient locations. Using data on trade flows of U.S. affiliates in 56 host countries between 1983 and 2003 we find some indications of a trend in the direction of global value chain specialization. In particular among US affiliates in developing countries the proportion of host–host, intra-firm trade has increased significantly during the observed period of time. Conversely, the proportion of host–home and inter-firm trade has diminished. We interpret this as indicating both value chain disaggregation (vertical specialization) and MNEs' systematic exploitation of factor cost differentials across countries. We also find that the absolute levels of all types of trade flows have increased. Hence, it is the relative, and not the absolute, changes in the trade flow patterns of US affiliates that gives credibility to the global value chain assertion.     

DEEP FINANCIAL INTEGRATION AND VOLATILITY

We investigate the relationship between foreign direct ownership of firms and firm‐ and region‐level output volatility using a novel panel data set for European countries. We document a positive, highly robust, relationship between firm‐level foreign ownership and volatility of value added. This relationship holds cross‐sectionally and in panels with firm fixed effects where the relationship captures within‐firm variation over time. Considering domestic firms with assets in foreign countries, we document that it is international diversification, rather than the nationality of the owner, that explains this positive correlation. Our results can also be found at the aggregate level, where we show that region‐level volatility is correlated positively with foreign investment in the region. We show that this positive relation between aggregate volatility and foreign investment can be explained by the granularity of the firm size distribution and the fact that foreign ownership is concentrated among the largest firms.     

Unabhängigkeit des Abschlussprüfers — Zum Einfluss von Beratungsleistungen auf Unabhängigkeitswahrnehmungen von Aktionären

Zusammenfassung  Gleichzeitige Beratungst?tigkeit kann die Unabh?ngigkeit des Abschlussprüfers gef?hrden. Ausgel?st durch zahlreiche Bilanzskandale wurden sowohl die internationalen als auch die nationalen Unabh?ngigkeitsnormen versch?rft. Die Existenz von mandantenspezifischen Quasi-Renten erkl?rt das Unabh?ngigkeitsproblem und dessen Versch?rfung durch Beratungsauftr?ge. Aus der bisherigen internationalen empirischen Forschung l?sst sich schlie?en, dass weniger die tats?chliche als vielmehr die wahrgenommene Unabh?ngigkeit des Abschlussprüfers beeintr?chtigt wird. Dagegen zeigen die bisherigen deutschen Studien mehrheitlich keinen negativen Einfluss auf Unabh?ngigkeitswahrnehmungen. Die Unabh?ngigkeitswahrnehmungen von Aktion?ren wurden allerdings bislang noch nicht untersucht. Bei gleichzeitiger Beratungst?tigkeit nehmen Aktion?re eine Beeintr?chtigung der Unabh?ngigkeit wahr. Eine Analyse von 19 verschiedenen Beratungsleistungen zeigt, dass das Ausma? der wahrgenommenen Unabh?ngigkeitsbeeintr?chtigung mit der Art der Beratungsleistung variiert. Zahlreiche Beratungsleistungen werden als kritisch wahrgenommen, obwohl diese nicht ausdrücklich verboten sind. Dies gilt insbesondere für die Personalberatung. Eine personelle Trennung von Prüfung und Beratung innerhalb der Prüfungsgesellschaft erh?ht die wahrgenommene Unabh?ngigkeit.

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Auditor’ independence — The impact of advisory services on shareholders’ perceptions of independence —

Summary  The provision of non-audit advisory services (NAS) can endanger auditor independence. Recently, a number of changes have not only been made to the relevant international and US regulations, but also to the German regulations on this area. Theoretical research explains the emergence of non-independence and demonstrates that the provision of NAS can decrease independence. According to the economic model by DeAngelo, the existence of client-specific quasi rents impairs auditor independece. The provision of NAS increases quasi rents, and thus it is a threat to independence. A large number of empirical studies have investigated the influence of NAS on the perceived auditor independence. Most of these studies were performed in Anglo-Saxon countries, particularly in the US, and a majority found a negative impact. Six studies are based on data from Germany. Most of them failed to find a significant negative impact on auditor’s independence. German investors have not been surveyed so far. Thus an empirical investigation of the impact of NAS on investors’ perceptions of auditor independence in Germany seemed promising. It was found that shareholders generally perceive a negative effect on auditor’s independence if NAS are provided. The effects of 19 different services have been analysed. For most of them a negative effect was found, even if these services are not explicitly prohibited in Germany. Furthermore, it was shown that the type of NAS influences the degree to which auditor independence is perceived to be impaired. Thus independence rules related to NAS should be differentiated. Additionally, the study ascertained that perceived auditor independence does increase if NAS are provided by a separate department of the audit firm.

Die Autoren danken Herrn Prof. Dr. Norbert Krawitz für die ausgezeichnete Betreuung, Frau Prof. Dr. Marleen Willekens für hilfreiche Hinweise sowie den anonymen Gutachtern für die detaillierte Durchsicht des Manuskriptes und zahlreiche wertvolle Verbesserungsvorschl?ge.     

Stationary state space models for longitudinal data

The authors consider a class of state space models for the analysis of non‐normal longitudinal data whose latent process follows a stationary AR(1) model with exponential dispersion model margins. They propose to estimate parameters through an estimating equation approach based on the Kalman smoother. This allows them to carry out a straightforward analysis of a wide range of non‐normal data. They illustrate their approach via a simulation study and through analyses of Brazilian precipitation and US polio infection data.     

Parameter Orthogonality and Bias Adjustment for Estimating Functions

Abstract.  We consider an extended notion of parameter orthogonality for estimating functions, called nuisance parameter insensitivity, which allows a unified treatment of nuisance parameters for a wide range of methods, including Liang and Zeger's generalized estimating equations. Nuisance parameter insensitivity has several important properties in common with conventional parameter orthogonality, such as the nuisance parameter causing no loss of efficiency for estimating the interest parameter, and a simplified estimation algorithm. We also consider bias adjustment for profile estimating functions, and apply the results to restricted maximum likelihood estimation of dispersion parameters in generalized estimating equations.