Accounting and the celebration of rationality in human service delivery organizations

Emerging perspectives of control in human service delivery organizations are facilitated by rational accountability formulations whose tenets and assumptions remain basically unquestioned in organizational and accounting literature. This paper critiques the underpinnings of rational accountability formulations and their appropriateness for human service delivery organizations. In turn, a non-rational metaphor of the role of management accounting information is proposed which recognizes uncertainty for what it is rather than assuming the very certainties that cannot be found in the delivery of human services.     

基于元模型的异质交易行为主体下股票市场微观结构仿真研究

股票市场由大量具有不同的理性程度、行为偏好以及操作策略的异质类型交易者所构成的,这些交易者汇聚在一起相互作用,以自组织的方式涌现出诸多复杂的宏观金融市场现象。基于主体建模思想,从交易媒介、交易活动以及交易者行为三个层面进行设定,构建模拟真实市场交易的人工股票市场元模型。其中交易者(Agent)按其行为偏好分为风险厌恶型、损失厌恶型、过度乐观型、保守型、过度乐观的损失厌恶型以及保守的损失厌恶型6类;交易策略则分为基础交易者、趋势交易者、零信息交易者和自适应型交易者4类。不同的行为偏好和交易策略自由组合形成代表性异质交易者,并在交易环境的约束下相互作用推动市场的演化。以我国沪深300指数实际数据为参照,采用AnyLogic系统环境下优化算法对模型参数赋值并进行敏感性分析,发现股票市值和波动率之间不存在直接的联系,且所有交易者的总财富值在无风险利率改变的条件下差别不大,这意味着我国金融市场很大程度上是一个零和游戏过程,有效市场假说在市场运行的宏观层面成立。而在微观层面,不同类型交易者的财富分布均值明显不同,说明交易者的操作策略和行为偏好直接决定了其财富状况。     

Board of directors structure and firm financial performance: A qualitative comparative analysis

Previous research about the effects of board structure and process on the firm financial performance is based on conflicting theoretical perspectives, and empirical results, mostly based on regression analysis, are inconclusive. Building from Complexity Theory and configurational analysis, this study offers clarity to inconclusive previous empirical results about the link among several board features and firm financial performance. From a sample of 295 non-financial firms from Southern Europe for the period 2001–2010, and by using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, findings of this study show that firm financial performance depends on a complex configuration of several board features (board size, board independence, leadership structure and board activity) and several corporate characteristics (firm size, firm leverage and firm age). This paper has implications for academics. Despite different theoretical arguments and inconclusive results of the wide empirical literature addressing the effect of board characteristics on the firm performance, building from Complexity Theory this paper adds to our knowledge because it empirically explores under which circumstances different board features should contribute positively or negatively to firm performance. The results of this study have also implications for policy makers and practitioners by providing some useful hints to the controversial relationship between corporate governance and financial performance. In this sense, general corporate governance recommendations must be rethought.     

The Efficacy of Neural Networks in Predicting Returns on Stock and Bond Indices*

This paper uses two recently developed tests to identify neglected nonlinearity in the relationship between excess returns on four asset classes and several economic and financial variables. Having found some evidence of possible nonlinearity, it was then investigated whether the predictive power of these variables could be enhanced by using neural network models instead of linear regression or GARCH models. Some evidence of nonlinearity in the relationships between the explanatory variables and large stocks and corporate bonds was found. It was also found that the GARCH models are conditionally efficient with respect to neural network models, but the neural network models outperform GARCH models if financial performance measures are used. In resonance with the results reported for the tests for neglected nonlinearity, it was found that the neural network forecasts are conditionally efficient with respect to linear regression models for large stocks and corporate bonds, whereas the evidence is not statistically significant for small stocks and intermediate-term government bonds. This difference persists even when financial performance measures for individual asset classes are used for comparison.     

农民工的城市融入:财政压力—政策响应模型的构建

福利是影响农民工在城市融入程度的重要因素。财政压力—政策响应模型的基本思路是:福利政策效应取决于财政压力、政策响应能力,而政策响应能力主要受筹资能力和政策协调性的影响。对农民工福利政策相关要素进行分析即形成明晰的福利清单。从政府对农民工福利供给的责任看,流入地政府是农民工福利供给的主要承担者,中央政府和流出地政府在农民工福利供给中也要承担必要的财政责任。     

To pay or to apologize? On the psychology of dealing with unfair offers in a dictator game

Prior research has largely failed to focus on how transgressors can promote trust when having made unfair offers in bargaining. I investigated in the context of receiving an unfair offer in a dictator game when financial compensations and when apologies are most effective in motivating trust behavior by the violated party. I hypothesized that when losses were allocated, the violated party would be motivated to show more trust behavior towards the transgressor when a financial compensation (resulting again in equal final outcomes) relative to an apology was delivered, whereas when gains were allocated, apologies would be more effective in promoting trust behavior than a financial compensation. Results from a laboratory study indeed supported this prediction as such demonstrating the importance of how allocation decisions are framed (i.e., loss or gain) in testing the effectiveness of trust repair strategies (financial compensations vs. apologies).     

Tightening the leash after a threat: A multi-level event study on leadership behavior following the financial crisis

This paper presents the results of a multi-level event study of the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on leadership behavior. Following assumptions from the threat-rigidity hypothesis, we expect that across firms and countries, this crisis led to an increase in directive leadership. In line with this hypothesis, we also anticipate that this change is context-specific. The impact of the 2008 financial crisis on the change in directive leadership is analyzed for over 20,000 managers in 980 organizations across 36 countries. We find that the financial crisis went along with a significant increase in directive leadership, and that this effect was stronger in the manufacturing sector, and in countries with a high degree of power distance. Our results support the threat-rigidity hypothesis, and contribute to leadership research by showing that the context is not only a moderator but actually shapes leadership behavior. This opens up a new avenue of leadership research where context is an antecedent of leadership behavior more generally, and where the methodological set-up allows for causal inference.     

Elevating financial capability in child welfare services: Early efforts in the Grand Challenge

The great majority of families involved in the child welfare system are economically vulnerable, have limited incomes, and face a high risk of financial exploitation. Limited opportunities to participate meaningfully in the financial sector, along with poor decision making, can lead to overwhelming debt, eviction, and poverty that compromise child safety and wellbeing and can cripple efforts to reunify families. This article discusses the need to elevate financial capability–which scholars and practitioners define as knowledge of financial matters and means to exercise that knowledge. It addresses nascent research examining financial capability and asset building, the expanding role of the topic in human services, and efforts in Missouri to integrate an understanding of financial capability in work with families involved in the child welfare system. Such integration holds the promise of fulfilling the safety, permanence, and wellbeing goals of the child welfare system; involving a wider set of community partners; and achieving the federally mandated ‘normalcy’ in foster care.     

Understanding the Financial Knowledge Gap: A New Dimension of Inequality in Later Life

ABSTRACT

To understand individuals’ financial behaviors, it is important to understand the financial knowledge gap – the distance between one’s objective and subjective financial knowledge. Overestimating one’s financial knowledge can lead to risky financial behaviors. To date, limited empirical work has examined how financial knowledge gap varies across age groups. We analyze the size and nature of the financial knowledge gap and its variation across age groups. Using nationally representative data, we find robust evidence that older adults overestimate their financial knowledge. Social workers can assess the financial knowledge gap and educate their clients to protect from financial fraud, exploitation, and abuse.     

Intergenerational Relations between English Students,Graduates Living at Home,and their Parents

Debate about intergenerational relations has become more prominent since the financial crisis of 2007–09, focusing particularly on the difficulties faced by young adults trying to enter the labour and housing markets, whilst often bearing high levels of debt incurred as students. This article reviews the nature of the ‘intergenerational contract’ at both the micro level of the family, and at the macro level between individuals and the state. We then present qualitative, empirical data on the relationship between parents and: (1) their student children; and (2) their graduate children who have returned home. We focus primarily on the financial support provided by parents to the two groups. We explore why support is given, and the nature of similarities and differences in terms of what is given. We find that virtually all parents who were able to support their young adult children financially did so, but to different degrees and with different amounts of tension and anxiety. We suggest that the increased importance of the intergenerational contract at the micro level is likely to contribute to intra‐ rather than intergenerational inequalities.