完善我国会计准则制定程序的基本构想

高质量会计信息的产生依赖高质量的会计准则,科学的会计准则制定程序是产生高质量会计准则的重要前提。本文首先分析了理想的会计准则制定程序应具备的基本特征,进而对我国现行的会计准则制定程序进行了剖析,认为我国现行的会计准则制定程序存在公开性不足、征求意见不广泛、不充分以及个别准则制定缓慢等问题。针对上述问题,本文提出了进一步完善我国会计准则制定程序的若干构想。     

A Quantitative Analysis of Factors Affecting PELs and TLVs for Carcinogens

For carcinogens, this paper provides a quantitative examination of the roles of potency and weight-of-evidence (WOE) in setting permissible exposure limits (PELs) at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and threshold limit values (TLVs) at the private American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). On normative grounds, both of these factors should influence choices about the acceptable level of exposures. Our major objective is to examine whether and in what ways these factors have been considered by these organizations. A lesser objective is to identify outliers, which might be candidates for further regulatory scrutiny. Our sample (N=48) includes chemicals for which EPA has estimated a unit risk as a measure of carcinogenic potency and for which OSHA or the ACGIH has a PEL or TLV. Different assessments of the strength of the evidence of carcinogenicity were obtained from EPA, ACGIH, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. We found that potency alone explains 49% of the variation in PELs and 62% of the variation in TLVs. For the ACGIH, WOE plays a much smaller role than potency. TLVs set by the ACGIH since 1989 appear to be stricter than earlier TLVs. We suggest that this change represents evidence that the ACGIH had responded to criticisms leveled at it in the late 1980s for failing to adopt sufficiently protective standards. The models developed here identify 2-nitropropane, ethylene dibromide, and chromium as having OSHA PELs significantly higher than predicted on the basis of potency and WOE.     

Varieties of legitimacy: a configurational institutional design analysis of eco-labels

Certification is becoming an important global governance instrument. Several authors have discussed the legitimacy of these systems. This paper uses eco-labels as a specific case of certification systems and analyzes more than 400 eco-labels on three components related to legitimacy. It aims to expand current research in two ways: conceptually and empirically. Conceptually, the paper proposes a configurational approach to assessing legitimacy on the basis of the institutional design of certification systems. It is argued that, so far, most attention has gone to the decision-making processes in certification systems with regard to standard-setting and the processes of granting certificates and verification via conformity assessment. While important in assessing legitimacy, these elements should be complemented by accountability mechanisms that allow interested parties to hold organizations to account after a decision has been reached and to raise a dispute. Empirically, the paper makes use of the Ecolabel Index database, which contains data on more than 400 eco-labels operating worldwide. The paper uses the population of eco-labels as a case study to empirically explore and analyze the diversity of more than 400 eco-labels on different institutional components related to legitimacy. The paper shows that there is significant variation between eco-labels with regard to their institutional design, resulting in systems with a strong institutional design and systems with a weak institutional design.     

Power in consensus: Legitimacy,global value chains and inequality in telecommunications standard-setting

Power is central to GVC research, but the concept is usually restricted to ‘direct’ market power that generates rents. This paper examines ‘diffuse’ conceptualizations of power in GVCs that focus on social construction, arguing that they exist along a continuum from ‘fractured’ to ‘encompassing’. Then, empirically, it shows how different types of power intermix in telecommunications standard-setting from 1999 to 2021, using a comprehensive dataset of every finalized work item in 3GPP. Given powerful network effects in telecommunications, the industry is ripe for monopolistic rents and unequal value capture on a global scale. However, these are attenuated by a layering of power relations, and particularly, an intermediary form of social construction – legitimacy – which is the primary driver of telecommunications standard-setting, and a new type of constitutive power in GVCs, alongside governmentality and hegemony. This is illustrated by focusing on two major shifts in legitimacy in 3GPP – the rise of Huawei and network operators. The paper shows how power becomes layered with collective forms of power partially neutralizing inter-firm forms of dyadic power, which attenuates monopolistic value capture.     

Globalisation, social policy and international standard-setting: the case of higher education credentials

Social policies are, to an increasing extent, shaped by international standards and regulations. This international standard-setting can be seen as an attempt to grapple with the challenges of globalisation. However, what is unclear is how far the pressures of globalisation and the processes of international standard-setting leave any scope for policy choice, whether at international, national or sub-national level. This paper focuses on the specific case of higher education. It argues that the development of international standards and the convergence of national standards must be understood by reference to the interests and strategies of various stake holders, including national governments, social elites and higher education institutions themselves. International markets and international standards are politically constructed and neither globalisation nor international standard-setting can be seen as inexorable and apolitical processes.