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Alternative Measures (alternative + measure)
Selected AbstractsA Test of Alternative Measures of Disconfirmation,DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 1 2003Richard A. Spreng ABSTRACT Disconfirmation has been widely used in a number of research traditions, however there are many different operationalizations of this construct. Little research has investigated the relative effectiveness of these various methods. The research reported here examines five operationalizations of disconfirmation and their effect on satisfaction. These tests are carried out using two different comparison standards in two different settings. The results indicate some methods are better in certain situations and are inappropriate in others. Implications for both practical and theoretical research are discussed. [source] Fiscal Decentralisation and Empowerment: Evolving Concepts and Alternative Measures,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2008Jameson Boex H11; H70; H72 Abstract Decentralisation reforms are among the most common and significant public sector reforms, particularly in developing and transitional countries around the world. Despite the importance of the topic to policy practitioners and academic researchers alike and the extensive empirical research on the topic, there is consensus in the literature that the measures of decentralisation that are currently used are unsatisfactory. In response, we propose an alternative measure of fiscal decentralisation based on the notion that decentralisation is more than simply the inverse of centralisation. Following Bahl (2005), we consider fiscal decentralisation as ,the empowerment of people by the [fiscal] empowerment of their local governments'. Accordingly, we develop a measure of fiscal empowerment that allows us to quantify fiscal decentralisation as the gain in empowerment due to devolution and we analyse the proposed measures of empowerment and decentralisation for a cross-section of developing, transitional and industrialised countries. [source] Comparing Two Alternative Measures of General Personality in the Assessment of Psychopathy: A Test of the NEO PI-R and the MPQJOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 4 2009Eric T. Gaughan ABSTRACT This study examined the interrelations between two measures of personality, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; Tellegen & Waller, 2008), and their relations with psychopathy in a sample of undergraduates. Results revealed good convergence between conceptually related personality traits; however, the NEO PI-R facets accounted for more variance in the MPQ subscales (mean R2=.49) than did MPQ subscales in NEO PI-R facets (mean R2=.35). Both accounted for substantial proportions of variance in psychopathy scores, although the NEO PI-R accounted for larger proportions and manifested greater incremental validity when using the broader domains of each measure; the differences decreased when the narrower facets/subscales were used. The results suggest that, although both measures assess psychopathy-related traits, the NEO PI-R provides a more complete description because of its assessment of interpersonal antagonism and the central role of this construct in psychopathy. [source] GENDER, STRUCTURAL DISADVANTAGE, AND URBAN CRIME: DO MACROSOCIAL VARIABLES ALSO EXPLAIN FEMALE OFFENDING RATES?,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 2 2000DARRELL STEFFENSMEIER Building on prior macrosocial-crime research that sought to explain either total crime rates or male rates, this study links female offending rates to structural characteristics of U.S. cities. Specifically, we go beyond previous research by: (1) gender disaggregating the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) index-crime rates (homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft) across U.S. cities; (2) focusing explicitly on the effects of structural disadvantage variables on the index-offending rates of females; and (3) comparing the effects of the structural variables on female rates with those for male rates. Alternative measures of structural disadvantage are used to provide more theoretically appropriate indicators, such as gender-specific poverty and joblessness, and controls are included for age structure and structural variables related to offending. The main finding is consistent and powerful: The structural sources of high levels of female offending resemble closely those influencing male offending, but the effects tend to be stronger on male offending rates. [source] Relationships of tacrolimus pharmacokinetic measures and adverse outcomes in stable adult liver transplant recipientsJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PHARMACY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 1 2006C. Dansirikul PhD Summary Background and objectives:, Alternative measures to trough concentrations [non-trough concentrations and limited area under the concentration,time curve (AUC)] have been shown to better predict tacrolimus AUC. The aim of this study was to determine if these are also better predictors of adverse outcomes in long term liver transplant recipients. Methods:, The associations between tacrolimus trough concentrations (C0), non-trough concentrations (C1, C2, C4, C6/8), and AUC0,12 and the occurrence of hypertension, hyperkalaemia, hyperglycaemia and nephrotoxicity were assessed in 34 clinically stable liver transplant patients. Results and discussion:, The most common adverse outcome was hypertension, prevalence of 36%. Hyperkalaemia and hyperglycaemia had a prevalence of 21% and 13%, respectively. A sequential population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic approach was implemented. No significant association between predicted C0, C1, C2, C4, C6/8 or AUC0,12 and adverse effects could be found. Tacrolimus concentrations and AUC measures were in the same range in patients with and without adverse effects. Conclusions:, Measures reported to provide benefit, preventing graft rejection and minimizing acute adverse effects in the early post-transplant period, were not able to predict adverse effects in stable adult liver recipients whose trough concentrations were maintained in the notional target range. [source] Alternative measures of response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in Drosophila melanogasterJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2007V. CORBY-HARRIS Abstract Studies of invertebrate immune defence often measure genetic variation either for the fitness cost of infection or for the ability of the host to clear the parasite. These studies assume that variation in measures of resistance is related to variation in fitness costs of infection. To test this assumption, we infected strains of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, with a pathogenic bacterium. We then measured the correlation between host bacterial load and the ability to survive infection. Despite the presence of genotypic variation for both traits, bacterial load and survival post-infection were not correlated. Our results support previous arguments that individual measures of immune function and the host's ability to survive infection may be decoupled. In light of these results, we suggest that the difference between tolerance and resistance to infection, a distinction commonly found in the plant literature, may also be of value in studies of invertebrate immunity. [source] Foreign exchange pressures in Latin America: Does debt matter?JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2008Alex Mandilaras Abstract Latin American countries have been in the eye of economic and financial storms several times in recent years. Advice from the International Monetary Fund has consistently highlighted the need for sound fiscal policies and lower debt levels. But is public debt relevant? Following a brief discussion of the theoretical issues involved, this paper examines empirically the relationship between public indebtedness and pressures in the foreign exchange market. Alternative measures are used to capture the latter and the analysis controls for a de facto classification of exchange rate regimes. Estimations of static and dynamic panels for 28 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries report substantial fiscal effects. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] THE DECLINE IN MALE EMPLOYMENT IN AUSTRALIA: A COHORT ANALYSISAUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC PAPERS, Issue 3 2010DAVID BLACK We use Census data to investigate the sources of the decline in the level of employment of working age males in Australia in recent decades. Alternative measures of the male employment rate are considered before settling on two complementary measures: the full-time employment rate and the full-time equivalent employment rate. The latter measure weights part-time jobs according to the fraction of a full-time job they represent. Models of the determinants of these two employment rates are estimated using data from the Censuses conducted between 1971 and 2001. We construct a pseudo panel by ,stacking' the seven Census data sets (Deaton, 1997; Kapteyn, et al., 2005). This facilitates the tracing of birth cohorts over time, in turn making it possible to control for cohort unobserved heterogeneity that may bias cross-sectional estimates of effects of other characteristics, in particular age and year/time period. We produce evidence that a number of factors have contributed to the decline in male employment, including the decline in couple households with dependent children, growth in income taxes and welfare replacement rates and changes in the structure of labour demand away from traditionally male-dominated industries. We also find that, all else (observable) constant, more recent birth cohorts have no lower , and possibly higher , employment rates than earlier birth cohorts. [source] Attentional re-training decreases attentional bias in heavy drinkers without generalizationADDICTION, Issue 3 2007Tim Schoenmakers ABSTRACT Aims To examine whether alcohol-related attentional bias (AB) can be reduced by training heavy drinkers to attend to soft drinks as an alternative to alcohol. Diminishing AB is important because AB has been suggested to be a significant factor in the development, maintenance and relapse of addictive behaviours. AB was trained in a clinically relevant design, and we studied the generalization of this training. Design, participants and intervention We assigned randomly 106 heavy drinking male college and university students to the attentional re-training (AR; modified visual-probe task) or control condition (standard visual-probe task). Setting Laboratory at Maastricht University. Measurements We measured the effects of AR on the visual-probe task with stimuli that were presented in the AR and with new stimuli, and on an alternative measure of AB, the flicker paradigm. We further measured effects on craving and preference for either an alcohol beverage or a soft drink. Findings After AR, participants had learned to avoid alcohol stimuli and had developed an AB for soft drinks. This effect was restricted to stimuli used in the AR. The flicker task, where AB for alcohol was found in both the AR and control groups, was not affected by the AR. No effect was found on craving and the preference task. Conclusions Although heavy drinkers can learn to attend selectively to an alternative category for alcohol, a single AR is not sufficient to decrease symptoms of problem drinking. [source] Postexposure feeding depression: A new toxicity endpoint for use in laboratory studies with Daphnia magnaENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 6 2002Ruth A. McWilliam Abstract In situ bioassays with daphnids currently employ lethality as an endpoint, and although sublethal responses (reproduction and feeding rate) can be measured in the field, such endpoints pose major practical challenges. Previous studies have indicated that Daphnia magna exposed to toxic substances can exhibit delayed recovery in feeding behavior (postexposure feeding depression). This simple, robust response has the potential to be an ecologically relevant and potentially diagnostic endpoint. This study developed and tested the use of postexposure feeding depression as a toxicity endpoint in the laboratory environment. First, replicate numbers were manipulated to produce statistically reliable results. Second, postexposure feeding depression in D. magna was studied under laboratory conditions, by employing toxic substances with differing modes of action. Although most substances caused feeding inhibition during direct exposure, not all substances produced postexposure feeding depression. However, the use of lethality as a supplementary endpoint provided an alternative measure when no feeding depression was apparent after exposure. In combination, these endpoints offer a potentially more sensitive, ecologically relevant alternative to the use of lethality alone for in situ bioassay studies. [source] Fiscal Decentralisation and Empowerment: Evolving Concepts and Alternative Measures,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2008Jameson Boex H11; H70; H72 Abstract Decentralisation reforms are among the most common and significant public sector reforms, particularly in developing and transitional countries around the world. Despite the importance of the topic to policy practitioners and academic researchers alike and the extensive empirical research on the topic, there is consensus in the literature that the measures of decentralisation that are currently used are unsatisfactory. In response, we propose an alternative measure of fiscal decentralisation based on the notion that decentralisation is more than simply the inverse of centralisation. Following Bahl (2005), we consider fiscal decentralisation as ,the empowerment of people by the [fiscal] empowerment of their local governments'. Accordingly, we develop a measure of fiscal empowerment that allows us to quantify fiscal decentralisation as the gain in empowerment due to devolution and we analyse the proposed measures of empowerment and decentralisation for a cross-section of developing, transitional and industrialised countries. [source] A dimensional approach to developmental psychopathologyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue S1 2007James J. Hudziak Abstract The expression psychopathology in general and child psychopathology in particular, is affected by multiple sources of variance. Some of these sources include gender differences, informant differences, and age-related differences. In this paper, we discuss how these sources of variance complicate both research and clinical management. We argue that the current diagnostic system would be aided by the inclusion of a quantitative axis that can take these sources of variance into account. We reason that the fields of genomics and neuroscience are prepared to move the field of developmental psychopathology forward, but need a diagnostic system that allows for these sources of variance to be controlled. We demonstrate how in Conduct Disorder, inclusion of dimensional information would allow the clinician or researcher to demonstrate not only the presence or absence of pathology, but also the degree to which the disorder is manifested in a particular individual. Because dimensional approaches are already used widely as an alternative measure of psychopathology, we argue that there is reason to consider dimensionalizing some aspects of the DSM. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Across-sample Incomparability of R2s and Additional Evidence on Value Relevance Changes Over TimeJOURNAL OF BUSINESS FINANCE & ACCOUNTING, Issue 7-8 2007Zhaoyang GuArticle first published online: 9 OCT 200 Abstract:, Given the increasing popularity of across-sample R2 comparisons in accounting research, this paper illustrates why the regression R2s are incomparable across samples and the general nature of this problem. The regression residual dispersion with proper control for scale is proposed as the alternative measure of explanatory power for across-sample comparisons. In market-on-accounting variable regressions, this measure can be conveniently interpreted as the degree of accounting-based pricing errors and be used as a measure of value relevance of accounting information. As an application, the issue of over-time value relevance changes is re-visited. In contrast to prior mixed findings based on the R2 measure, a decline of value relevance since the early 1970s is robustly detected using the alternative measure. [source] The assessment of positivity and negativity in social networks: the reliability and validity of the social relationships index,JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Rebecca A. Campo The Social Relationships Index (SRI) was designed to examine positivity and negativity in social relationships. Unique features of this scale include its brevity and the ability to examine relationship positivity and negativity at the level of the specific individual and social network. The SRI's psychometric properties were examined in three studies. The SRI demonstrated good psychometric properties, including test,retest reliability for the assessment of positivity and negativity, and of relationship classifications across social networks. Additionally, discriminant and convergent validity was established with existing social relationship and personality scales. Finally, the SRI showed some generalizability across different contexts. These studies suggest that the SRI is a reliable and valid alternative measure for use in health studies that require a shorter assessment of relationships. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Daily volatility forecasts: reassessing the performance of GARCH modelsJOURNAL OF FORECASTING, Issue 6 2004David G. McMillan Abstract Volatility plays a key role in asset and portfolio management and derivatives pricing. As such, accurate measures and good forecasts of volatility are crucial for the implementation and evaluation of asset and derivative pricing models in addition to trading and hedging strategies. However, whilst GARCH models are able to capture the observed clustering effect in asset price volatility in-sample, they appear to provide relatively poor out-of-sample forecasts. Recent research has suggested that this relative failure of GARCH models arises not from a failure of the model but a failure to specify correctly the ,true volatility' measure against which forecasting performance is measured. It is argued that the standard approach of using ex post daily squared returns as the measure of ,true volatility' includes a large noisy component. An alternative measure for ,true volatility' has therefore been suggested, based upon the cumulative squared returns from intra-day data. This paper implements that technique and reports that, in a dataset of 17 daily exchange rate series, the GARCH model outperforms smoothing and moving average techniques which have been previously identified as providing superior volatility forecasts. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Seasonal Homes and the Local Property Tax: Evidence from New York StateAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Lester Hadsell This study examines the growth of seasonal (i.e., second or vacation) homes and their impact on local property tax rates using evidence from towns and villages in New York State between 1990 and 2000. We find that a greater concentration of seasonal homes in a municipality is associated with a lower effective property tax rate in towns, and a higher rate in small and rural villages. An alternative measure of tax burden, property taxes as a percentage of median household income, is not related to the presence of seasonal homes in towns but is positively related in small and rural villages. Our findings for towns contradict the findings of an earlier study by Fritz (1982) that found that an increase in town property allocated to vacation homes was significantly associated with an increasing property tax rate, although our findings for villages supports his findings. [source] Value at risk and conditional extreme value theory via markov regime switching modelsTHE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 2 2008Yau Man Ze-to Samuel This study develops a new conditional extreme value theory-based (EVT) model that incorporates the Markov regime switching process to forecast extreme risks in the stock markets. The study combines the Markov switching ARCH (SWARCH) model (which uses different sets of parameters for various states to cope with the structural changes for measuring the time-varying volatility of the return distribution) with the EVT to model the tail distribution of the SWARCH processed residuals. The model is compared with unconditional EVT and conditional EVT-GARCH models to estimate the extreme losses in three leading stock indices: S&P 500 Index, Hang Seng Index and Hang Seng China Enterprise Index. The study found that the EVT-SWARCH model outperformed both the GARCH and SWARCH models in capturing the non-normality and in providing accurate value-at-risk forecasts in the in-sample and out-sample tests. The EVTSWARCH model, which exhibits the features of measuring the volatility of a heteroscedastic financial return series and coping with the non-normality owing to structural changes, can be an alternative measure of the tail risk. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:155,181, 2008 [source] Strain differences in feed efficiency measured as residual feed intake in individually reared rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum)AQUACULTURE RESEARCH, Issue 7 2005Jeffrey T Silverstein Abstract The efficient use of feed for growth and meat production is important for all animal production industries including aquaculture. Residual feed intake (RFI) is an alternative measure of feed efficiency that has been widely used in livestock production. Residual feed intake was calculated as the difference between intake observed and intake predicted on the basis of a bioenergetics model; a low RFI indicates greater efficiency. Residual feed intake offers some advantages as a selection criterion for improving production efficiency over traditional feed efficiency statistics because it is not a ratio and it typically has a larger coefficient of variation. The RFI of individually reared rainbow trout progeny from six different genetic cross-types was examined for genetic variation. Proximate analysis and nitrogen retention were also evaluated to determine if differences in RFI correlate to differences in body composition and nutrient retention and varied by cross-type. Differences between cross-types indicated a genetic component for RFI, with the most efficient fish of approximately 160 g consuming 0.99 g less and inefficient fish consuming 0.05 g more feed per day than expected. Lower RFI was associated with higher growth rates (r=,0.38, P<0.05) and greater nitrogen retention (r=,0.82 P<0.001). [source] Percentile-based spread: a more accurate way to compare crystallographic modelsACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 9 2010Edwin Pozharski The comparison of biomacromolecular crystal structures is traditionally based on the root-mean-square distance between corresponding atoms. This measure is sensitive to the presence of outliers, which inflate it disproportionately to their fraction. An alternative measure, the percentile-based spread (p.b.s.), is proposed and is shown to represent the average variation in atomic positions more adequately. It is discussed in the context of isomorphous crystal structures, conformational changes and model ensembles generated by repetitive automated rebuilding. [source] Accounting Conservatism and the Temporal Trends in Current Earnings' Ability to Predict Future Cash Flows versus Future Earnings: Evidence on the Trade-off between Relevance and ReliabilityCONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 2 2010SATI P. BANDYOPADHYAY M41; C23; D21; G38 This research reports that an increasing level of accounting conservatism over the 1973,2005 period is associated with: (1) an increase in the ability of current earnings to predict future cash flows and (2) a decrease in the ability of current earnings to predict future earnings. We also find that usefulness of earnings for explaining stock prices over book values is positively related to reliability but not to relevance. Our results hold for the constant and full samples in both in-sample and out-of-sample analyses and are robust to the use of alternative measures for relevance, reliability, earnings usefulness, and conservatism. Our findings about the relations among conservatism, relevance, reliability, and usefulness suggest a trade-off between relevance and reliability and seem to indicate that the adoption of an increasing number of conservative accounting standards has a possible adverse impact on earnings usefulness through a negative effect on reliability. [source] Seismic reliability functions for multistorey frame and wall-frame systemsEARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, Issue 15 2006Jorge L. Alamilla Abstract Seismic reliability functions of multistorey frame systems are expressed as values of Cornell's ,index in terms of two alternative measures of the earthquake intensity, normalized with respect to the yield displacement or to the deformation capacity of a simplified model of the global behaviour of the system obtained by pushover analysis. The safety margin is defined as the difference of the natural logarithms of the intensity that leads to collapse and that assumed to act on the system. The problem of defining a deformation capacity for a multistorey system is circumvented in this manner. The method proposed is illustrated through its application to several reinforced concrete rigid frames, including both column-and-beam and wall-frame systems. Ground motion excitations are representative of those recorded at soft soil sites in the Valley of Mexico. A comparison is made of the reliability functions obtained on the basis of the gross section or the cracked section of reinforced concrete members. The results show that the reliability functions do not only depend on the expected values of the normalized intensity, but also on its dispersion, which is sensitive to the ratio of the fundamental period of the system to the dominant period of the ground motion. Some comments are presented about the establishment of reliability-based seismic design criteria for generic systems. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] WORKFORCE COMPOSITION AND FIRM PRODUCTIVITY: EVIDENCE FROM TAIWANECONOMIC INQUIRY, Issue 4 2010JIN-TAN LIU We study the relationship between workforce composition and firm productivity based on a new employee-employer-matched data set, using an array of workforce characteristics and three alternative measures of firm productivity. While firm age is not essential for the performance of firms, those of smaller size and those in the steel and transportation industries outperform others. Moreover, labor quality, particularly the middle-aged with higher education, contributes significantly to firms' productivity. Furthermore, economic incentives and market competition both play important roles in the performance of firms. Finally, there is an employer-size premium with larger firms paying higher wages and nonwage benefits. (JEL C33, D20, J30) [source] HAS WAL-MART BURIED MOM AND POP?: THE IMPACT OF WAL-MART ON SELF-EMPLOYMENT AND SMALL ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE UNITED STATESECONOMIC INQUIRY, Issue 4 2008RUSSELL S. SOBEL This paper explores the widely accepted view that Wal-Mart causes significant harm to the traditional, small "mom and pop" business sector of the U.S. economy. We present the first rigorous econometric investigation of this issue by examining the rate of self-employment and the number of small employer establishments using both time series and cross-sectional data. We also examine alternative measures and empirical techniques for robustness. Contrary to popular belief, our results suggest that the process of creative destruction unleashed by Wal-Mart has had no statistically significant long-run impact on the overall size and profitability of the small business sector in the United States. (JEL L81, D59, C21) [source] Non-linearities, Business Cycles and Exchange RatesECONOMIC NOTES, Issue 3 2008Menzie D. Chinn This paper conjoins the disparate empirical literatures on exchange rate models and monetary policy models, with special reference to the importance of output, inflation gaps and exchange rate targets. It focuses in on the dollar/euro exchange rate, and the differential results arising from using alternative measures of the output gap for the US and for the Euro area. A comparison of ,in-sample' prediction against alternative models of exchange rates is also conducted. In addition to predictive power, I also assess the various models' plausibility as economic explanations for exchange rate movements, based on the conformity of coefficient estimates with priors. Taylor rule fundamentals appear to do as well, or better, than other models at the 1-year horizon. [source] The validity of self-reports of alcohol consumption: state of the science and challenges for researchADDICTION, Issue 2003Frances K. Del Boca ABSTRACT Aims To review three topics pertaining to the validity of alcohol self-reports: factors that influence response accuracy; the relative merits of different self-report approaches; and the utility of using alternative measures to confirm verbal reports. Findings Response behavior is influenced by the interaction of social context factors, respondent characteristics, and task attributes. Although research has advanced our knowledge about self-report methods, many questions remain unanswered. In particular, there is a need to investigate how task demands interact with different patterns of drinking behavior to affect response accuracy. There is also a continuing need to use multiple data sources to examine the extent of self-report response bias, and to determine whether it varies as a function of respondent characteristics or assessment timing. Conclusion Self-report methods offer a reliable and valid approach to measuring alcohol consumption. The accuracy of such methods, however, can be improved by research directed at understanding the processes involved in response behavior. [source] Stock Liquidity and Investment Opportunities: Evidence from Index AdditionsFINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2006John R. Becker-Blease We examine the relation between stock liquidity and investment opportunities in a sample of firms experiencing an exogenous liquidity shock. We find a positive relation between changes in capital expenditures and changes in stock liquidity, indicating that stock liquidity influences corporate investment decisions. This relation is robust to alternative measures of growth opportunities, and is consistent with a liquidity premium in equity returns. That is, an increase in liquidity effectively expands the set of positive NPV projects because it reduces the cost of capital. The results suggest that liquidity-enhancing events benefit shareholders by increasing the pool of viable growth opportunities. [source] Does accounting conservatism pay?ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 1 2010Raghavan J. Iyengar C21; J33; M41 Abstract We investigate whether or not there is a link between conservative accounting practices and the sensitivity of executive pay to accounting performance. Using several accrual-based measures of accounting conservatism as well as alternative measures of accounting performance, we estimate an econometric model of CEO compensation that incorporates the interaction of accounting conservatism and accounting performance. Consistent with optimal contracting theory, we find that the sensitivity of executive pay to accounting performance is higher for firms that report conservative accounting earnings. These results support the hypothesis that accounting conservatism, by limiting earnings management opportunities and improving the reliability of accounting performance measures, allows firms to formulate contracts that tie executive compensation more closely to accounting performance. [source] Voluntary disclosure of operating incomeACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 1 2010Jilnaught Wong M41 Abstract This study investigates whether New Zealand firms' voluntary disclosure of operating income, which is also known as earnings before interest and tax, in the income statement is related to the investment opportunity set. New Zealand provides an ideal setting to examine this because New Zealand generally accepted accounting principles do not require the disclosure of operating income as an intermediate income number in arriving at net income (earnings) in the income statement. We hypothesize and find evidence that firms with high assets-in-place and high leverage are more likely to voluntarily disclose operating income/earnings before interest and tax. However, the assets-in-place finding is sensitive to alternative measures of the investment opportunity set. [source] An empirical investigation of the social market for cigarettesHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 10 2007Brett Katzman Abstract A major characteristic of teenage smoking is the ability to ,bum' cigarettes from peers. To date, research into the determinants of teenage smoking has largely ignored the effects of this social market on the smoking decisions of teenagers. In this paper, we estimate the demand for cigarettes using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey which distinguishes teens who primarily buy cigarettes from those who primarily borrow cigarettes. Our results demonstrate the ways in which higher cigarette prices and restrictions on smoking influence not only a teen's decision to smoke and the quantity of cigarettes smoked, but also the manner in which cigarettes are acquired. We show that current cigarette regulations are ineffective in reaching the group of light smokers who primarily obtain cigarettes through the social market, thus indicating that alternative measures should be explored in an effort to reduce the number of smokers in the future. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A Multimethod Multitrait Validity Assessment of Self-Construal in Japan, Korea, and the United StatesHUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Issue 1 2005Mary J. Bresnahan A large number of previous studies have used self-construal to predict communication outcomes. Recent evidence, however, suggests that validity problems may exist in self-construal measurement. The current study conducted a multimethod multitrait (Campbell & Fiske, 1959) validation study of self-construal measures with data (total N= 578) collected in Korea (N= 200), Japan (N= 212), and the U.S. (N= 166). The data showed that the Singelis (1994) Self-Construal Scale, the Cross, Bacon, and Morris (2000) Relational Interdependent Self-Construal Scale (RISC), and the Kuhn and McPartland (1954) Twenty Statements Test (TST) lacked convergent and discriminant validity, both pan-culturally and within each of the three countries included in the study. Scores on the TST were not significantly related to scores on the self-construal scales, and the various self-construal measures correlated more highly with measures of communication directness than with alternative measures of the same type of self-construal. Substantial method effects were also observed. The results were tested for both 2- and 3-dimensional models of self-construal and for refined scales and scales with all items retained. The results of all analyses were inconsistent with the claim that self-construal measures are construct valid. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||