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on Accounting and Auditing |
| By: | Mette Christensen |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:0713&r=acc |
| By: | John Fitz Gerald (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); Susan Scott (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); Mary Keeney (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates pricing power, an important criterion for identifying sectors that would be vulnerable under environmental tax reform. Environmental tax reform, defined here as introduction of carbon taxes alongside reductions in labour taxes, could bear heavily on sectors that are energy intensive and highly traded, in particular if their options for adapting technology are limited. However, a sector with pricing power has less to fear as, rather than having to conform to the world price, it can set its price to accommodate a tax mark-up. To assess pricing power, a model of long-run price setting is specified and tested. Significant and plausible results emerged from this exercise, indicating that pricing power as a major aspect of a sector’s relative vulnerability can be assessed. Of the six sectors analysed, the Basic metals sector had least pricing power and the Non-metallic minerals sector had most. As proxies for the world price, the German price tended to matter more than the US price. Thus, competitiveness fears are reduced not just where there is good potential for adapting technology but also if application of environmental tax reform is EU-wide. |
| Keywords: | price-setting behaviour, competitiveness, environmental tax reform |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp222&r=acc |
| By: | Lukas Haag; Ashok Kaul |
| Abstract: | We analyze the cost savings potential with regard to administration and management costs by merging Public Employment Accident Insurance Funds (Öffentliche Unfallkassen) in Germany. Our data base consists of the annual reports of the public statutory accident insurance funds from 1999 to 2005. Results of a multivariate regression analysis help to identify cost drivers and the potential existence of economies of scale. The numbers of employee accidents and pupil accidents as well as expenditures to prevent accidents serve as explanatory variables for administration and management costs. The main results are as follows. First, public accident insurance funds are very heterogeneous with regard to administration and management costs. Second, these cost differences are unrelated to the size of insurance funds (the number of insured employees and pupils). There is no evidence for cost savings of larger insurance funds, i.e., economies of scale. Third, accidents of pupils entail substantially lower management and administration costs than accidents of employees. Furthermore, there is evidence that higher expenditures to prevent accidents such as accident prevention programs also involve higher administration and management costs. |
| Keywords: | Reform der öffentlichen Unfallkassen, Verwaltungs- und Verfahrenskosten; Kostendegression, Skaleneffekte, Einsparpotenziale |
| JEL: | G22 M41 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:332&r=acc |
| By: | Sandner, Kai |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the question, what metrics should be used for performance evaluation and in particular how they should be weighted and combined in the presence of technological interdependencies when the agents exhibit variedly strong developed rivalry. We find that the principal reacts to his agents' competitive preferences through a reallocation of incentive intensity. As a consequence, depending on the underlying sort of technological interdependency, various differences in the balancing of performance measures compared to the case of purely egoistical behavior arise and changes in the agents' basic types of compensation can occur. We further show that the principal does not want both of his agents to behave equally competitively. Instead, he can only profit when the agents are asymmetrical. Then the principal wants the more productive agent to exhibit rivalry while the other ideally should behave completely egoistically. |
| Keywords: | Social Preferences; Rivalry; Technological Interdependencies; Performance Measurement; Team Composition |
| JEL: | D23 D82 D86 M41 M52 |
| Date: | 2008–02–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:msmdpa:2112&r=acc |
| By: | Matschke, Manfred Jürgen; Broesel, Gerrit |
| Abstract: | After a brief overview of different company valuation theories, this paper presents the main functions (decision, arbitration, and argument or negotiation function) of company valuation according to the functional (i.e. purpose-oriented) theory. The main body of the paper focusses on the decision function and shows how the decision value can be derived as a subjective limit value that different economic agents assign to the company. Finally, the differences between the functional and the market value oriented theory of company valuation are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Unternehmensbewertung; company valuation; decision function; subjective limit value; decision value |
| JEL: | G34 G3 M4 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6922&r=acc |
| By: | Abdelaziz Rouabah; Paolo Guarda |
| Abstract: | La mesure de la production bancaire (et donc de la productivité) a été longtemps sujette à des multiples controverses. Cet article adopte l?approche de Fixler and Zieschang (1999) afin de mesurer la production et les prix du secteur bancaire luxembourgeois à partir des rapports trimestriels transmis à la BCL. Cette méthode consiste en l?affectation des différents flux affichés dans le compte de pertes et profits aux différents postes de l?actif et du passif bilantaires. Ainsi, un taux a été calculé pour chaque poste d?actif ou du passif en fonction des flux de revenus ou de coûts associés. Ensuite, la différence entre ce taux et un taux de référence censé capturer le coût d?opportunité du capital financier fournit le coût d?usage du poste en question. Un coût d?usage négatif permet de catégoriser un poste de l?actif ou du passif comme étant un produit, tandis qu?un coût d?usage positif revient à l?identifier comme étant un entrant dans le processus de production. Or, les deux approches traditionnelles à la production bancaire, qui sont l?approche « intermédiation » et l?approche « production », se fondent sur une classification à priori. Par contre, l?approche par le coût d?usage opère une classification issue des données et peut, théoriquement, combiner des éléments afférents aux deux approches précitées. En pratique, les résultats suggèrent qu?aucune des deux approches traditionnelles n?est tout-à-fait cohérente avec les données luxembourgeoises. Après l?identification des produits et des intrants, ceux-ci sont agrégés séparément à l?aide d?indices Törnqvist multilatéraux. Ces derniers sont construits sur la base d?une entreprise représentative qui sert de référence pour suivre l?évolution temporelle du secteur bancaire. Il ressort que la production totale a progressé à un taux annuel moyen de 11% sur la période 1994T1-2006T4. Ce taux élevé trouve son origine à la fois dans la progression de l?intégration financière européenne et dans le processus d?innovation financière traduit par l?introduction de nouveaux instruments financiers ou de nouvelles formes de régulation. La forte progression de la production est un résultat qui se révèle robuste à l?utilisation de mesures alternatives du taux de référence. La Productivité Totale des Facteurs (PTF), mesurée par la différence entre les indices de la production et des intrants, a augmenté de 4% par an sur le même échantillon. La croissance de la productivité est volatile mais les fluctuations y afférentes sont persistantes et pro-cycliques. Le niveau de la productivité a été également calculé pour les banques individuelles, où il varie fortement mais semble plus élevé dans les établissements de grande taille. Un indice des prix implicites a également été calculé, dont l?évolution suggère que les prix des services d?intermédiation financière ont baissé sur la période considérée. Ceci pourrait refléter l?introduction des nouvelles technologies d?information et de communication, dont l?impact sur les coûts serait particulièrement favorable pour le secteur bancaire. Cette baisse de prix peut être attribuée également à la tendance baissière des taux d?intérêt nominaux au cours de la dernière décennie. La compression de la marge d?intérêt qui en résulte a réduit le coût d?usage des actifs comme des passifs et par voie de conséquence le prix implicite de la production. Dans ce contexte, l?approche par le coût d?usage est particulièrement attractive parce qu?elle fournit une mesure de prix pour les services d?intermédiation financière qui ne sont pas directement facturés, c?est-à-dire ceux dont le prix ne peut pas être observé directement. |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcl:bclwop:cahier_etude_27&r=acc |
| By: | John Hassler; Per Krusell; Kjetil Storesletten; Fabrizio Zilibotti |
| Abstract: | For many kinds of capital, depreciation rates change systematically with the age of the capital. Consider an example that captures essential aspects of human capital, both regarding its accumulation and its depreciation: a worker obtains knowledge in period 0, then uses this knowledge in production in periods 1 and 2, and thereafter retires. Here, depreciation accelerates: it occurs at a 100% rate after period 2, and at a lower (perhaps zero) rate before that. The present paper analyzes the implications of non-constant depreciation rates for the optimal timing of taxes on capital income. The main finding is that under natural assumptions, the path of tax rates over time must be oscillatory. Oscillatory tax rates are optimal when depreciation rates accelerate with the age of the capital (as in the above example), and provided that the government can commit to the path of future tax rates but cannot apply different tax rates in a given year to different vintages of capital. |
| Keywords: | Asset depreciation, Human capital, Optimal taxation, Oscillations, State-contingent taxes, Tax dynamics. |
| JEL: | D90 E61 E62 H21 H30 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:iewwpx:343&r=acc |
| By: | Matschke, Manfred Jürgen; Broesel, Gerrit |
| Abstract: | After a brief overview of different company valuation theories, this paper presents the main functions (decision, arbitration, and argument or negotiation function) of company valuation according to the functional (i.e. purpose-oriented) theory. The main body of the paper focusses on the decision function and shows how the decision value can be derived as a subjective limit value that different economic agents assign to the company. Finally, the differences between the functional and the market value oriented theory of company valuation are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Unternehmensbewertung; company valuation;企业评估;Entscheidungsfunktion; 决策功能;Entscheidungswert; 决策价值 |
| JEL: | G1 G34 M4 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6923&r=acc |