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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2011

Craig S. Maher and Steven C. Deller

The intent of this research is determine the extent to which selfreported measures of fiscal condition are consistent with commonly identified measures of fiscal condition using…

188

Abstract

The intent of this research is determine the extent to which selfreported measures of fiscal condition are consistent with commonly identified measures of fiscal condition using secondary financial data. While the field of government finance has amassed a lengthy list of research on fiscal condition and fiscal stress assessment, there remains a gap in the research on the extent to which practitioners' perceptions of fiscal stress are consistent with such measures. Our results suggest that there is limited evidence of a relationship between self-reported and objective measures of fiscal condition

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Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 23 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

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Article
Publication date: 22 August 2020

Craig S. Maher, Jae Won Oh and Wei-Jie Liao

Identifying tools for predicting fiscally distressed local governments has received heightened attention following the Great Recession of 2007–2009. Despite the recent expansion…

386

Abstract

Purpose

Identifying tools for predicting fiscally distressed local governments has received heightened attention following the Great Recession of 2007–2009. Despite the recent expansion of research, measuring fiscal distress is challenging because of the operational complexity associated with the term. Furthermore, many local governments are too small to produce a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), upon which many empirical studies of fiscal condition or fiscal distress are based. This study designs a parsimonious tool for identifying fiscally distressed entities based on existing literature. The authors examine Nebraska's 93 counties over a nine-year period (from 2010 to 2018). In order to ensure the validity of our tool, we replicate two well-known empirical approaches of assessing local fiscal condition and compare the results with ours. The authors find nearly all counties in Nebraska to be free from fiscal distress in the past decade. However, since most counties in Nebraska have small populations and are far from urban centers, they may still be vulnerable to future fiscal shocks and may need to closely monitor their fiscal condition.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors offer a parsimonious method for assessing the existence of fiscally distressed counties. They select predictors of fiscal distress based on two criteria. First, for the purpose of this study, the authors use financial information that is uniform, easily accessible and does not rely on CAFRs. In order to make their model parsimonious and replicable, the authors only consider factors that have the most decisive effects on local fiscal conditions. Second, the authors draw on indicators that have been consistently supported by previous studies (e.g., Kloha et al., 2005; Gorina et al., 2018). The authors test the validity of this approach using correlation analysis and regression modeling, similar to Wang et al. (2007).

Findings

The authors’ fiscal distress measure shows encouraging signs. Results show that all but Brown's model are highly correlated. The decile and standard deviation models have the strongest correlation (r = 0.955, p < 0.01). These two models are also significantly associated with Kloha et al.'s model. Their correlation coefficients are 0.812 and 0.830, respectively. Consistent with Wang et al. (2007), the authors find modest associations between our fiscal measures and socioeconomic measures.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations include questions of generalizability – we are only studying Nebraska counties. The extent to which the findings are generalizable to counties in other states remains to be seen. We advise readers and policymakers to bear in mind that at this point, there is no perfect way to measure local fiscal condition or fiscal distress. Specifically, with our model, the foremost advantages of parsimony are data accessibility and replicability. However, unlike other existing tools that consider dozens of indicators, our tool bears the cost of not employing a more comprehensive perspective that may be required to capture a full picture of local fiscal condition.

Practical implications

The purpose of this research was to construct and present a parsimonious way of identifying local fiscal distress that is easily replicated and applied in practice. The challenges were operational – both in terms of definition and measurement. Fiscal distress is a nebulous concept that can vary based on the researcher's intent. Our chosen set of indicators have two characteristics: accessibility of financial information and consistency with past studies. Thus, we assess two of the four dimensions of solvency: budgetary solvency and long-run solvency. The authors suggest that this effort should not be used as a tool by state lawmakers to accuse and judge local governments. Instead, it should be used to assist local governments as Iowa and Colorado do. The findings could be the beginning of a conversation between the state and local governments to determine the best course(s) of action. As previously mentioned, there are many causes of fiscal distress and poor decision-making is not very common. Looking into the future, the authors expect more local governments to become fiscally distressed and the primary cause would be economic/demographic change. Since many local governments in Nebraska have very small populations and are far from the urban centers of Omaha and Lincoln, they might be vulnerable to future fiscal shocks. Thus, state lawmakers need to begin considering strategies to deal with local fiscal distress. The authors do have limitations in measurement. However, if used appropriately, this research can add value to the discussion of managing local government fiscal distress in Nebraska and other similar states.

Social implications

While the analysis finds little fiscal distress currently in Nebraska, there is concern that with population migration to the urban areas and the “graying” of the state, local governments in rural areas (the vast majority in Nebraska) could face more serious issues in future years. A recent study showed that local fiscal condition is negatively associated with the distance from the municipality to the urban centers of Omaha and Lincoln (Maher et al., 2019). These spatial effects could be further exacerbated in a state that ranks near the bottom in financial support of local governments and policy makers are committed to “controlling” property taxes.

Originality/value

This study, while building on prior work, is unique in that it focuses on counties as opposed to municipalities, which are the most common units of analysis. The authors also offer a model for assessing fiscal distress in a state that currently does not have state-level systems to monitor local finances. Finally, rather than relying on audited annual financial reports which would disqualify many smaller local governments, the authors offer a parsimonious tool that is easily replicated and can be used by all local governments that submit uniform financial reports to their states.

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Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 32 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2012

Karl Nollenberger, Craig Maher, Paul Beach and M. Kevin McGee

The increasingly important issues of transparency and citizen involvement have challenged public administrators in the budget process. This paper adopts a contingent valuation…

119

Abstract

The increasingly important issues of transparency and citizen involvement have challenged public administrators in the budget process. This paper adopts a contingent valuation approach, surveying citizens in the city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on their preferred allocations of both a large city budgetary increase and a large city budget reduction. The results are then used to examine how citizen assessment of service quality and importance are related to their desired changes in net budget allocations. We believe that this is a major improvement in the contingent value approach, and can serve as a useful tool to public administrators for identifying the public’s budget priorities.

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Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 24 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2007

Steven Deller, Craig Maher and Victor Lledo

Predictive models of government spending behavior based solely on the median voter theory have demonstrated limited utility, particularly when intergovernmental grants are…

126

Abstract

Predictive models of government spending behavior based solely on the median voter theory have demonstrated limited utility, particularly when intergovernmental grants are involved. Since the 1970s, research on the impact of intergovernmental grants and aids on recipient governments has demonstrated that spending increases greater than predicted by the median voter theory, a.k.a. the “flypaper effect.” One of the challenges facing those trying to empirically test for the flypaper effect is the limited availability of unconditional grants. This study attempts to fill that void in the literature by testing the relationship between spending in 581 Wisconsin cities and villages and state aid receipts through its Shared Revenue program. The findings are generally consistent with previous studies of the flypaper effect, meaning that recipient governments spend more than would be predicted by the median voter theory. As such, the authors suggest that pure economic theories of government spending are limited and that political and institutional factors need to be given greater consideration.

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Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 19 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

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Book part
Publication date: 14 December 2018

Lai Y. Wo

This article examinees how vulnerability operates within the intimate economy in Hong Kong’s prominent entertainment district of Wanchai. Best known in its portrayal of The World

Abstract

This article examinees how vulnerability operates within the intimate economy in Hong Kong’s prominent entertainment district of Wanchai. Best known in its portrayal of The World of Suzie Wong, Wanchai’s historicity is anchored in a legacy of colonialism, orientalist imagination, and Western militarization. Presently, the area continues to cater to Western expatriate men, foreign travellers and the US Navy. An influx of Southeast Asian migrant domestic workers to Hong Kong in recent decades has led to the rise of new intimate relationships fostered in the bar district. While Wanchai is renowned as a red-light district celebrating white Western masculinity, a complex portrait emerged after a year of ethnographic fieldwork observing the intimate exchanges between Western expatriate men and Southeast Asian migrant domestic workers, as two groups who are positioned on opposite ends of the city’s socioeconomic spectrum. Contrary to recurrent portrayals of female victimhood in commercialized sex industries, this article illustrates how other experiences of vulnerability, particularly those of the Western male expatriate partner, also deserve critical attention. By exploring the decommercialized transactions within Wanchai’s intimate economy, this piece demonstrates how the intimate relations forged between Western expatriates and Southeast Asian migrants can help negotiate longstanding gendered relations of power and shared senses of structural precarity.

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Individual and Social Adaptations to Human Vulnerability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-175-9

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Book part
Publication date: 24 July 2020

Wayne A. Hochwarter, Ilias Kapoutsis, Samantha L. Jordan, Abdul Karim Khan and Mayowa Babalola

Persistent change has placed considerable pressure on organizations to keep up or fade into obscurity. Firms that remain viable, or even thrive, are staffed with decision-makers…

Abstract

Persistent change has placed considerable pressure on organizations to keep up or fade into obscurity. Firms that remain viable, or even thrive, are staffed with decision-makers who capably steer organizations toward opportunities and away from threats. Accordingly, leadership development has never been more critical. In this chapter, the authors propose that leader development is an inherently dyadic process initiated to communicate formal and informal expectations. The authors focus on the informal component, in the form of organizational politics, as an element of leadership that is critical to employee and company success. The authors advocate that superiors represent the most salient information source for leader development, especially as it relates to political dynamics embedded in work systems. The authors discuss research associated with our conceptualization of dyadic political leader development (DPLD). Specifically, the authors develop DPLD by exploring its conceptual underpinnings as they relate to sensemaking, identity, and social learning theories. Once established, the authors provide a refined discussion of the construct, illustrating its scholarly mechanisms that better explain leader development processes and outcomes. The authors then expand research in the areas of political skill, political will, political knowledge, and political phronesis by embedding our conceptualization of DPLD into a political leadership model. The authors conclude by discussing methodological issues and avenues of future research stemming from the development of DPLD.

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Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-076-1

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Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 October 2016

Kevan W. Lamm, Hannah S. Carter and Alexa J. Lamm

Although the term interpersonal leadership has been well established within the literature, there remains a dearth of theoretically derived models that specifically address the…

190

Abstract

Although the term interpersonal leadership has been well established within the literature, there remains a dearth of theoretically derived models that specifically address the comprehensive nature of the underlying leader behaviors and activities. The intent of the present article is to attempt to synthesize the existent leadership models, behaviors, and factors to arrive at a coherent conceptual model of interpersonal leadership that can inform efficient and effective leadership education programs. The resulting model included 13 primary factors integrated within a hierarchical framework. Leadership educators are recommended to adopt or adapt the proposed model while developing educational curriculum and interventions.

Details

Journal of Leadership Education, vol. 15 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1552-9045

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Book part
Publication date: 24 July 2020

Francis J. Yammarino, Minyoung Cheong, Jayoung Kim and Chou-Yu Tsai

For many of the current leadership theories, models, and approaches, the answer to the question posed in the title, “Is leadership more than ‘I like my boss’?,” is “no,” as there…

Abstract

For many of the current leadership theories, models, and approaches, the answer to the question posed in the title, “Is leadership more than ‘I like my boss’?,” is “no,” as there appears to be a hierarchy of leadership concepts with Liking of the leader as the primary dimension or general factor foundation. There are then secondary dimensions or specific sub-factors of liking of Relationship Leadership and Task Leadership; and subsequently, tertiary dimensions or actual sub-sub-factors that comprise the numerous leadership views as well as their operationalizations (e.g., via surveys). There are, however, some leadership views that go beyond simply liking of the leader and liking of relationship leadership and task leadership. For these, which involve explicit levels of analysis formulations, often beyond the leader, or are multi-level in nature, the answer to the title question is “yes.” We clarify and discuss these various “no” and “yes” leadership views and implications of our work for future research and personnel and human resources management practice.

Details

Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-076-1

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Book part
Publication date: 3 March 2016

Robert G. Lord, Suzanne Hendler Devlin, Carol Oeth Caldwell and Darrin Kass

This research systematically analyzed the effect of leadership (coaches and owners) on organizational performance in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1970 through…

Abstract

This research systematically analyzed the effect of leadership (coaches and owners) on organizational performance in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1970 through 1992 seasons. In addition, it examined the relation of stable individual differences in personality of NFL leaders with performance outcomes for both coaches and owners. Results revealed that leadership added substantially to the prediction of performance in the NFL, even after controlling for non-leadership variables such as quality of competition and year. Furthermore, one facet of Conscientiousness – Deliberateness – showed strong linear relations with all performance measures. The results of both studies also revealed that hierarchical level of leadership was an important moderator, with coaches having greater impact than owners. The desirability of studying leadership in the context of the NFL was recognized and suggestions were provided on the direction that research might take.

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Leadership Lessons from Compelling Contexts
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-942-8

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Article
Publication date: 14 May 2018

Villy Abraham and Abraham Reitman

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of consumer animosity on conspicuous consumption in two research settings: Israel and Russia. The study also examines: the…

1610

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of consumer animosity on conspicuous consumption in two research settings: Israel and Russia. The study also examines: the relationship between susceptibility to norm influence (SNI) and consumer animosity, whether SNI affects consumers’ willingness to buy (WTB) products from a country toward which they harbor animosity, and the relationship between consumer animosity and WTB in contexts differing in the level of animosity harbored toward a target country.

Design/methodology/approach

To probe generalizability, the hypothesized model was tested in two different contexts: Study 1 was conducted in Israel using the context of the Holocaust and Study 2 was conducted in Russia using the context of the recent political discord with the USA. A convenience sample of Israeli-Jewish (n=264) and Russian (n=259) consumers yielded a total of 523 questionnaires.

Findings

In both contexts, the results from the SPSS and AMOS analyses indicated a negative and significant relationship between consumer animosity and conspicuous consumption. Moreover, SNI was positively associated with consumer animosity. Finally, the study findings point to a negative association between consumer animosity and WTB, regardless of the level of animosity.

Originality/value

The research findings suggest that consumer animosity may be a stronger predictor for the consumption of conspicuous products than for the consumption of necessity goods.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 35 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

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