Olga Fullana, Mariano González and David Toscano
In this paper we analyse the effect on unconditional conservatism of the mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by the European listed firms in…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper we analyse the effect on unconditional conservatism of the mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by the European listed firms in January 2005. Under the hypothesis that accounting regulation influences the accounting conservatism, we use a non-market-based measure of unconditional conservatism – the accrual-based measure proposed by Givoly and Hayn (2000) – to test this effect, controlling for the other determinants of the unconditional conservatism found in the accounting literature.
Design/methodology/approach
We use a panel data of 10 years and 96 non-financial listed firms in the Spanish stock market in which the differences between local GAAP and IFRS are more important. A pre-estimation analysis of the data reveals that GLS with random effects is the correct estimation procedure. However, to try to deal with the likely endogeneity in the set of variables, the authors perform an estimate with a dynamic estimator for panels with few periods and many individuals where the independent variables are not strictly exogenous.
Findings
As expected, results show evidence that support a significant reduction on the unconditional conservatism of firms in the sample due to the adoption of IFRS. This evidence is relevant to equity market, debt market and corporate governance users of the financial information, and also for the policymakers who can assess the effects of their mandate.
Research limitations/implications
Results shown in this paper have all the limitations of system-, country-, sample- and event-specific studies but, along with many others drawn in alternative contexts, may help to correctly understand both the time-evolution and cross-sectional country differences of firms’ unconditional conservatism.
Originality/value
The study represents the first analysis of the effect of the adoption of IFRS on unconditional conservatism of the European listed companies using a non-market accrual-based measure. Results are not influenced by the dynamics of the stock market and, by comparison, allow us to analyse this influence in results provided by using market-based measures of the unconditional accounting conservatism provided by previous literature.
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Mariano González, Juan M. Nave and David Toscano
In this paper, the authors aim to analyze the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards' (IFRS) mandatory adoption on the financial statements of Spanish listed…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the authors aim to analyze the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards' (IFRS) mandatory adoption on the financial statements of Spanish listed companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors estimate a panel data model by generalized least squares' within-between in order to contrast the possible structural breaks in the relations between income statement items and balance sheet items, using data from the 35 largest listed companies.
Findings
The results show significant changes on these relations, but with different signs and degrees of intensity depending on the balance sheet item analyzed.
Research limitations/implications
The data choice introduces a size bias that could be taken into account in the generalization of the results to other listed companies.
Originality/value
This work is developed using a mandatory, local, accounting and panel data framework for first time using Spanish listed companies in order to measure the impact of the IFRS adoption.
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This chapter sets out to examine the topic of a spatial analysis of urban crime through an analysis of David Simon’s seminal television series The Wire. By developing an analysis…
Abstract
This chapter sets out to examine the topic of a spatial analysis of urban crime through an analysis of David Simon’s seminal television series The Wire. By developing an analysis of the issues that are presented in the series, issues such as race, ethnicity and representation will be addressed in order to add to the understanding of these topics in relation to race and media representations. Each section will address a set of themes which are evident in The Wire. The chapter highlights the idea of race in the series and how characters are presented on screen. The research is also concerned with economic issues depicted in the series and the effect of the economy on the characters in Baltimore, the U.S. city in which The Wire was set.
The conclusion of the chapter addresses poverty class and inequality as topics and sets out to document these themes in relation to race. The third chapter also discusses the racism and discrimination that is apparent in The Wire. By contextualising the series, the book is attempting to theorise relevant issues surrounding race, gender and power through an examination of relevant literature and the development of a theoretical framework from which key issues will be addressed.
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Charles Thorpe and Brynna Jacobson
Drawing upon Alfred Sohn-Rethel's work, we argue that, just as capitalism produces abstract labor, it coproduces both abstract mind and abstract life. Abstract mind is the split…
Abstract
Drawing upon Alfred Sohn-Rethel's work, we argue that, just as capitalism produces abstract labor, it coproduces both abstract mind and abstract life. Abstract mind is the split between mind and nature and between subject/observer and observed object that characterizes scientific epistemology. Abstract mind reflects an abstracted objectified world of nature as a means to be exploited. Biological life is rendered as abstract life by capitalist exploitation and by the reification and technologization of organisms by contemporary technoscience. What Alberto Toscano has called “the culture of abstraction” imposes market rationality onto nature and the living world, disrupting biotic communities and transforming organisms into what Finn Bowring calls “functional bio-machines.”
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Olivier Boiral, Marie-Christine Brotherton and David Talbot
The purpose of this paper is to shed more light on the motivations for environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk management by agri-food companies and the neutralization…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to shed more light on the motivations for environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk management by agri-food companies and the neutralization techniques used to legitimize the measures taken in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an analysis of the sustainability reporting of 135 companies, this study shows the interdependence between the main motivations for ESG risk management and the neutralization techniques used in disclosing information about their exposure to threats or negative events that could damage their image.
Findings
The results of the study allow us to understand the four main complementary neutralization techniques used to obfuscate the negative consequences of risks related to agri-food activities: mitigating ESG threats, addressing global risks through corporate leadership, taking advantage of sustainability trends and turning risks into opportunities.
Practical implications
Managers can use the results of this paper to identify the best management approaches to take ESG risks into account more substantially in their company.
Social implications
Ultimately, this study is important to improve the practices of agri-food companies and therefore their social legitimacy.
Originality/value
The examination of these neutralization techniques and their underlying motivations makes important contributions to the emerging literature on ESG risk management. The study also contributes to research on the disclosure of negative information that can damage a company’s reputation and on the strategies that companies use to promote the social acceptability of their activities.
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In some settings, sharecropping is associated with large extended families, high fertility, and early age of marriage. These demographic practices are often considered to be labor…
Abstract
In some settings, sharecropping is associated with large extended families, high fertility, and early age of marriage. These demographic practices are often considered to be labor strategies for working extensive share‐tenancies. Where agricultural production is primarily labor intensive, landlords can increase their income, within certain limits, by maximizing the number of adult workers. If landlords hold considerable power over their tenants, they may have a large influence on demographic practices. Although this relationship between sharecropping and some of these demographic practices is found throughout much of history in northern Italy, the evidence is less clear for fifteenth‐century Tuscany. Herlihy and Klapisch‐ Zuber's study of the Catasto of 1427, a set of tax declarations, found no relation between household structure and land tenure. Some of their work suggested that fertility was higher among sharecroppers, but this relationship was not specified in detail. They did not consider the relationship between land tenure and age of marriage. This paper reconsiders the relationship between land tenure, household structure, fertility, and age of marriage. To try to correct for problems with Herlihy and Klapisch‐Zuber's land tenure variable, their data were aggregated to the administrative unit of analysis. The aggregated data show that sharecropping in rural Tuscany in 1427 was associated with household extension, high fertility, and early age of marriage, although the magnitude of this relationship was not large. Possible reasons for this weak relationship are discussed.
In this study, the author examines the effect of financial knowledge, financial attitude and responsible financial management behaviour on financial satisfaction and investigates…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the author examines the effect of financial knowledge, financial attitude and responsible financial management behaviour on financial satisfaction and investigates the association between financial satisfaction and psychological wellbeing of individuals. The author examines these relationships having controlled for the influence of key demographic variables including age, gender, marital status, income level and employment status of respondents on the predicted relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was gathered by means of a self-administered questionnaire to postgraduate business students from a large public university in Ghana. The hypothesized relationships of the study were tested using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.
Findings
The author shows from the structural model analysis using the bootstrapping procedure that financial knowledge, financial attitude and sound financial management behaviour have important implications on financial satisfaction levels of individuals. Further, the author finds financial satisfaction to be an important predictor of the psychological wellbeing of individuals.
Practical implications
The paper highlights the relevance of financial satisfaction on the psychological wellbeing of an individual and identifies some of the dominant factors that are associated with financial satisfaction.
Originality/value
This study examines the concept of financial satisfaction at the individual level and uniquely highlights the psychological implications of financial satisfaction.
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This essay aims at retracing the intellectual and biographical events of the economist Gino Arias (1879–1940), examining more in detail the two seasons at the opposite ends of his…
Abstract
This essay aims at retracing the intellectual and biographical events of the economist Gino Arias (1879–1940), examining more in detail the two seasons at the opposite ends of his life: the early one that saw him considerably committed to the Zionist cause and the one that, thirty years later, would force him to confront the racial laws of the Fascist regime.
Despite the seeming tragic continuity of these two phases, Arias’s case is a real historiographical paradox since, over the long span between the opposite ends of his biography, not only did he distance himself from the Zionist movement, but he also gradually laid the foundations for his upcoming and immediate dedication to Fascism; indeed, within the Fascist regime he would stand out as an authoritative and influential theorist of corporatism, the institutional solution Mussolini tried to exploit to organize the national economic life.
After carefully examining Arias’s early contributions to the Zionist cause (that include the establishment of the Florentine Zionist Group and that led him toward strongly nationalistic stances), this essay sums up Arias’s intellectual biography during the next years and then, thanks to unprecedented documents from the Italian Ministry of Interior, closely looks into his fate after his conversion to Catholicism in 1932 and up against the racial laws of 1938, as well as into his attempts to escape persecution. A few final observations will then try to highlight the dramatic exemplarity of his case.