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Given the focus on auditor independence in the corporate literature, prior research has focused almost exclusively on nonaudit services obtained from the incumbent CPA firm. By contrast, auditor independence is generally not viewed as a critical issue in the public sector; rather, the policy emphasis is on the control benefits obtained from an audit. Despite the fact that there is less concern about auditor independence and the low search costs and potential knowledge spillover benefits associated with procuring nonaudit services from the incumbent auditor, governments appear to spend proportionately more on nonaudit services obtained from non-incumbent CPA firms. Our empirical findings are consistent with management’s reduced sensitivity to perceived auditor independence in the government environment and the potential importance of partisan politics and political patronage.

Accounting researchers have performed many studies related to public sector budgeting and financial management. Public sector accounting research seeks to explain the role of accounting and auditing in the public sector. For example, researchers examine issues such as (1) the use of accounting information by elected officials, (2) the demand for auditing, and (3) the determination of bond ratings. This review of the public sector accounting literature describes some of the theoretical foundations utilized in public sector accounting research and reviews a sample of selected empirical studies.

The relationship between the size of state audit budgets, audit responsibilities, professional characteristics of staff, risk, and tax and expenditure limitations is explored. Bivariate relationships are examined and then a model is estimated which controls for size, complexity, financial risk factors, and political risk factors. This provides a framework for considering the incremental influence of specialized audit inputs. Both "brand names" and size have been used in past research to proxy for quality dimensions intended to differentiate the audit product provided by different suppliers. This research extends such work by considering characteristics of the auditing services as reflected by specific inputs and by using cost data rather than audit fee data. The states are observed to differ in their responses to financial and political factors by spending resources on peer review, continuing professional education, certifications of professional staff, and expertise in both the computer science area and in law. A positive association of cost and auditor differentiation, implicit in past audit fee literature is corroborated.

This study provides public administrators with an introduction into research of the determinants of audit fees. A working knowledge of external audit cost determinants can help public administrators hone their evaluation skills for use in audit-procurement. Most prior research on audit cost determinants has focused on the few hundred cities in the nation with populations exceeding 50,000. As a result, this study investigated the audit costs incurred by small cities with populations less than 50,000.

Besides providing a glimpse of small-city auditing practices, the study tested the significance of the Single Audit Act in audit-fee determination. Missouri municipalities with populations between 2,000 and 50,000 provided the sample for the study. Because Missouri is one of the few states in the nation that neither legislates nor monitors municipal auditing, it represents an unregulated audit market in which town officials decide on the need for an audit, the firm to conduct the audit, and the process by which the audit firm is selected. The results of a nine-variable regression model suggested that the size of the town, the existence of a city administrator, the complexity of the town's operation, the method of accounting, the timing and completion time of the audit, and audit-firm specialization in municipal auditing were important determinants of audit fees.

Explains the rating system for US municipal bonds and its effect on borrowing costs, reviews relevant research and provides a study of the factors affecting grading by rating agencies in Virginia using 1995 data. Explains the methodology and presents the results, which identify five significant determinants of favourable ratings. Shows that net interest costs are lower when other rates of interest are low, real estate taxes are high (though not excessive), total municipal debt levels are low and credit risks are low. Confirms that bond ratings capture additional information and that a drop in ratings will raise net interest costs substantially. Considers consistency with other research and the implications of the findings for participants in the municipal bond market.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a study which examined the effects of underwriter reputation market segments on the value relevance of firm specific risk measures in the pricing of initial public offerings (IPOs).

The study abandons the notion of a homogenous market for IPOs and focuses instead on the differential demand for information across identifiable segments of the IPO market in the pre‐market offering period leading to the first day trading closing prices. Ordinary least square (OLS) regressions were used to test the two hypotheses developed in the paper.

It was found that firm‐specific risk measures are associated with the initial trading day returns of IPOs managed by low reputation underwriters, but not those by high reputation underwriters. However, as expected, these risk measures are impounded in initial trading day returns only for a sub‐sample of high‐risk junk IPOs that were marked down in price by the underwriter prior to the offering in order to make them more attractive to investors.

As with all empirical studies the tests are joint tests of the hypotheses stipulated and econometric assumptions underlying OLS. The findings of the study may not be generalized to an unrelated domain.

The findings suggest that ex ante risk measures are useful in picking among junk IPOs those with the best chances of survival, and thus earning an initial trading return on those IPOs.

This is the first study to look at junk IPOs in a systematic manner using a quasi‐experimental design.

The experimental parliamentary subsidy on knights' fees and freehold incomes from lands and rents of 1431 was the only English direct lay tax of the Middle Ages which broke down. As such, this subsidy has a clear historiographical significance, yet previous scholars have tended to overlook it on the grounds that parliament's annulment act of 1432 mandated the destruction of all fiscal administrative evidence. Many county assessments from 1431–1432 do, however, survive and are examined for the first time in this article as part of a detailed assessment of the fiscal and administrative context of the knights' fees and incomes tax. This impost constituted a royal response to excess expenditures associated with Henry VI's “Coronation Expedition” of 1429–1431, the scale of which marked a decisive break from the fiscal-military strategy of the 1420s. Widespread confusion regarding whether taxpayers ought to pay the feudal or the non-feudal component of the 1431 subsidy characterized its botched administration. Industrial scale under-assessment, moreover, emerged as a serious problem. Officials' attempts to provide a measure of fiscal compensation by unlawfully double-assessing many taxpayers served to increase administrative confusion and resulted in parliament's annulment act of 1432. This had serious consequences for the crown's finances, since the regime was saddled with budgetary and debt problems which would ultimately undermine the solvency of the Lancastrian state.

The inaugural meeting of the newly established National Party was held in the Queen's Hall, Langham Place, on Thursday, October 25th, under the presidency of Admiral Lord Beresford. There was a large and distinguished audience numbering about 3,000 persons, among those on the platform being Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Brigadier‐General Page Croft, M.P., Mr. Havelock Wilson, Miss Constance Williams, the Hon. G. J. Jenkins (all of whom addressed the meeting), Earl Bathurst, Sir C. Allom, Major Alan Burgoyne, M.P., Colonel Cassal, Mr. G. K. Chesterton, Sir R. Cooper, M.P., Capt. Viscount Duncannon, M.P., Sir W. Earnshaw Cooper, Mr. H. A. Gwynne, Mr. Rowland Hunt, M.P., Lieut.‐Col. Lord Leconfield, Lord Leith of Fyvie, Admiral Sir H. Markham, The Earl of Northesk, Colonel R. H. Rawson, M.P., Lord Edward St. Maur, Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, Lord Stafford and others.

THE PRESIDENT of the Library Association for 1929–30 will be Lord Balneil, the son of the Earl of Crawford, and it is difficult to think of a better choice. Lord Balneil has an admirable bibliographical ancestry—if we may so put it—seeing that his grandfather, the 26th Earl of Crawford, was President in 1898; and the Haigh Hall Library at the family seat is one of the noble private libraries of England. Lord Balneil is the Chairman of the Appeal Committee for the endowment of the School of Librarianship and so has already identified himself in a practical manner with the cause of libraries.

While social media data are used increasingly in studies of social movements, social media evolves far more rapidly than academic research and publication. This chapter argues that researchers should adopt historical and archival approaches to social media data. Treating social media data as an “instant archive” – one that is self-curated, is co-constituted, and changes rapidly – we caution researchers to pay attention to the features of this archive and their implications for working with the data therein. Applying insights from recent discussions of archival methods for social science research to the specific features of social media data, we explore how platform features, repressive effects, and user innovations affect the content of the instant archive. We then offer strategies for researchers' methodological approaches, including how best to select units of analysis and platforms, how to collect and interpret archival materials, and how to identify silences in the data.