Download or read book Earnings Management in Response to Regulatory Price Review A Case Study of the Political Cost Hypothesis in the Water and Electricity Sectors in England and Wales written by Wendy Beekes and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the response of the water and electricity group companies to regulatory pressure and in particular, the first regulatory price review after privatisation. The sample period incorporates industry-specific regulatory price reviews in both the water and electricity sectors and provides an interesting case study to examine the political cost hypothesis. The results obtained in this study confirm that the regulatory process has an impact on the group company's financial reporting decisions: there is evidence of income-decreasing earnings management in the year of regulatory price review in both sectors. However there is little evidence to support the premise of income-decreasing earnings management in the electricity sector, following the regulator's decision to re-open the distribution price review in 1995.
Download or read book Earnings Management in Response to a Windfall Tax in the Water and Sewerage Utility Companies in England and Wales written by Wendy Beekes and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines whether the ten Water and Sewerage group Companies (WaSCs) in England and Wales used accounting accruals to decrease earnings and in turn reduce political costs in response to the Windfall Tax. In particular, this study encompasses a sample period when there was widespread speculation about a potential Windfall Tax and the 'monopolistic' level of utility company profits. Therefore considerable incentives existed for managers to use the accounting discretion available to them to reduce potential political costs. The results show that WaSCs did not use income-decreasing earnings management in response to the Windfall Tax in the year prior to the 1992 or the 1997 General Election. In contrast the evidence obtained in this study suggests that income-increasing accruals were adopted. The results suggest other pressures were more important to these large group plcs than the threat of politically imposed wealth transfers.
Download or read book Earnings Management of Firms Subjected to Price Regulation written by Stephen Lim and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study operationalises a theoretical model of political costs specific to the establishment of the Prices Justification Tribunal in Australia and its implications for firms targeted in this political action. The aim is to identify and define a rigorous linkage between political actions likely to transfer wealth away from targeted firms, and firms' earnings manipulation. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches are employed to examine the incentives for managers of target firms to manipulate earnings in a way which would be conducive to alleviating their exposure to wealth transfer. The cross-sectional approach examines the hypothesis that firms exposed to high levels of political costs would more likely manage their earnings downwards, as compared to other firms within the same period. The longitudinal approach examines the hypothesis that firms would more likely effect earnings-reducing accruals in periods of intense political costs, as compared to other periods of lesser political exposure. The empirical evidence presented suggests that firms are more likely to effect negative accounting accruals during periods when they are subjected to intense political scrutiny as a means of reducing their exposure to political costs.
Download or read book The Regulation of Investment in Utilities written by Ian Alexander and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Drawing on a worldwide series of case studies from across the regulated sectors, this paper illustrates the various approaches to regulating investment and some of the practical implementation problems that are faced. This allows some tentative suggestions for the design of practical investment regimes to be developed, depending upon the circumstances of the situation in hand."--Jacket.
Download or read book Reforming Infrastructure written by Ioannis Nicolaos Kessides and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railways, and water supply, are often vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This results in weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and for poor people. Common problems include low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and investment shortfalls. Many countries over the past two decades have restructured, privatized and regulated their infrastructure. This report identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection. It also assesses the outcomes of these changes, as well as their distributional consequences for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. It recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performance, identifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor people's access to these crucial services.
Download or read book Institutional and Structural Constraints to Detecting Earnings Management of Firms Subjected to Price Regulation written by Stephen Lim and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines the political costs of firms upon the establishment of the Prices Surveillance Authority in Australia in 1984. The paper identifies and defines a linkage between political actions likely to transfer wealth away from targeted firms and firms' subsequent earnings management.The cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence presented in this study does not support the hypothesis that firms are more likely to affect negative accounting accruals during periods when they are subjected to intense political scrutiny as a means of reducing their exposure to political costs.A further examination of the institutional environment and structural arrangements for price surveillance suggests that while establishing a linkage between political costs and earnings management by firms is a necessary condition, it is not by itself a sufficient condition. Earnings management is but one of several options which can be used to deflect political costs by firm managers.
Download or read book Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists written by and published by . This book was released on 1955-04 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.
Download or read book Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists written by and published by . This book was released on 1953-05 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.
Download or read book The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report written by Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.
Download or read book The Political Economy of Water Pricing Reforms written by Ariel Dinar and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2000 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lately our world has witnessed massive changes and reforms in various sectors in many countries, developing and developed alike. Institutional and pricing reforms in the water sector are also part of that recent trend. They are led by the recognition of a need to respond to increased scarcity and deteriorated quality. Is the water sector different than other sectors, as some claim? Should reforms in the water sector be designed and implemented differently than reforms of a similar type, in other sectors? The Political Economy of Water Pricing Reforms answers these questions by providing various analytical frameworks that allow comparison across various conditions, and by actually comparing reform processes under various conditions in different countries. This book demonstrates the common threads that characterize pricing reforms in the water sector by analyzing various aspects of the reforms in the irrigation and urban subsectors of 10 countries. Cases from Morocco, Senegal, Honduras, Belgium, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, Yemen, and the United States illustrate the difficulties of designing and implementing "optimal" pricing reforms and explain how reform outcomes fall short of the original objective. "This book should be on the must reading list for anyone interested in water pricing and how to reform water rights systems to achieve increased economic efficiency as well as a legitimate and equitable system of property rights." Elinor Ostrom, Co-Director, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis and Co-Director, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change, Indiana University
Download or read book Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists written by and published by . This book was released on 1973-10 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.
Download or read book Global Trends 2040 written by National Intelligence Council and published by Cosimo Reports. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Download or read book Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists written by and published by . This book was released on 1971-09 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.
Download or read book Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists written by and published by . This book was released on 1970-06 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.
Download or read book Index to Theses with Abstracts Accepted for Higher Degrees by the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland and the Council for National Academic Awards written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Our Common Future written by and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Popular Mechanics written by and published by . This book was released on 2000-01 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech lifestyle.
