Impact of Job Complexity and Performance on CFO Compensation

Prior research suggests that Big 4 auditors provide higher quality audits by virtue of their large size. Still, the recent reforms mandated by the Sarbanes Oxley Act – by increasing client and auditor incentives for accurate reporting – may have narrowed audit quality differences across auditor groups. In this paper, we examine audit quality for Big 4 and Mid-tier auditors during 2003-06 and include clients of other smaller audit firms for comparison purposes. We examine actual audit quality (as proxied by earnings management metrics) as well as perceived audit quality (as proxied by the client- and year-specific eloading and ex ante equity risk premium metrics). We include in our analysis only those Big 4 clients for whom the Mid-tier firms are potentially viable as auditors. Relative to other smaller audit firm clients, we find Big 4 and Mid-tier audit clients to have (1) lower levels of accrual management, (2) higher levels of real earnings management, and (3) higher levels of investor-perceived accruals quality. In each case, we were unable to reject the null that Big 4 and Mid-tier audits are similar. However, we find Big 4 audit clients to have a lower client-specific ex ante equity risk premium relative to both Mid-tier and other smaller audit firm clients. Collectively, our findings indicate that in situations where a Mid-tier auditor is potentially viable, Big 4 clients could utilize a Mid-tier firm without adversely affecting audit quality. Still, the results suggest that Big 4 clients have a lower ex ante cost of equity capital which is likely related to the insurance considerations (“deep pockets”) – rather than the audit quality -- associated with having a Big 4 auditor.Auditor concentration, Audit quality, Earnings management, Cost of equity capital.

Openness to Diversity and Challenge: Assessment of Undergraduate Attitudes and Experiences in the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University.

This research used survey data to measure baseline levels of (1) openness to diversity and (2) diversity experience for students enrolled in the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University in Fall semester, 2004. The study also used regression analysis to identify and quantify the determinants of student openness to diversity and challenge and the level of experience with diversity. Regression results found that the determinants of openness to diversity and challenge included: experience with diversity, gender, size of hometown, enrolled credit hours, desire to obtain an advanced degree, outside work experience, and major field of study. Student experience with diversity was defined as a measure of the degree to which students have interacted with individuals who are different from themselves in race, ethnicity, philosophy of life, politics, religious beliefs, race, or a different country. The level of experience with diversity was found to be statistically associated with participation in courses and workshops in diversity, ethnicity, urban background, parent education levels, and desire to obtain an advanced degree, and major field of study. The major implication of the statistical results is that there is an opportunity to influence student openness to diversity and challenge, since: (1) experience with diversity was shown to be a highly statistically significant determinant of openness to diversity and challenge, and (2) the levels of diversity experience in the College of Agriculture were low. Therefore, enhanced programming for diversity appreciation and understanding as part of the university experience is likely to provide higher measurable levels of openness to diversity and challenge among students and graduates of the College. The identification of student characteristics associated with openness to diversity allows students, faculty, and administrators information useful for addressing the planning, implementation, and consequences of institutional diversity programming.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Optimal Unemployment Insurance with Monitoring and Sanctions

This paper analyzes the design of optimal unemployment insurance in a search equilibrium framework where search effort among the unemployed is not perfectly observable.We examine to what extent the optimal policy involves monitoring of search effort and benefit sanctions if observed search is deemed insuficient.We find that introducing monitoring and sanctions represents a welfare improvement for reasonable estimates of monitoring costs; this conclusion holds both relative to a system featuring indefinite payments of benefits and a system with a time limit on unemployment benefit receipt.The optimal sanction rates implied by our calibrated model are much higher than the sanction rates typically observed in European labor markets.unemployment insurance;job search

Litigation Risk and Abnormal Accruals

In this paper, we examine the relation between auditor litigation risk and abnormal accruals over the 1989-2007 time period. We address potential endogeneity in prior studies by jointly modeling abnormal accruals and litigation risk in a simultaneous equation system. Our findings suggest that client-specific litigation risk affects auditor incentives to acquiesce to client demands for earnings management, i.e., the higher the risk of auditor litigation, the greater the auditor’s restraining influence on the abnormal accruals reported by the client. We also find evidence that abnormal accruals increase the likelihood of auditor litigation. We also document that the 1995 Public Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA) lowered the client-specific risk of auditor litigation. Litigation reform remains a topic of ongoing interest. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the effects of litigation reform (and related changes in legal exposure) on auditor incentives and earnings management.: Litigation risk, abnormal accruals, auditor incentives

Resolving the molecular gas around the lensed quasar RXJ0911.4+0551

We report on high angular resolution observations of the CO(7-6) line and millimeter continuum in the host galaxy of the gravitationally lensed (z~2.8) quasar RXJ0911.4+0551 using the Plateau de Bure Interferometer. Our CO observations resolve the molecular disk of the source. Using a lens model based on HST observations we fit source models to the observed visibilities. We estimate a molecular disk radius of 1$\pm$0.2 kpc and an inclination of 69$\pm$6\deg, the continuum is more compact and is only marginally resolved by our observations. The relatively low molecular gas mass, $Mgas=(2.3\pm 0.5)\times 10^{9}$ Msolar, and far infrared luminosity, $LFIR=(7.2\pm 1.5) \times 10^{11}$ Lsolar, of this quasar could be explained by its relatively low dynamical mass, $Mdyn=(3.9\pm 0.9)\times 10^9$ Msolar. It would be a scaled-down version the QSOs usually found at high-z. The FIR and CO luminosities lie on the correlation found for QSOs from low to high redshifts and the gas-to-dust ratio ($45\pm 17$) is similar to the one measured in the z=6.4 QSO, SDSS J1148+5251. Differential magnification affects the continuum-to-line luminosity ratio, the line profile and possibly the spectral energy distribution.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, revised after language editin

This Is the Way: Faculty on the Camino de Santiago

Excerpt from book chapter: For nearly a millennium, pilgrims have made their way to Santiago de Compostela to visit the tomb of Saint James. These pilgrims initially journeyed from the Iberian Peninsula and then greater Europe, establishing over a dozen routes to reach the northwestern city in modern-day Galicia, a province of Spain. These routes followed established pathways connecting urban hubs, ports, and trade channels. While the number of pilgrims rose steadily in the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, the popularity of pilgrimage mirrored that of the Catholic Church and began to wane with the onset of the Enlightenment. It is not until the late twentieth century that we begin to see the Camino\u27s revitalization and then a boom in participation in the first decades of this century...https://scholarworks.wm.edu/educationbookchapters/1055/thumbnail.jp

Solar-Cell Design Based On A Distributed Diode Analysis

The front surface of a p-n junction solar cell has resistive losses associated with the diffused layer, the metal-semiconductor contact, and the grid structure. These losses are analyzed by considering the spatially distributed nature of the p-n junction and the grid conductors. This distributed diode analysis is especially useful for solar cells operated under concentrated sunlight conditions. The results show the dependence of the V-I characteristics and the maximum power output per unit cell on the ratio of the diffused layer resistance to the junction dynamic resistance. This ratio can assist the designer in establishing proper grid structure geometries and should typically be less than 0.1 if the power output per unit cell is to be within 3 percent of that for the lossless case. Experimental measurements are reported which confirm the theoretical calculations. An analysis of the grid conductor losses associated with multiple-connected unit cells shows the disastrous effect that the grid header resistance can have on the performance of a solar cell. The results indicate that the use of a tapered header conductor to decrease the metal coverage may actually worsen cell performance. Copyright © 1978 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc

First space-borne measurements of methanol inside aged southern tropical to mid-latitude biomass burning plumes using the ACE-FTS instrument

International audienceFirst measurements from space of upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric methanol profiles within aged fire plumes are reported. Elevated levels of methanol at 0–45° S from 30 September to 3 November 2004 have been measured by the high resolution infrared spectrometer ACE-FTS onboard the SCISAT satellite. Methanol volume mixing ratios higher than 4000 pptv are detected and are strongly correlated with other fire products such as CO, C2H6, and HCN. A sensitivity study of the methanol retrieval, accounting for random and systematic contributions, shows that the retrieved methanol profile for a single occultation exceeds 100% error above 16.5 km, with an accuracy of about 20% for measurements inside polluted air masses. The upper tropospheric enhancement ratio of methanol with respect to CO is estimated from the correlation plot between methanol and CO for aged tropical biomass burning plumes. This ratio is in good agreement with the ratio measured in the free troposphere (up to 12 km) by recent aircraft studies and does not suggest any secondary production of methanol by oxidation in aged biomass burning plumes

First space-borne measurements of methanol inside aged tropical biomass burning plumes using the ACE-FTS instrument

International audienceFirst measurements from space of upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric methanol profiles within aged fire plumes are reported. Elevated levels of methanol at 0–45° S from 30 September to 3 November 2004 have been measured by the high resolution infrared spectrometer ACE-FTS onboard the SCISAT satellite. Methanol volume mixing ratios higher than 4000 pptv are detected and are strongly correlated with other fire products such as CO, C2H6, and HCN. A sensitivity study of the methanol retrieval, accounting for random and systematic contributions, shows that the retrieved methanol profile is reliable from 8.5 to 16.5 km, with an accuracy of about 20% for measurements inside polluted air masses. The upper tropospheric enhancement ratio of methanol with respect to CO is estimated from the correlation plot between methanol and CO for aged tropical biomass burning plumes. This ratio is in good agreement with the ratio measured in the free troposphere (up to 12 km) by recent aircraft studies and does not suggest any secondary production of methanol by oxidation in aged biomass burning plumes