LOBBYING – A FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE

U.S. based bank holding companies (BHCs) exert influence at every step in the legislative process where financial regulatory reforms are enacted into law, such as the Dodd-Frank Act, to promulgation of regulations. In Chapter II, we maintain that BHCs, upon facing salient regulation, lobby regulators to have their opinions heard with the goal of favorable regulatory change and to increase non-traditional revenues. We undertook a novel collection of political and financial data from 2003 to 2018, matching 180 pairs of parsed proposed and final regulations. BHCs that participated in commenting on proposed rules are highly successful at having their views noted in the final regulation, and other forms of lobbying increased this success. We fill an instrumental gap in financial literature, as we confirm that BHCs may well lobby regulators to preserve gains in all important, yet risky revenues. In Chapter III, we ask how these non-traditional revenues and separately, systemic risk, impact BHC value and share price volatility. Surprisingly few scholars have explored the effect of revenues or systemic risk upon BHC value. An increase in the use of aggregate non-tradtional revenues or an increase of systemic risk, using Marginal Expected Shortfall, led to a decline in value of the BHC. It further led to a sharp increase share price volatility, illustrating a process of negative feedback loops. Lastly, in Chapter IV, it is demonstrated that the U.S. Congress struggles in lifting the statutory debt limit in a timely manner, while tied to appropriations legislation. We maintain that Google Trends Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) and Interest Group Competition/conflict take a toll on U.S. Treasury Bill Yield Spread during contentious debt ceiling crises. We did so by employing auto-regressive distributed lag model on a novel collection of financial and political time series data from 2010 to 2016, at daily intervals. Our EPU proxy and Interest iv Group Competition/Conflict led to a decrease in Treasury Yield Spreads and increased excess borrowing costs owed by the U.S. Treasury, due in part to the default premium. By examining all three chapters, we touch on the good, the bad, and the ugly of lobbying and political influence in finance

Antecedents, characteristics, and consequences associated with the roles of management accountants, and assisting managers in their roles

The literature on the roles of management accountants (MAs) indicates a poor understanding of these roles. There is limited, and fragmented evidence of the factors shaping these roles, contradictory findings on MAs providing meaningful information, and on adopting the model of the ‗business partner‘. There is a dearth of research on the consequences of these roles. Some of the literature is of a normative, professional bent and lacks theoretical import. From a theoretical perspective, this study employs the theories of management control, contingency, and role theory as devices through which to understand these roles. The aim of the study is to investigate the antecedents, characteristics, and consequences associated with the roles of MAs, and to analyse the extent that antecedents and characteristics associated with the roles of MAs have consequences for assisting operating managers (OMs) in the performance of their roles. The setting for the study is medium and large manufacturing firms. The first phase of data collection involved an inductive set of interviews with 18 finance managers (FMs) and 18 OMs. The second phase of data collection involved an in-depth investigation of 12 MAs as ‗cases‘ linked to specific OMs, drawing on 36 interviews and the analysis of over 50 management accounting reports. The phase one findings provide evidence of a range of antecedents, characteristics, and consequences associated with the roles of MAs. The antecedents of management and the individual MAs themselves emerge as strong influences on the roles of MAs. MAs are perceived as requiring a range of skills, as being involved in a broad set of activities, and as playing an important role in information provision and analysis. The consequences of the roles of MAs show that interaction between MAs and OMs can lead to positive outcomes for performance, information, and for functional relationships, but a number of uncertainties and conflicts are associated with this. Collectively, these findings identify a number of challenges facing the MA in providing support to OMs. In phase two, the analysis of the control and decision support expectations of each OM, with respect to the MA linked to that OM, identifies the extent that MAs assist OMs in relation to performance impact, information provision, and their interaction. The findings link specific characteristics of MAs (e.g., routine and non-routine reports, individual traits) and antecedents (e.g., OMs‘ expectations, head office, regulation, FMs, OM‘s understanding of MAs) with the extent that MAs assist OMs in their roles. The study adds to the existing literature on the roles of MAs in a number of ways. The study provides a comprehensive picture of the antecedents, characteristics, and consequences associated with the roles of MAs. Through the management control theoretical lens, the findings indicate that more involvement of MAs with OMs may lead to more effective control in particular contexts, and highlights the extent that control reports are useful, and how they are used. A number of contingencies are identified that relate antecedents of the roles to assisting OMs in their roles. The use of the role theory lens in analysing the extent that MAs are not meeting OMs‘ expectations has helped explain contradictions in the literature, and identifies role conflicts and ambiguities for MAs that are new to the literature. The study extends the ‗business partner‘ and ‗bean counter‘ dichotomy to include two additional depictions of the roles of MAs. The research design makes a contribution in its use of qualitative enquiry, a two-phase approach, the inclusion of OMs as well as MAs, the adaption of role theory methodology, and in the analysis of qualitative data. The study is novel in its employment of three theoretical lenses. The study contributes to practice, and theory on the roles of MAs, in showing that MAs moving to the model of the business partner is one that is not straightforward, but one that has conditions, ambiguities, and conflicts associated with it

Aspect Identification and Sentiment Analysis in Text-Based Reviews

Online text-based reviews are often associated with only an aggregate numeric rating that does not account for nuances in the sentiment towards specific aspects of the review\u27s subject. This thesis explores the problem of determining review scores for specific aspects of a review\u27s subject. Specifically, we examine two important subtasks - aspect identification (identifying specific words and phrases that refer to aspects of the review subject) and aspect-based sentiment analysis (determining the sentiment of each aspect). We examine two different models, conditional random fields and an association mining algorithm, for performing aspect identification. We also develop a method for performing aspect-based sentiment analysis based on VADER, a sentence-level sentiment analysis algorithm built for sentiment analysis of social media. We identify key problem considerations, including other important subtasks and ideal training dataset qualities, for future development of a full aspect-based review system

Debate: Millennials don\u27t stand a chance Devised, documentary and immersive theatre: The Story of EveryMillennial

This thesis aims to discover how communitas can be created through theatrical performances by blurring the line between audience and performer as well as performer and character. The topic of the Millennial generation is used as a thematic element in performance to emphasize the creation of community. A theatrical form will be introduced, called the “Living Biography:” a method of devising based on devising, documentary, and immersive theatre. This form will be shown as one possible option in creating communitas in a performance. While other forms of audience inclusion are frequently used, it will be argued that the “Living Biography” approach is also a strong mean to create a community. Work by The Civilians, Anne Deveare Smith and Tectonic Theatre Project will be referenced influencing the concept of this thesis as well as informing the production qualities. This thesis will also argue that creating community in and of the performers themselves also greatly serves and is necessary to create communitas in a performance. The devising process will be heavily referenced throughout the thesis and detailed so that an understanding of the process is clear to the readers. A definition of Millennials will be given along with interviews conducted and remarks from the thesis ensemble

Cubismo Social: Seis Fuerzas Sociales Sobre Politicas En Irlanda Del Norte Y Quebec

Los estudios de poliftica ethnoterritorial tipicamente examinan estructuras polfticas y econ6micas para acentuar los intereses que compiten de grupos, o usar una aproximaci6n psicoanalftica de acentuar fuerzas psicol6gicas y culturales

Social Cubism: Six Social Forces Of Ethnopolitical Conflict In Northern Ireland And Quebec

Studies of ethnoterritorial politics typically either examine political and economic structures to emphasize the competing interests of groups…

Proceed with caution: Research production and uptake in conflict-affected countries

The effectiveness of (neo)liberal intervention in conflict zones remains ambiguous, with supportive and critical camps of scholars and practitioners embracing disparate viewpoints that are each propped up by rigorous empirical analysis. The consequences of this empirical ambiguity have deeply permeated international intervention organisations, who use these unsettled findings for decision- and policy-making. This article argues that the promotion of disparate intervention methodologies is entirely predictable given the existence of contested relationships between prominent underlying themes to the debates around peacebuilding and development intervention: globalisation, development aid, inequality, and poverty, and their roles in inciting or preventing violence. These contested relationships justify the cautious selection and interpretation of research findings by decision- and policy-makers. The concluding discussions explore the impact of biased research production and uptake processes that bolster self-interested intervention practices and outline several recommendations for better aligning evidence-based decision- and policy-making with the needs of conflict-affected populations.</jats:p

Civil Society Leaders’ Experiences of Peacebuilding in Londonderry/Derry City, Northern Ireland: Transforming Cultural and Psychological Barriers

This article reviews the empirical data the second author collected from 120 semi-structured interviews with the leaders of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and funding agency development officers conducted during the summer of 2010 in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties. The research explores 44 Derry City respondents\u27 experiences and perceptions regarding external economic aid in the Northern Ireland peace process. To this end, this article explores the role of economic aid from the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) and the European Union (EU) Peace and Reconciliation or Peace 3 Fund in engaging with civil society in transforming psychological and cultural barriers towards building sustainable peace in Londonderry or Derry City. Themes emerged inductively from data. It includes the CSO leaders\u27 and funding agency development officers\u27 perspectives on building peace and both funds\u27 impact on the Northern Ireland peacebuilding process. CSO leaders and funding agency development officers acknowledge the importance of external economic assistance support in development and forging cross-community contact projects. The interviewees also highlighted issues related to political participation, community competitiveness, and psychological barriers that emerge from CSOs working with both programs. Some of the conclusions are related to broadened peace process interventions to a multi-articulated approach that includes different areas of peacebuilding intervention