Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) : A new business model in the FTSE100

CC-BY-NC-NDThis paper is about the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) business model. REITs benefit from tax concessions and Fair Value Accounting (FVA) practices. REITs distributing over 90 percent of profits can obtain tax concessions for their shareholders. This encourages profit distribution at the expense of accumulating retained earnings in shareholder equity. The financial viability of REITs depends upon FVA because this records holding gains when property values are increased. These holding gains can be employed to generate additional financial leverage. However, REITs are exposed to property market volatility and this can quickly undermine solvency, credit ratings and financial stability.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Accounting for decarbonisation and reducing capital at risk in the S&P500

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Colin Haslam, Nick Tsitsianis, Glen Lehman, Tord Andersson, and John Malamatenios, ‘Accounting for decarbonisation and reducing capital at risk in the S&P500’, Accounting Forum, Vol. 42 91): 119-129, March 2018. Under embargo until 7 August 2019. The final, definitive version is available online at doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2018.01.004.This article accounts for carbon emissions in the S&P 500 and explores the extent to which capital is at risk from decarbonising value chains. At a global level it is proving difficult to decouple carbon emissions from GDP growth. Top-down legal and regulatory arrangements envisaged by the Kyoto Protocol are practically redundant given inconsistent political commitment to mitigating global climate change and promoting sustainability. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and European Commission (EC) are promoting the role of financial markets and financial institutions as drivers of behavioural change mobilising capital allocations to decarbonise corporate activity.Peer reviewe

General Motors: A financialized account of corporate behaviour 1909–1940

This paper constructs an alternative account of resource stewardship at General Motors (GM) during the period 1909–1940. Alfred Chandler employed GM in his text ‘Strategy and Structure’ to explain the development of the modern corporation. This understanding can be employed to contrast an ‘old-economy’ with a ‘new-economy’ financialized corporate business model. In this paper we find that many elements of the financialized firm were present in the early history of GM’s development. Our analysis reveals the financialization of a non-financial corporation and how this influenced corporate behaviour and impacted on financial performance at GM during the period 1909–1940

Selecting interventions to promote fruit and vegetable consumption: from policy to action, a planning framework case study in Western Australia

The Department of Health in Western Australia identified access to, and daily consumption of recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables, as priority health determinants. The numerous factors that influence supply and consumption of fruit and vegetables indicated that a comprehensive approach would be required. A government and non-government sector steering group was set up to select priority interventions using the National Public Health Partnership\u27s Framework for Implementing Public Health Strategies. This structured framework was used for developing strategies to improve fruit and vegetable consumption and supply, and to identify implementation priorities. After one year a desktop audit of progress on framework interventions was undertaken

Population differentiation of Southern Indian male lineages correlates with agricultural expansions predating the caste system

Christina J. Adler, Alan Cooper, Clio S.I. Der Sarkissian and Wolfgang Haak are contributors to the Genographic ConsortiumPrevious studies that pooled Indian populations from a wide variety of geographical locations, have obtained contradictory conclusions about the processes of the establishment of the Varna caste system and its genetic impact on the origins and demographic histories of Indian populations. To further investigate these questions we took advantage that both Y chromosome and caste designation are paternally inherited, and genotyped 1,680 Y chromosomes representing 12 tribal and 19 non-tribal (caste) endogamous populations from the predominantly Dravidian-speaking Tamil Nadu state in the southernmost part of India. Tribes and castes were both characterized by an overwhelming proportion of putatively Indian autochthonous Y-chromosomal haplogroups (H-M69, F-M89, R1a1-M17, L1-M27, R2-M124, and C5-M356; 81% combined) with a shared genetic heritage dating back to the late Pleistocene (10–30 Kya), suggesting that more recent Holocene migrations from western Eurasia contributed, <20% of the male lineages. We found strong evidence for genetic structure, associated primarily with the current mode of subsistence. Coalescence analysis suggested that the social stratification was established 4–6 Kya and there was little admixture during the last 3 Kya, implying a minimal genetic impact of the Varna(caste) system from the historically-documented Brahmin migrations into the area. In contrast, the overall Y-chromosomal patterns, the time depth of population diversifications and the period of differentiation were best explained by the emergence of agricultural technology in South Asia. These results highlight the utility of detailed local genetic studies within India, without prior assumptions about the importance of Varna rank status for population grouping, to obtain new insights into the relative influences of past demographic events for the population structure of the whole of modern India.GaneshPrasad ArunKumar, David F. Soria-Hernanz, Valampuri John Kavitha, Varatharajan Santhakumari Arun, Adhikarla Syama, Kumaran Samy Ashokan, Kavandanpatti Thangaraj Gandhirajan, Koothapuli Vijayakumar, Muthuswamy Narayanan, Mariakuttikan Jayalakshmi, Janet S. Ziegle, Ajay K. Royyuru, Laxmi Parida, R. Spencer Wells, Colin Renfrew, Theodore G. Schurr, Chris Tyler Smith, Daniel E. Platt, Ramasamy Pitchappan, The Genographic Consortiu

Accumulation under conditions of inequality

Copyright 2005 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.This paper presents a Keynesian analysis of accumulation under conditions of inequality in the UK and USA where household savings are channelled into corporate securities. This form of saving is dominated by the comfortable classes in upper income households whose behaviour indirectly encourages the UK and USA corporate sectors into merger and acquisition. A broader discussion of trajectory and results brings out the risk of instability in a coupon pool type of capitalism where the stock market operates like a giant Ponzi scheme. In the UK and US cases, the policy implication is that it is foolish to give the stock market a larger role in provision for retirement through schemes which encourage or enforce increased savings by lower income groups.Peer reviewe

Sinking ships? Liberal theorists on the American economy

Copyright 2004 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.In the Asia-Pacific region, the conditions and consequences of East Asian success have understandably attracted more attention than the causes and implications of North American failure. In the American case, any failure must be relative when the US remains a bloc-sized market and the only surviving superpower. Thus, for Asians the US figures economically as an export opportunity and socially, for puritans like Lee Kuan Yew, as a warning about decadence. The discussion among Americans is altogether more interesting. This article analyses the debate about national competitiveness among American liberal democrats like Magaziner, Reich, Tyson and Krugman and looks behind the differences of position that separate these protagonists, with two conclusions. First, as the old 1980s problem of national uncompetitiveness is jettisoned in the 1990s; all the liberals now agree that Americans are no longer in the same boat, that while some are becoming increasingly successful, others are sinking fast. Second; the protagonists have moved from an industrial policy fix in the 1980s to an end of policy era in the 1990s where the question for American liberals is whether and how the political system can absorb the stresses created by increasing inequality.Peer reviewe

From social settlement to household lottery

Copyright 2004 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.This article proposes a new approach to the problems of late capitalism, focused on circuits of production and consumption. It presents empirics on the growth of ser-vices in four advanced economies and examines the distributive implications in the UK. The argument is that, for the UK case, the changing composition of employment and the composition of demand feed into a vicious circle whereby the pattern of demand reinforces employment-generated inequalities. The political conclusion is that centre-left politics should be about breaking this vicious circle.Peer reviewe

Caterpillar : Two stories and an argument

Copyright 2004 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.This article responds to Miller and O'Leary's account of the reorganization of Caterpillar's Decatur plant. The first section explains how Miller and O'Leary use specific discourse mechanisms and quote management. The second section provides an alternative account which uses the empirics to question management. A short concluding argument discusses the implications for critical accounting research.Peer reviewe

British pharmaceuticals : a cautionary tale

Copyright 2004 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.British pharmaceuticals is generally represented as a successful sector which illustrates the potential of knowledge-intensive, high-value-added activities. this article presents a revisionist account based on evidence and argument. Pharmaceuticals is a small sector which combines high-value-added and average wages to benefit capital not labour. the knowledgebase in the laboratory creates imitative product with marketing then applied to capture social expenditure. when product-market growth slows, the sector restructures defensively without solving its problems.Peer reviewe