29,692 research outputs found
Who gains when workers train? Training and corporate productivity in a panel of British industries
There is a vast empirical literature of the effects of training on wages that are taken as
an indirect measure of productivity. This paper is part of a smaller literature on the
effects of training on direct measures of industrial productivity. We analyse a panel of
British industries between 1983 and 1996. Training information (and other individual
productivity indicators such as education and experience) is derived from a question that
has been asked consistently over time in the Labour Force Survey. This is combined
with complementary industry-level data sources on value added, wages, labour and
capital. We use a variety of panel data techniques (including system GMM) to argue that
training significantly boosts productivity. The existing literature has underestimated the
full effects of training for two reasons. First, it has tended to treat training as exogenous
whereas in reality firms may choose to re-allocate workers to training when demand (and
therefore productivity) is low. Secondly, our estimates of the effects of training on wages
are about half the size of the effects on industrial productivity. It is misleading to ignore
the pay-off firms take in higher profits from training. The effects are economically large.
For example, raising the proportion of workers trained in an industry by 5 percentage
points (say from the average of 10% to 15%) is associated with a 4 per cent increase in
value added per worker and a 1.6 per cent increase in wages
The Interrelation between Audit Quality and Managerial Reporting Choices and Its Effects on Financial Reporting Quality
Two distinct lines of research have been dedicated to empirically testing how financial reporting quality (measured as the earnings response coefficient or ERC) is associated with management's choice of reporting bias and with audit quality. However, researchers have yet to consider how ERCs are affected by either the auditor's reaction to changes in the manager's reporting bias or the manager's reaction to changes in audit quality. Our study provides theoretical guidance on these interrelations and how changes in the manager's or the auditor's incentives affect both reporting bias and audit quality. Specifically, when the manager's cost (benefit) of reporting bias increases (decreases), we find that expected bias decreases, inducing the auditor to react by reducing audit quality. Because we also find that the association between expected audit quality and ERCs is always positive, changes in managerial incentives for biased reporting lead to a positive association between ERCs and expected reporting bias. When the cost of auditing decreases or the cost of auditor liability increases, we find that expected audit quality increases, inducing the manager to react by decreasing reporting bias. In this case, changes in the costs of audit quality lead to a negative association between ERCs and expected reporting bias. Finally, we demonstrate the impact of our theoretical findings by focusing on the empirical observations documented in the extant literature on managerial ownership and accounting expertise on the audit committee. In light of our framework, we provide new interpretations of these empirical observations and new predictions for future research
Golan v. Holder: Copyright in the Image of the First Amendment
Does copyright violate the First Amendment? Professor Melville Nimmer asked this question forty years ago, and then answered it by concluding that copyright itself is affirmatively speech protective. Despite ample reason to doubt Nimmerâs response, the Supreme Court has avoided an independent, thoughtful, plenary review of the question. Copyright has come to enjoy an all-but-categorical immunity to First Amendment constraints. Now, however, the Court faces a new challenge to its back-of-the-hand treatment of this vital conflict. In Golan v. Holder the Tenth Circuit considered legislation (enacted pursuant to the Berne Convention and TRIPS) ârestoringâ copyright protection to millions of foreign works previously thought to belong to the public domain. The Tenth Circuit upheld the legislation, but not without noting that it appeared to raise important First Amendment concerns. The Supreme Court granted certiorari. This article addresses the issues in the Golan case, literally on the eve of oral argument before the Court. This article first considers the Copyright and Treaty Clauses, and then addresses the relationship between copyright and the First Amendment. The discussion endorses an understanding of that relationship in which the Amendment is newly seen as paramount, and copyright is newly seen in the image of the Amendment
The Effects of Auditor Tenure on Fraud and Its Detection
We examine the strategic effects of auditor tenure on the auditor's testing strategy and the manager's inclination to commit fraud. Most empirical studies conclude that longer tenure improves audit quality. Proponents of restricting tenure argue that longer tenure impairs auditor independence and a "fresh look" from a new auditor results in higher audit quality. Validating this argument requires testing whether the observed difference in audit quality between a continuing auditor and a change in auditors is less than the theoretically expected difference in audit quality without impairment. Our findings provide the guidance necessary for developing such tests. Our results show that audit risk (the probability that fraud exists and goes undetected) is lower in both periods for the continuing auditor than with a change in auditors. More importantly, we show that across both periods, expected undetected fraud is lower for the continuing auditor than with a change in auditors
Asymptotically Universal Crossover in Perturbation Theory with a Field Cutoff
We discuss the crossover between the small and large field cutoff (denoted
x_{max}) limits of the perturbative coefficients for a simple integral and the
anharmonic oscillator. We show that in the limit where the order k of the
perturbative coefficient a_k(x_{max}) becomes large and for x_{max} in the
crossover region, a_k(x_{max}) is proportional to the integral from -infinity
to x_{max} of e^{-A(x-x_0(k))^2}dx. The constant A and the function x_0(k) are
determined empirically and compared with exact (for the integral) and
approximate (for the anharmonic oscillator) calculations. We discuss how this
approach could be relevant for the question of interpolation between
renormalization group fixed points.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figs., improved and expanded version of hep-th/050304
Long-Time Dynamics of Variable Coefficient mKdV Solitary Waves
We study the Korteweg-de Vries-type equation dt u=-dx(dx^2 u+f(u)-B(t,x)u),
where B is a small and bounded, slowly varying function and f is a
nonlinearity. Many variable coefficient KdV-type equations can be rescaled into
this equation. We study the long time behaviour of solutions with initial
conditions close to a stable, B=0 solitary wave. We prove that for long time
intervals, such solutions have the form of the solitary wave, whose centre and
scale evolve according to a certain dynamical law involving the function
B(t,x), plus an H^1-small fluctuation.Comment: 19 page
The VLSI design of a single chip Reed-Solomon encoder
A design for a single chip implementation of a Reed-Solomon encoder is presented. The architecture that leads to this single VLSI chip design makes use of a bit serial finite field multiplication algorithm
USB environment measurements based on full-scale static engine ground tests
Flow turning parameters, static pressures, surface temperatures, surface fluctuating pressures and acceleration levels were measured in the environment of a full-scale upper surface blowing (USB) propulsive lift test configuration. The test components included a flightworthy CF6-50D engine, nacelle, and USB flap assembly utilized in conjunction with ground verification testing of the USAF YC-14 Advanced Medium STOL Transport propulsion system. Results, based on a preliminary analysis of the data, generally show reasonable agreement with predicted levels based on model data. However, additional detailed analysis is required to confirm the preliminary evaluation, to help delineate certain discrepancies with model data, and to establish a basis for future flight test comparisons
On the VLSI design of a pipeline Reed-Solomon decoder using systolic arrays
A new very large scale integration (VLSI) design of a pipeline Reed-Solomon decoder is presented. The transform decoding technique used in a previous article is replaced by a time domain algorithm through a detailed comparison of their VLSI implementations. A new architecture that implements the time domain algorithm permits efficient pipeline processing with reduced circuitry. Erasure correction capability is also incorporated with little additional complexity. By using a multiplexing technique, a new implementation of Euclid's algorithm maintains the throughput rate with less circuitry. Such improvements result in both enhanced capability and significant reduction in silicon area
Probability distributions of smeared quantum stress tensors
We obtain in closed form the probability distribution for individual
measurements of the stress-energy tensor of two-dimensional conformal field
theory in the vacuum state, smeared in time against a Gaussian test function.
The result is a shifted Gamma distribution with the shift given by the
previously known optimal quantum inequality bound. For small values of the
central charge it is overwhelmingly likely that individual measurements of the
sampled energy density in the vacuum give negative results. For the case of a
single massless scalar field, the probability of finding a negative value is
84%. We also report on computations for four-dimensional massless scalar fields
showing that the probability distribution of the smeared square field is also a
shifted Gamma distribution, but that the distribution of the energy density is
not.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Minor edits implemente
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