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This paper evaluates an editorial and seven invaluable and interesting review papers for the Journal of Risk and Financial Management (JRFM). The topics covered include the rising complexity of bank regulatory capital requirements from global guidelines to their United States (US) implementation, connections among big data, computational science, economics, finance, marketing, management and psychology, factors, outcome, and the solutions of supply chain finance, with a review and future directions, time-varying price-volume relationship, adaptive market efficiency, and a survey of the empirical literature, improved covariance matrix estimation for portfolio risk measurement, stock investment and excess returns, with a critical review in the light of the efficient market hypothesis, and a cross section analysis of country equity returns, and a review of the empirical literature.

From 1955 through 1974, the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firm of Haskins & Sells published a series of annual volumes, entitled Selected Papers, which highlighted the publications and speeches of the firm’s partners and staff. Over the 20 volumes, a total of 724 articles and speeches were shared with national and international audiences through this publication outlet. The publication of the volumes served to provide evidence of the thoughts of the firm’s leadership and served as a form of outreach, providing the community with information about the firm’s positions on accounting and auditing principles, as well as views on problems facing the accounting profession in the USA. Alternatively, the firm also benefited in that the volumes could be considered an indirect form of advertising in the era before advertising was permitted for CPAs. Authors included the firm’s managing partners, John Queenan (the most prolific contributor), Arthur B. Foye, and Michael Chetkovich. Practice office partner...

The popular belief is that environmental regulation must reduce employment, since suchregulations are expected to increase production costs, which would raise prices and thus reducedemand for output, at least in a competitive market. Although this effect might seem obvious, a careful microeconomic analysis shows that it is not guaranteed. Even if environmental regulation reduces output in the regulated industry, abating pollution could require additional labor (e.g. to monitor the abatement capital and meet EPA reporting requirements). It is also possible for pollution abatement technologies to be labor enhancing. In this paper we analyze how a particular EPA regulation, the so-called “Cluster Rule” (CR) imposed on the pulp and paper industry in 2001, affected employment in that sector. Using establishment level data from the Census of Manufacturers and Annual Survey of Manufacturers at the U.S. Census Bureau from 1992-2007 we find evidence of small employment declines (on the order of 3%-7%), which are sometimes statistically significant, at a subset of the plants covered by the CR.

This paper studies how the congestion of its editorial process affects an academic journal. In a publishing game played by researchers and editors, we assume that quality screening by editors depends on their ability to properly process the flow of submissions. When too many papers arrive, this ability declines and editors may reject good papers or accept papers with little contribution to scientific knowledge. In this game, a separating equilibrium always exists in which only good researchers submit their papers to the journal. Each paper is accepted and the quality of the journal reaches its highest level. However, when the researchers’ reward for each publication exceeds a given threshold, two hybrid equilibria are also feasible. In these equilibria, authors of low-quality papers submit their papers to the journal and, as the flow of papers exceeds the editors’ capacity of perfect assessment, the selection process becomes imperfect. This creates an opportunity for authors to submit poor quality papers, a behaviour which contributes to the congestion of the editorial process. The various strategies implemented by the editors to oppose congestion are then discussed.

Path dependence is a promising and increasingly popular perspective for analysing long-term historical developments in firms, industries or referring to other units of analysis. A central assumptio...

Following the establishment of the inaugural International Journal of the Economics of Business Best Paper Prize in 2009, we are delighted to announce the second winning paper. The paper that the E...

Although there is often a difference between the architectural understanding of forms and their social and value-related perception (Malhis, 2008), elements of architectural value are often divided into economic or cultural concerns. Architecture's true value, however, may be found at the resolution of this dichotomy although it can be argued it is not straightforward to isolate and measure the true value of architecture. This discussion paper suggests that whilst many of the concerns highlighted appear in conflict, they are in fact reciprocal in nature with both causes being advanced through the efficiencies of architectural design. One viewpoint is that economic value perhaps should not be a topic of infrequent discussion, but rather it should be raised from time to time within the context of the broader market within which architecture is positioned. Even this viewpoint is subject to conjecture for some. This discussion paper places the focus on the importance and relevance of value from an ar...

This article presents an approach for assessing turnaround opportunities that includes both pre- and post-turnaround valuation considerations, as well as exit planning. The approach is illustrated by way of the Scott Paper Company turnaround. In April of 1994, Scott appointed “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap as Chairman and CEO with a mandate to turn the firm’s poor performance around. Slightly more than one year into the turnaround, Scott’s value increased from approximately $2.8 billion to approximately $9.4 billion (Kimberly-Clark’s acquisition price). We show how Scott qualified as a turnaround opportunity before Dunlap’s appointment, and how a conservative exit plan could have been formulated following his appointment. Conservative exit planning mitigates execution risk, which could manifest in a variety of ways, as we discuss. The approach presented in this article could be significant from a private equity perspective because, according to some observers, there is a scarcity of professionals skilled in turnaround analysis and management. If that observation is correct, turnaroundrelated opportunities could emerge if current economic risks manifest and corporate returns decline.