19366 research outputs found
Sort by
Does chairman education matter to accounting quality?
Get PDFWe examine how chairman education influences income-smoothing decision-making in Chinese firms, a context where chairmen hold the most power in their firms. We use a dataset of firms listed in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges during the 2001–2017 period and employ the fixed-effect model to account for firm heterogeneity, which may confound our estimation results. We find that chairmen with postgraduate degrees in business-related fields (e.g., business management, finance, accounting, or economics) tend to encourage income smoothing to improve earning informativeness, while those with undergraduate degrees and lower do not. Further analyses suggest that the chair's gender, the chair's compensation, and the presence of state ownership do not influence the newfound relationship. However, analyst coverage plays a role as the mitigating factor that reduces the positive impact of academic chairmen on income smoothing. The findings of this study imply that Chinese firms should require chairmen to have postgraduate qualifications or equivalents in business-related fields. Business schools should pay attention to accounting education to hone students' understanding of earning information. Our findings add new knowledge and emphasize the importance of higher education in forming corporate strategy and decision-making in the unique economy of China
Are the devitalisation requirements for imported cut flowers and foliage fit for purpose?
No full textDevitalisation of biological materials is used as a phytosanitary measure to reduce the risk of establishment of unwanted plants in the environment and eliminate the spread of pests and diseases from imported material. For cut flowers and foliage, the treatment aims to prevent germination, propagation or any form of further growth without physical damage. Glyphosate is the primary chemical used. However, there is little data showing that the herbicide-based treatments are suitable to achieve the goals of the protocols. Limited research exists on their effectiveness or the impact different herbicide formulations and treatment conditions might have on different plant species. No scientific information was found on aspects of health and safety of handlers and end-users. Furthermore, the literature reviewed revealed that the devitalising effect of glyphosate can be reversed. We conclude that the limited scientific basis for current devitalisation protocols using glyphosate, or other herbicides, means the devitalisation process is questionable in its ability to meet the stated aims. To justify the continued requirement for devitalisation an extensive research programme would be required to develop protocols, confirm the efficacy of procedures and provide evidence-based guidelines for the pre-import treatment of fresh cut flowers and foliag
Employers and education providers as sources of support for former refugee and migrant workers and students during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A social support analysis
No full textThe paper contributes to the literature on social support theory by considering the social support offered by employers and education providers to former refugee and migrant workers and students during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with 85 former refugees and migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand—74 of whom were engaged in work or study during the early phase of the pandemic—this study explores how employers and education providers responded to participants' needs during the public health crisis. The findings reveal that some employers and education providers engaged in various forms of instrumental, informational and emotional support. While participants were grateful for this support, its effectiveness was often limited because it failed to take into account workers' and students' specific needs, or the structural constraints they faced. This qualitative study highlights the importance of tailoring social support to the social realities of former refugee and migrant communities, and of situating their experiences within broader structural and institutional contexts
Co-designing a water policy in a decolonization process Insights from a research program integrating Kanak ontologies in New Caledonia
No full textNew Caledonia is in a process of negotiated decolonization as set out in the Nouméa Agreement in 1998. The Nouméa Agreement decreed and organized the "decolonization" of the archipelago through, the progressive transfer of the French State's powers to New Caledonia, the organization of a first referendum on self-determination in 2018. In this context, water governance in New Caledonia is the result of a particular institutional organization: under the article 44 of the Organic Law of 1999, amended in 2009, the public river domain excludes customary lands. These lands represent 27% of New Caledonia's surface area and 52% of drinking water catchments. On these lands, chiefdoms and clans exercise sovereignty over water and natural resources.
Even if water is not a scarce resource in New Caledonia, tensions are beginning to appear especially around "sacred" water on customary lands, around the payment of water bills and over-consumption of drinking water and around pollution (mining, agricultural and domestic pollution). Thus, at the beginning of 2018, only a few months before the first referendum on full sovereignty, the Government of New Caledonia launched the construction of the country's first water policy. Only a few months later, after a broad consultation that involved about 1 out of 600 New Caledonians, the government adopted a detailed policy strategy and an action-planning document with nearly 700 actions. Led by the Minister of Agriculture (non-independent) and the Minister of Customary Affairs (independent), this policy is now called the Shared Water Policy.
In this context, a research program was funded by Cresica (Consortium for the research higher education and innovation in New Caledonia) to analyze the representation, the values and practices associated with water on customary lands so as to support innovative management rules and modes of governance, co-constructed with indigenous and local stakeholders on the basis of this knowledge.
The presentation is motivated by the aspiration to share the results of this research program. It presents the original participatory process used to build the Shared Water Policy. It focuses in particular on the process, methodology and tools used to support policy design. It shows how the indigenous water representations and ontologies were or could be integrated in the new water policy and actions plans such as the limitations of this process in terms of including customary values and norm
Kai Whakakitenganui o Te Whakatōhea : Whenua planning for kai security
No full textPresentation made at 2025 NZILA Firth Wānanga
Integrated economic valuation of braided river management in New Zealand
Get PDFThe Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit at Lincoln University, in collaboration with Lincoln Agritech Ltd and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, with support of the Science Team and Stakeholders Group of the Subsurface Processes in Braided Rivers Endeavour research programme, have conducted an economic valuation exercise of braided river management options for the Wairau river in Marlborough and the Ngaruroro river in the Hawkes Bay.
• The valuation exercise comprised two workstreams, one on market value effects, and the other on non-market value effects focused on public preferences for environmental outcomes.
• Valuation was based on management scenarios developed with regional councils in case study regions and described changes in riverbed depth and changes braidplain width.
• The approach to valuing market values involved an analysis of:
o Ongoing gravel extraction at the river
o One-off gravel extraction at the river (as the river is widened)
o Construction and moving of stop banks along river corridor
o Surrender of land in proposed widening stretch
o Potential for inundation in low-lying land around the study reach
o Change in potential water for irrigation in areas supplied by the river
• The economic non-market valuation method of Choice Experiments was used to value changes in:
o Ecological quality,
o Native and sports fish habitat
o Bird habitat quality
Market Impacts Valuation Component
o Bed raising scenarios implied a cessation of gravel extraction for between 25-80 years depending on the scenarios, while bed lowering implied increased extraction for between 25-40 years. The bed raising scenarios were also expected to cause inundation of some river-adjacent productive lands. The Costing of stopbank raising in the study reaches for maintaining current levels of flood protection were also considered.
o Widening scenarios involved costing the purchase of impacted land alongside the study reaches as well as the costs of moving and creating additional stopbanks where necessary in the study reaches. One-off amounts of gravel extraction from the previous areas of berm were also valued.
o Negative impacts on reliability of irrigation for irrigators linked to the river were considered for the bed lowering scenarios. These impacts were considered in the metric of probability of days on restriction by month, informed by a hypothetical groundwater level threshold.
o Bed raising and widening scenarios were expected to have beneficial or neutral impacts on irrigation. No additional potential for new irrigation takes were considered.
Non-market Environmental Valuation Component
o This report details the development and application of the Choice Experiment used to identify and measure public preferences for changes in braided river ecology in the case study rivers. The Choice Experiment method was the primary tool employed to determine, in economic terms, the value of some of the non-market ecological outcomes associated with changes in braidplain width, and riverbed elevation, in case study reaches of the Ngaruroro and Wairau rivers.
o Preferences identified from the Choice Experiment were combined with quantification of the biophysical impacts of management scenarios assessed using a Delphi survey process with NIWA freshwater ecologists.
o The Choice Experiment applied to resident’s river management preferences involved presenting respondents with a set of hypothetical scenarios, each containing different combinations of river management alternatives, costs, and outcomes. Participants are asked to choose their preferred option in each scenario, allowing researchers to analyse the trade-offs and preferences respondents make regarding river ecology management, and cost implications.
o The Choice Experiment attributes were determined from a Delphi questionnaire process with freshwater ecologists from NIWA and case study site Regional Councils based on braidplain width and riverbed elevation change scenarios. In the Delphi questionnaire, participants were asked for their expert opinion on how changes in the width and bed-level of the two case study river reaches (depicted in an online story board and information pack) related to changes in:
▪ Benthic ecology (periphyton and invertebrates)
▪ Native fish
▪ Sport fish
▪ Freshwater birds
▪ Terrestrial invertebrates
o For each scenario and outcome, respondents indicated whether they thought that the outcome would either decrease, be the same, or increase. Three areas of impact or probable quality benefits were identified as the ‘outcome attributes’ of river management that would be relevant in the context of a national level survey. Summarising the Delphi findings these are:
Ecological Quality: Deeper channels are more likely to be associated with decreases in ecological quality. Shallower channels are more likely to be associated with increases in ecological quality. Wider braidplains are more likely to be associated with increases in ecological quality.
Fish habitat: Shallower channels are more likely to be associated with increases in habitat more suited to native fish. Wider braidplains are more likely to be associated with increases in habitat more suited to native fish. Deeper channels are more likely to be associated with increases in habitat more suited to sports fish.
Bird habitat: Shallower channels are more likely to be associated with increases in the quality of bird habitat. Wider braidplains are more likely to be associated with increases in the quality of bird habitat.
o Based on Delphi results, and Cognitive Interviews with members of the public, the management attributes selected for inclusion in the Choice Experiment were:
▪ The percentage of river with Poor/Fair/Good ecological quality.
▪ The percentage of river habitat favouring Sport/Native fish.
▪ The percentage of river with Poor/Fair/Good habitat for birds.
▪ A yearly cost to for river management activities.
o A Latent Class Model was estimated to analyse respondent choices and to estimate the value of management outcomes to members of the public. We calculated the regional level non-market value of changes in the quality of river ecology, bird habitat, and fish habitat to members in the public resultant from river management options.
Net Present Values associated with River Management Scenarios
o The results from the valuation exercise for the Ngaruroro indicate that the bed raising scenarios will overall have market costs but larger non-market benefits. The widening scenarios are expected to have overall benefits, both market and non-market. The bed lowering scenario in the Ngaruroro has a negative outcome on environmental values as well as very high market costs (primarily driven by the impact on irrigation in the region).
o Results from the valuation exercise for the Wairau indicate that the bed raising scenario implies positive environmental benefits but is a net cost when including the market costs (largely associated with stopbank management). Although potential benefits for reliability of supply for irrigators and enhanced spring flows were not considered. While the bed lowering scenario has both negative environmental impacts and high net market costs. Both widening scenarios for the Wairau are associated with positive values across the market and non-market valuations, albeit with the maximum widening scenario implying net market costs as the benefits from additional gravel extraction are outweighed by the costs of land and stopbank management
Negotiated access: Alluvial gold mining, territory, and mobility in the Peruvian Amazon
No full textHow, why, under what conditions, and with what effects do people move across space in relation to mining? How can a focus on spatial mobility contribute new insights into the relations between mineral extraction and social change? Participants in this roundtable session, many of whom contributed to the recently published edited collection Mining, Mobility, and Social Change in the Global South (Routledge, 2024), will address these questions through discussions of and comparisons between case studies in Melanesia and the Andean region. Cases to be discussed in the session involve both large- and small-scale mining as well as Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Participants’ discussions of these cases will address issue such as the historical-geographical factors shaping mining-related mobilities in the two regions, the meanings people attach to their movements, and the relations between people’s mobility practic es and the flows of other things put in motion by mining, such as capital, ideas, technologies, and toxic contamination. The session’s overall aim will be to develop fresh ideas on how comparative studies on Latin America and Oceania can advance understandings of the social geographies and spatial politics of mining
Numerical investigations of WSDEs in chemical transformations
No full textWe develop numerically approximate solutions of WSDEs in this chapter. We follow the theoretical framework briefly presented in Chap. 5 and extend it to the applications in chemical reactions in noisy systems. We study several WSDEs which model different reactions often with multiplicative noise. The Mathematica® codes for the solutions are given in the appendices
The efficiency of corporate R&D investments: Information‐sharing and government subsidies
No full textWe compare the impact of broad-based equity incentivesand government R&D subsidies on the efficiency of corpo-rate innovation. Chinese corporations that offer broad-based incentives for employees and managers demonstrategreater R&D investment efficiency, as evidenced by a higherratio of innovation outputs to cost allocation. Conversely,firms receiving government R&D subsidies demonstratelower efficiency. Accounting for endogenous treatments ina multi-treatment framework, we suggest an information-sharing environment is critical for efficient capital allocation.Government agencies will likely provide subsidies based oninformation different from what firm headquarters mighthave, while broad-based incentive programs encourageemployee coordination, enhancing efficiency and projectquality. To signal project quality, firms with broad-basedincentives capitalize a higher proportion of R&D costs thansubsidized firms. We also find that combining broad-basedincentives and subsidies might not create synergies
Out of sync: transforming environmental monitoring through indigenous perspectives of time
No full textEnvironmental monitoring is crucial for adaptive resource management and is rooted in the idea that effective management requires accurate measurement. Broadening this view, recognition of the importance of engaging local communities and embracing diverse perspectives has led to a growing call to incorporate Indigenous knowledge into environmental monitoring. Cultural or biocultural monitoring, which integrates Indigenous knowledge and practices, aims to rejuvenate cultural traditions and improve environmental decision‐making, but its full potential is often limited by dominant data‐centric temporalities in monitoring policies and structures. We contend that an understanding of the temporal element of human–nature relationships is critical for effective biocultural stewardship. This manuscript explores how reshaping environmental monitoring to align with Indigenous temporal perspectives, using Aotearoa New Zealand as a case study, could lead to more holistic and inclusive environmental monitoring. Through an exploration of relevant literature and semi‐structured interviews with leading Māori practitioners, we identify the temporal elements of cultural monitoring of streams and rivers. Māori perspectives of time are relational, which means they are inseparable from place and bound to both culture and the environment. This in turn influences the when, why, where, and how of cultural monitoring, which is event‐based, intergenerational, responsive to nature's calendar, and focused on building cultural resilience. Environmental monitoring could be more inclusive of Indigenous temporal ontologies by addressing three key elements, including increased temporal flexibility to account for local social‐cultural‐ecological calendars; adopting long‐term commitments to, and funding for, Indigenous communities to engage in environmental monitoring and decision‐making; and supporting holistic assessment including “other ways of knowing” and technologies that help characterize and support human–nature relationships in place. These insights highlight the need for a shift toward systems‐based approaches that recognize the dynamic relationships among humans, other‐than‐humans, and habitats, and foster community well‐being through environmental monitoring