This study considers the overall implications of changes in employment patterns for the nature of the jobs in which people are employed and for job quality, in particular for the EU member states over the period 1995-2005. Jobs, defined as a particular occupation in a particular industry, are ranked according to their relative wage or their relative skill intensity. Given that these job rankings are relatively stable over time, we examine whether job expansion mainly took place for jobs in the lower or upper part of the ranking. Overall, the results suggest an increase in job quality in most of the countries included; in particular, the hypothesis of 'job polarization' could not be supported. The study further includes an analysis of differences with respect to job quality and changes in job quality for a number of other dimensions, such as gender, age, part-time working, fix-term contracts, etc.
AbstractBahnson, Miller, and Budge (1996) and Krishnan and Largay (2000) discovered differences between net operating cash flow (OCF) as estimated by prior studies and cash flow from operating activities (CFFO) as reported on the cash flow statement. Our study examines whether these differences could impact the results from financial distress models and explains why prior financial distress research generally found that OCF provided little useful incremental information in explaining financial distress. In our study, OCF does not add significant explanatory power to distress models. In contrast, the operating cash flow variable taken directly from the cash flow statement, CFFO, adds significant explanatory power beyond accrual accounting variables and even beyond OCF. We then conduct analyses to help explain these results. Similar to Bahnson et al. and Krishnan and Largay, we find significant differences between OCF and CFFO. We also find that the differences are significantly different between the distressed and nondistressed groups of firms. Although the differences between CFFO and OCF are significant for both distressed and nondistressed groups, OCF tends to be overstated in greater magnitudes for the distressed firms than for the nondistressed firms. However, OCF is as likely to be overstated as understated for the nondistressed firms. Previous financial distress research studies estimated net operating cash flow variables similar to OCF. Our findings may explain why these studies generally concluded that operating cash flow did not contain incremental explanatory content above accrual information.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">This study explores the issue of loan officers’ confidence in making loan approval decisions across different loan monitoring types. Loan officers were asked to assign loan approval probabilities given a traditional loan monitoring capability or a continuous reporting capability. We find that the higher the level of confidence the loan officer had in his/her loan approval decision, the higher the loan approval probability assigned to the loan application.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, that effect was not consistent across monitoring types (traditional vs. continuous reporting). Our results suggest that loan officer confidence only impacts the loan approval probabilities for the traditional monitoring cases. Confidence did not significantly influence loan approval probabilities for the continuous reporting cases; although, the loan approval probabilities for the continuous reporting, low confidence cases exceeded 50 percent. <strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></strong></span></p>
A 67-year-old man was status post-pelvic lymphadenectomy and insertion of I-125 seeds for adenocarcinoma of the prostate. He was also status post-radical nephrectomy for transitional cell carcinoma 20 years prior. A bone scan was obtained to rule out metastatic disease.
Summary · Grouping the regions of the EU-15 and the new member states (NMS, including Bulgaria and Romania) into five clusters according to the relative importance of broad sectors of activity reveals marked differences in the regional economic structure and development. · In capital cities throughout the EU, GDP per head is significantly higher than in other regions. Regional disparities in GDP per head have widened markedly in the NMS in recent years, though not in the EU-15. · There is no close association across regions between GDP per head and the employment rate, though the capital cities have higher employment than the national average in all countries, while the lowest employment rates are in the basic service regions in both the NMS and the EU-15. The highest employment rate in Poland and Romania is in the agricultural regions; this reflects the large numbers unable to find work elsewhere who make a living from subsistence farming. · Over recent years, however, the employment rate in NMS agricultural regions has fallen more than in other parts; the employment rate in capital cities has fallen less than elsewhere despite the apparent substantial growth in productivity. This contrasts with recent experience in the EU-15 where employment rose in all regional groups - and more in agricultural regions (which in many cases were supported by the EU Structural Funds) than in others. · The sectoral structure of activity across regions tends to reflect variations in the education levels of their working-age populations. Agricultural regions across the EU, therefore, have the largest proportion of people with low education and the smallest proportion of those with high education. Capital cities in both the NMS and EU-15 have the largest proportion of highly educated inhabitants and the smallest proportion of low-educated inhabitants. · The extent of restructuring which still lies ahead of the NMS agricultural and basic service regions, in particular, is indicated by the fact that the share of employment in services is 17-20 percentage points below that of counterpart EU-15 regions. This difference is particularly marked in business and financial services and public services. · The share of employment in agriculture declined in all NMS regional groups in the period 1998-2003. Within industry, there was a shift in employment towards the low-skill sectors in all NMS regional groups. The share of employment in services increased in all NMS regional groups, but less in the agricultural regions than in others despite the former's particular need for restructuring. · Since the share of employment in basic services in NMS regions is not much smaller than in their EU-15 counterparts, it might not increase much further in most of the NMS regions. Nevertheless, the number employed in the sector is still likely to expand significantly, if the present low level of employment overall can be increased. · Comparisons with the EU-15 show, perhaps surprisingly, that scope also seems to exist for employment growth in industry in the NMS industrial and agricultural regions. · Differences in the sectoral structure of employment across regions bear implications for the kinds of jobs on offer and the skills or education levels required. In the NMS capital cities, over 40% of those in employment in 2003 were highly skilled non-manual workers (managers, professionals and technicians) as opposed to only 25% in agricultural regions. Less skilled non-manual workers are also more in demand in the capitals than elsewhere and manual workers correspondingly less so. · In the NMS agricultural regions, almost 60% of jobs were for manual workers; in the other NMS regional groups, manual workers made up over half of those in employment, much more than in the EU-15. Low-skilled manual workers, however, account for a larger share of employment in services in all EU-15 regional groups than in NMS regions. · The occupational structure of employment shifted in favour of highly skilled non-manual workers between 1998 and 2003 in all NMS regional groups as well as in the EU-15; both groups also experienced a relative increase in low-skill non-manual jobs. This was paralleled by a decline in manual jobs, especially for unskilled workers. · Employment rates for those with tertiary education are much higher than the rates for those with lower levels; they hardly vary at all across regions and are very similar in both the NMS and EU-15 regions. This contrasts with the variation across regions in the employment rates of those with only basic schooling; they are much lower in the NMS than in the EU-15. · The employment rate of those with low education fell significantly across all NMS regional groups in the period 1998-2003. By contrast, employment rates for the low-educated in all EU-15 regions outstripped those for the better educated.
This study considers the overall implications of changes in employment patterns for the nature of the jobs in which people are employed and for job quality, in particular for the EU member states over the period 1995-2005. Jobs, defined as a particular occupation in a particular industry, are ranked according to their relative wage or their relative skill intensity. Given that these job rankings are relatively stable over time, we examine whether job expansion mainly took place for jobs in the lower or upper part of the ranking. Overall, the results suggest an increase in job quality in most of the countries included; in particular, the hypothesis of 'job polarization' could not be supported. The study further includes an analysis of differences with respect to job quality and changes in job quality for a number of other dimensions, such as gender, age, part-time working, fix-term contracts, etc.
INTRODUCTION Accounting is considered a well-respected and highly beneficial career choice for most college graduates. If a new graduate puts in his/her time to gain experience and knowledge, he/she can expect a good income and benefits and the prestige that goes with the accountant title. However, do the benefits exceed the costs of working in accounting? A career in accounting typically involves much more than a forty-hour a week job. Many accountants work sixty or more hours per week during tax season, and the workload does not always lessen during non-peak times (Solnik, 2005). These increased workloads and extended hours can lead to increased levels of stress. A common term used to describe a situation where someone reaches his/her stress limit at work is job burnout. One answer to the problems of job burnout and work-family conflict is for CPA firms to offer flexible work arrangements. The idea of flexible work schedules has been around for some time and has been documented in the work place as a major incentive in recruiting by Almer and Kaplan (2002). Almer and Kaplan documented higher job satisfaction and lower turnover among firms offering flexible hours. However, little empirical research has attempted to identify the variables that determine which employees are willing to accept or desire flexible schedules. Not all employees desire flexible schedules and some employers may not have the resources to implement flexible schedules. Being able to identify, at the time of recruitment, employees that may desire flexible schedules later in their careers would be very useful to employers. The purpose of this paper is to identify the attributes associated with employee desires for flexible work schedules. We specifically look at how gender and certification impact attitudes regarding flexible work schedules. PRIOR RESEARCH Gaertner and Ruhe (1981) mailed out a questionnaire similar to the one used for this study. It was sent out to 398 professionals at regional and national CPA firms in the Midwestern USA, and garnered 193 usable responses. According to Gaertner and Ruhe, many accountants reported heavy smoking and alcohol consumption, ulcers, chronic back pain and headaches as responses to stress (Gaertner & Ruhe, 1981, p. 68). Their results suggest that senior and junior staff accountants exhibit the highest levels of work-related stress. Senior accountants' stress was caused by uncertainty about future employment prospects, compensation inequity, unwanted overtime, and boredom. Junior staff accountants' stress resulted mostly from not being involved in decisions affecting their work assignments (Gaertner & Ruhe, 1981). Results did not differ greatly between regional and national firms. Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) extended Gaetner and Ruhe's research by looking at work-family conflict. Greenhaus and Beutell found that conflict at work impacted behavior at home. Greenhaus and Beutell determined that work conflict is associated with the number of hours worked per week, the time spend commuting, the amount of overtime, and an inflexible work schedule. Family conflict comes about from specific family role characteristics that require time spent in family activities. When the job requirements are incompatible with family requirements, it creates a time-based conflict. Conflict-based pressures occur when the stressors of one role affects the performance in another role. Thus, time-based conflict consists of both work and family related conflicts, with job stress affecting how employees behave at home. Similarly, family related conflict that results when there is excessive strain at home and can affect how employees perform at work. Subsequent research across various areas of accounting seems to validate the findings of Gaertner and Ruhe (1981) and Grennhaus and Beutell (1985); stress and the work environment in accounting often create situations that lead to employee dissatisfaction and turnover (e. …
'%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0v30h60V0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='6' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='4' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30' clip-path='url(%23b)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='10' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='6' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
'/%3e%3cpath d='M200 752.362h200v300H200z' style='fill:%23fff;fill-opacity:1;stroke:none' transform='translate(0 -752.362)'/%3e%3cpath d='M400 752.362h200v300H400z' style='fill:%23ff883e;fill-opacity:1;stroke:none' transform='translate(0 -752.362)'/%3e%3c/svg%3e)