Disclosure, conservatism and the cost of equity capital : a review of the foundation literature

In this review piece, we survey the literature on the cost of equity capital implications of corporate disclosure and conservative accounting policy choice decisions with the principle objective of providing insights into the design and methodological issues, which underlie the empirical investigations. We begin with a review of the analytical studies most typically cited in the empirical research as providing a theoretical foundation. We then turn to consider literature that offers insights into the selection of proxies for each of our points of interest, cost of equity capital, disclosure quality and accounting conservatism. As a final step, we review selected empirical studies to illustrate the relevant evidence found within the literature. Based on our review, we interpret the literature as providing the researcher with only limited direct guidance on the appropriate choice of measure for each of the constructs of interest. Further, we view the literature as raising questions about both the interpretation of empirical findings in the face of measurement concerns and the suitability of certain theoretical arguments to the research setting. Overall, perhaps the message which is most clear is that one of the most controversial and fundamental issues underlying the literature is the issue of the diversifiability or nondiversifiability of information effects.

Drug law enforcement : a review of the evaluation literature

This article describes the results of a systematic review of drug law enforcement evaluations. The authors describe the search procedures and document the results in five main categories: international/national interventions (e.g., interdiction and drug seizure), reactive/ directed interventions (e.g., crackdowns, raids, buy-busts, saturation patrol, etc.), proactive/ partnership interventions (e.g., third-party policing, problem-oriented policing, community policing, drug nuisance abatement, etc.), individualized interventions (e.g., arrest referral and diversion), or interventions that used a combination of reactive/directed and proactive/ partnership strategies. Results indicate that proactive interventions involving partnerships between the police and third parties and/or community entities appear to be more effective at reducing both drug and nondrug problems in drug problem places than are reactive/ directed approaches. But the general quality of research in drug law enforcement is poor, the range of interventions that have been evaluated is limited, and more high-quality research is needed across a greater variety of drug interventions.

History in the Australian Curriculum F-10 : providing answers without asking questions

This paper examines the most recent version of the Australian Curriculum: History F-10. It does so in two ways. First, it explores some of the strengths and weaknesses of this curriculum with reference to the decision to frame aspects of Australian history within the context of a world history approach. Whilst the positioning of Indigenous Histories is applauded, the curriculum’s lack of attention to the significance of the recent history of Australia’s Asian neighbours, and Australia’s relationship with them, is critiqued. This part of the paper also emphasises the need for comparative approaches and calls for greater emphasis on providing students with opportunities to critique and contest the construction of narratives about the past. Second, the paper introduces four invited articles that examine different aspects of the Australian Curriculum: History. Collectively these papers reiterate the significance of the richness of integrated and child-centred approaches and the importance of developing historical thinking, empathy and the historical imagination in the classroom.

Characteristics of airborne ultrafine and coarse particles during the Australian dust storm of 23 September 2009

Particle number concentrations and size distributions, visibility and particulate mass concentrations and weather parameters were monitored in Brisbane, Australia, on 23 September 2009, during the passage of a dust storm that originated 1400 km away in the dry continental interior. The dust concentration peaked at about mid-day when the hourly average PM2.5 and PM10 values reached 814 and 6460 µg m-3, respectively, with a sharp drop in atmospheric visibility. A linear regression analysis showed a good correlation between the coefficient of light scattering by particles (Bsp) and both PM10 and PM2.5. The particle number in the size range 0.5-20 µm exhibited a lognormal size distribution with modal and geometrical mean diameters of 1.6 and 1.9 µm, respectively. The modal mass was around 10 µm with less than 10% of the mass carried by particles smaller than 2.5 µm. The PM10 fraction accounted for about 68% of the total mass. By mid-day, as the dust began to increase sharply, the ultrafine particle number concentration fell from about 6x103 cm-3 to 3x103 cm-3 and then continued to decrease to less than 1x103 cm-3 by 14h, showing a power-law decrease with Bsp with an R2 value of 0.77 (p<0.01). Ultrafine particle size distributions also showed a significant decrease in number during the dust storm. This is the first scientific study of particle size distributions in an Australian dust storm.