Real Rewards Research Articles

Negative Special Items, Tax Rates, and the Income-Transfer Hypothesis

Burgstahler, Jiambalvo, and Shevlin (2002) evaluate the implications of special items for future earnings and report evidence consistent with the notion that firms use negative special items to accelerate the recognition of future period expenses. That is, negative special items serve as an income-transfer device. In this analysis, we examine additional predictions suggested by this income-transfer hypothesis not considered in their analysis. Specifically do the augmented future income values they report decline in future quarters as the transfer effect dissipates? Contrary to this prediction, we find that future income values increase in post-special-item quarters beyond the four quarters considered in Burgstahler et al. (2002). Thus, our results are more consistent with real future rewards to costly short-term business decisions than with income-transfer. We also find that the tax rate assumptions made in the Burgstahler et al. (2002) greatly impact the magnitude of the estimated special items future income effect. Utilizing an empirically derived tax rate, we find that the magnitudes of income increases associated with the recognition of negative special items are substantially smaller than those they report.

確率による報酬の価値割引‐現実場面と仮想場面の比較‐

In Experiment 1, undergraduates first made choices hypothetically between an uncertain large reward and a certain small reward, second they made choices with real money, and finally they again made hypothetical choices. The discounting rates in the first hypothetical reward condition were higher than those in the following conditions of real or hypothetical rewards. A significant difference in the discounting rate across conditions was not found when the real reward condition was replaced by the hypothetical reward condition (Experiment 2) or by the condition with probability contingency and hypothetical reward (Experiment 3). The difference in the discounting rate was replicated between the hypothetical and real reward conditions when the participants invested money when they selected an uncertain-large reward (Experiment 4). Johnson & Bickel (2002) found no difference in the discounting rate between hypothetical and real rewards when the real rewards were delivered to participants not during but after the experiment. The present experiments, by contrast, delivered real money immediately after every choice, and demonstrate that real and hypothetical rewards differ in the values of discounting rates.

Moderate drug use and delay discounting: A comparison of heavy, light, and never smokers.

Delay discounting was examined in light smokers (10 or fewer cigarettes per day) and compared with previously published delay discounting data for heavy and never smokers. Participants evaluated several hypothetical outcomes: money gains and loses ($10, $100, and $1,000), health gains and losses (durations of improved and impoverished health subjectively equivalent to $1,000), cigarette gains and losses (amounts subjectively equivalent to $1,000), and potentially real rewards ($10 and $100). Light smokers discounted money significantly more than never smokers, but light smokers did not differ from heavy smokers. The 3 groups did not statistically differ in discounting of health consequences. Similarly, the 2 smoking groups were not found to differ in discounting of cigarettes. Like heavy smokers, light smokers discounted cigarettes significantly more than money and health. Several significant, positive correlations were found between smoking rate and various discounting measures in the heavy smokers but not in the light smokers. Several previous findings were replicated, helping to validate the present results: the sign effect (greater discounting of gains than losses), the magnitude effect (greater discounting of smaller rewards), reliability of discounting measures over time, and the consistency of hypothetical and potentially real rewards. These data suggest that even moderate levels of drug use may be associated with high delay discounting levels.

TQM Best Practices: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs

The progress of TQM in SMEs, particularly in developing countries, is a significant research issue at present. This paper presents some of the most important findings of three case studies, undertaken at SME companies in Malaysia. The companies comprise medium-scale automotive parts and plastics manufacturers, and a smaller food manufacturing company. Each company case provides insights into the issues facing SMEs, who are trying to develop more advanced quality management approaches. The case studies involved structured interviews with top management at each company, based on the award criteria of the Malaysian Quality Management Excellence Award (QMEA). The case study analysis illustrates that the companies studied have adopted distinct approaches to the implementation of TQM, which could be shared by other SMEs. Some of the key issues that have been addressed by the case study companies can be summarized as: effective top management commitment, an effective steering committee engaged in policy and planning management, real employee involvement, employee rewards and skills development. The issues of benefits perceived, barriers and quality progress of the companies are also presented in the paper.

Delay discounting of real and hypothetical rewards III: Steady-state assessments, forced-choice trials, and all real rewards

Human research in delay discounting has omitted several procedures typical of animal studies: forced-choice trials, consequences following each response, and assessment of stable response patterns. The present study manipulated these procedures across two conditions in which real or hypothetical rewards were arranged. Six college students participated in daily sessions, in which steady-state discounting of hypothetical and real rewards was assessed. No systematic effects of repeated exposure to hypothetical rewards was detected when compared with first day assessments of discounting. Likewise, no systematic effect of reward type (real versus hypothetical) was detected. When combined with previous research failing to detect a difference between hypothetical and potentially real rewards, these findings suggest that assessing discounting of hypothetical rewards in single sessions is a practical and valid procedure in the study of delay discounting.

Delay Discounting of Potentially Real and Hypothetical Rewards: II. Between- and Within-Subject Comparisons.

Prior studies comparing discounting of delayed hypothetical or potentially real rewards have reported no differences, but they used within-subjects designs. This raises the possibility that participants remembered their choices in one condition and repeated them in the other. In Experiment 1, between-subjects comparisons were made with an adjusting-amount procedure. No significant effect of reward type on delay discounting was detected. Experiment 2 increased the proportion of real rewards and made between- and within-subject comparisons. These comparisons also failed to reveal a significant effect of reward type. Although these findings are consistent with prior findings, caution is urged because choices involving hypothetical rewards have yet to be compared with choices involving real rewards (i.e., the consequences of every choice are obtained) in an experiment using forced-choice trials and steady-state methodology.

Discounting of delayed food rewards in pigeons and rats: is there a magnitude effect?

Temporal discounting refers to the decrease in the present, subjective value of a reward as the time to its receipt increases. Results from humans have shown that a hyperbola-like function describes the form of the discounting function when choices involve hypothetical monetary rewards. In addition, magnitude effects have been reported in which smaller reward amounts are discounted more steeply than larger amounts. The present research examines the cross-species generality of these findings using real rewards, namely food pellets, with both pigeons and rats. As with humans, an adjusting amount procedure was used to estimate the amount of immediate reward judged equal in value to a delayed reward. Different amounts of delayed food rewards (ranging from 5 to 32 pellets in pigeons and from 5 to 20 pellets in rats) were studied at delays varying from 1 s to 32 s. A simple hyperbola, similar to the hyperbola-like mathematical function that describes the discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards in humans, described the discounting of food rewards in both pigeons and rats. These results extend the generality of the mathematical model of discounting. Rates of discounting delayed food rewards were higher for pigeons than for rats. Unlike humans, however, neither pigeons nor rats showed a reliable magnitude effect: Rate of discounting did not vary systematically as a function of the amount of the delayed reward.

An experimental test of response consistency in contingent valuation

We compare hypothetical and observed (experimental) willingness to pay (WTP) for a gradual improvement in the environmental performance of a marketed good (an office table). First, following usual practices in marketing research, subjects’ stated WTP for the improvement is obtained. Second, the same subjects participate in a real reward experiment designed to replicate the scenario valued in the hypothetical question. Our results show that, independently of the degree of the improvement, there are no significant median differences between stated and experimental data. However, subjects reporting extreme values of WTP (low or high) exhibit a more moderate behavior in the experiment.

Concave utility, transaction costs, and risk in measuring discounting of delayed rewards.

Research has consistently found that the decline in the present values of delayed rewards as delay increases is better fit by hyperbolic than by exponential delay-discounting functions. However, concave utility, transaction costs, and risk each could produce hyperbolic-looking data, even when the underlying discounting function is exponential. In Experiments 1 (N = 45) and 2 (N = 103), participants placed bids indicating their present values of real future monetary rewards in computer-based 2nd-price auctions. Both experiments suggest that utility is not sufficiently concave to account for the superior fit of hyperbolic functions. Experiment 2 provided no evidence that the effects of transaction costs and risk are large enough to account for the superior fit of hyperbolic functions.

Within-subject comparison of real and hypothetical money rewards in delay discounting.

A within-subject design, using human participants, compared delay discounting functions for real and hypothetical money rewards. Both real and hypothetical rewards were studied across a range that included $10 to $250. For 5 of the 6 participants, no systematic difference in discount rate was observed in response to real and hypothetical choices, suggesting that hypothetical rewards may often serve as a valid proxy for real rewards in delay discounting research. By measuring discounting at an unprecedented range of real rewards, this study has also systematically replicated the robust finding in human delay discounting research that discount rates decrease with increasing magnitude of reward. A hyperbolic decay model described the data better than an exponential model.

Cutting edge discussions of management, policy, and program issues in emergency care

Cutting edge discussions of management, policy, and program issues in emergency care

Civil engineering for leisure: restoring the Wilts and Berks Canal

The dedicated and resourceful volunteers who are rebuilding the abandoned 200-year-old, 85 km long Wilts and Berks Canal between Bath and Oxford in southern England are probably gaining more hands-on civil engineering experience than many civil engineers. Using a variety of funding sources—including the Heritage Lottery Commission, landfill tax credits, section 106 agreements and construction industry sponsorship—they are gradually working their way through a technically challenging, £103 million restoration project that they hope to complete within ‘a generation’. This paper shows that such projects can be wonderful advertisements for civil engineering as well as providing real rewards for both engineers and non-engineers alike.

Teaching musical acoustics

Although designed particularly for music students, musical acoustics courses at American universities generally draw a ‘‘mixed bag’’ of students with a rather wide variety of backgrounds. This presents some real challenges but also some real rewards. Some of the problems in teaching musical acoustics to heterogenous classes and some of the ways these problems can be dealt with are discussed. Readable textbooks, demonstration experiments, and videotapes help to challenge and motivate the students, but the best way of all to learn the subject is by doing hands-on experiments.

Relative prices and improvement of real factor rewards in several sectors

For a neoclassical model of an open economy, Ronald Jones shows that for any factor, there is a change in the relative prices of outputs that improves its real reward unambiguously. We consider the real reward increase of any proper subset of factors. If the percentage increases in output prices are chosen in proportion to the chosen group's factor shares in corresponding sectors, then the real reward of each factor in the group increases and the real reward for every other factor falls. This result captures the idea that increases in relative prices of outputs tend to reward those factors that are `intensively' used in the production of the outputs.

Bioregios put Germany on the biodevelopment map.

The real reward in Germany's regional challenge will be commercial progress in biotechnology.

Action Research into the Quality of Student Learning: A Paradigm for Faculty Development

Quality Assurance for Teaching Higher education has been the subject of increasing criticism in recent years. Daly [12], for example, reviewed no less than thirty-seven major reports and articles from government agencies, employers, and academics, detailing faults with higher education in the United States. Critics have been just as vocal in the rest of the world. Partly in response to this chorus of concern, governments have moved to make universities and colleges more accountable for the finances they receive from state coffers. Concern about the quality of teaching has been particularly strong as many have begun to suspect that teaching has been relegated to a poor second place behind research because of ever increasing pressure on academics to publish. The general thrust has usually been toward mechanisms for quality assurance of teaching. Either external systems are imposed or universities are encouraged or required to establish their own procedures. Inspection teams may be used to ensure that internally established mechanisms are adequate. In discussing quality assurance and quality enhancement in this article, we draw upon a distinction made by Elton [14]. He grouped the quality A's: quality assurance, accountability, audit, and assessment, and saw them as concerned with control of both quality and the people who control quality. Quality enhancement was seen as related to the E's: empowerment, enthusiasm, expertise, and excellence. Program accreditation is a mechanism for quality assurance that has become almost universal. Internal or external panels may withhold approval for a program to be offered if they are not convinced the program can be taught according to an adequate standard. Use of external examiners is another well-established quality assurance mechanism designed to verify the appropriateness of degree awards. Recently it has also become more common to appraise teaching directly. The most widely used mechanism has been the use of student feedback questionnaires, though some institutions have sought more diverse forms of feedback through teaching profiles or portfolios [15, 33]. The limitation of these and other forms of quality assurance is that they concentrate on bringing the poorest teachers and courses up to some level of minimum acceptance. Program accreditation panels can withhold approval if a proposed program has not been adequately planned, but there is no mechanism for giving real rewards to teams preparing outstanding programs. Similarly, external examiners can refuse to approve results if quality appears unsatisfactory but can offer little beyond a pat on the back for good or even excellent teaching. Appraisal of individual teachers also tends to make use of sticks for the poorest performers rather than carrots for the best. Those who receive poor ratings from questionnaires or other evaluation face the threat of not having contracts renewed, tenure not granted, or other sanctions. In theory outstanding teachers could be rewarded with promotions, but institutions that actually do this still seem to be considered as sufficiently rare and innovatory that their procedures are deemed worthy of publications in the literature [e.g., 1]. Even where universities have introduced teaching as an explicit criteria for promotion, the popular perception is that promotions still go to those with the best research records [10, 28]. If teaching is taken into account at all, it is largely in terms of reaching some threshold level of performance. Even ideal quality assurance mechanisms, then, do little or nothing to encourage teachers or courses to go beyond minimum acceptable levels. In fact, excessively onerous or iniquitous assurance mechanisms can have a negative effect on the quality of teaching by those above the threshold. Firstly, the assurance procedures require faculty to produce evidence that their teaching is of an acceptable standard and courses have been adequately planned. …

Modeling Myopic Decisions: Evidence for Hyperbolic Delay-Discounting within Subjects and Amounts

Hyperbolic and exponential discounting functions were compared as models of subjects′ present valuations of delayed rewards. Previous comparisons have been limited by relying on the assumption that discounting rate is independent of reward size; we avoided this limitation by making all comparisons within reward sizes. In Experiment 1, using real rewards in a simulated auction, and in Experiment 2, using hypothetical rewards, we offered subjects five monetary rewards at six delays each and asked them to indicate the smallest amount that they would accept immediately in exchange for those rewards. Both discounting functions were then fit to the six reported amounts for each reward using nonlinear regressions. In both experiments, although both functions fit the data very well, the hyperbolic function fit better for all of the delayed rewards. Furthermore, the hyperbolic function better described the data for 20 of 21 and 14 of 18 subjects in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively.

An analysis of the impact of outmigration on unemployment, income and structural change

This paper analyses the impact of temporary skilled migration on urban unemployment, the relative price of urban and rural non-traded goods, the real rewards of the factors of production and income in the source country. The analysis is conducted on the basis of an extended version of the Harris-Todaro model. It is established that the outmigration of skilled labour affects unskilled workers in the source country. Outmigration may raise the level of urban unskilled unemployment and lower income in the source country. It may also raise the price of both urban and rural non-traded goods thereby giving rise to Dutch diseasc type effects. These are disturbing results for the policymakers in thc sourcc country.

Mimicry and mutualism in carnivorous pitcher plants (Sarraceniaceae, Nepenthaceae, Cephalotaceae, Bromeliaceae)

The carnivorous pitcher plants of the Sarraceniaceae, Nepenthaceae and Cephalotaceae seem to have developed attraction and rewarding systems which resemble those of many flowers. Contrary to a previous view, Batcsian mimicry does not appear to apply to pitcher traps because: (a) there is no evidence of insects visiting traps by mistake, (b) no model is known for any one of the traps, (c) the duration of the trap activity and the structure of the plant community are not compatible with a deceptive mimetic status, (d) nectar which is a real reward is provided to visiting insects by the pitcher plants. It is suggested that these plants perform mutual rather than deceptive relations with the insect communities in their habitats. Insects benefit from nectar which is provided by pitchers and which serves for their nutrition in habitats where sources of floral nectar might be either uncommon or absent. At the same time the insects pay the plants in a small portion of their community which is ‘sacrificed’ as prey and consumed by the plants, which grow in nutrient deficient soils.

An Experimental Test of the Baumol Tobin Transactions Demand for Money

Historically generated data do not allow a clean test of any particular money dema nd theory. By creating the artificial environment analyzed by William Baumol and James Tobin's work on the transactions demand for money, one can observe how real people pursuing real rewards behave in that environment. Baumol and Tobin assumed people were sufficiently rational to learn four axioms of rational behavior. The authors' subjects learned only three. However, trial and error methods, plus subjects' limited rationality, did produce results similar to the Baumol-Tobin predictions. This supports the need to weaken the definition of rationality in the manner suggested by Herbert Simon. Copyright 1988 by Ohio State University Press.