Year:2003 | Volume:19 | Issue:2 (38)|Papers Count:16

Using a two-period game, this paper searches for a right price stability regime when the information is asymmetric. The game developed in this research consists of two players: the monetary authority and the general public. Each player maximizes his own objective function. More specifically, the policymaker chooses the level of monetary policy to maximize some sort of social welfare function. The general public maximizes its own utility function. The policymaker's superior information is assumed to be the main source of the asymmetry. Given that the precise source of inflation is not known to the public, the policymaker can attribute any level of inflation to a non-policy disturbance. Provided the policymaker uses appropriate price stability target, the dynamic inconsistency framework is used to examine whether a biding commitment to a rule is possible. The paper compares the two mechanisms for monetary stability: zero inflation targeting versus the price level targeting and shows that the price level targeting is likely to bring a better resolution to the credibility-stabilization trade-off than the zero inflation targeting because it penalizes any deviation from the announced target more heavily.

This article investigates the Balanced Scorecard technique, which is one the most modem techniques in managerial accounting. First, particular characteristics of the technique are described. Then, the procedure of designing the balanced scorecard and steps required for its implementation is explained. In order to introduce practical examples, some applications of the balanced scorecard in various industries and in different countries as well as its advantages and disadvantages are offered.  It is concluded that the balanced scorecard technique is one of the most important and advanced techniques for performance evaluation in the organization; it can be employed as a framework for strategic management and organizational changes, and it completes the existing managerial accounting techniques in this area. In spite of this, the employment of it should be based upon the cost-benefit analysis and the steps that were discussed in this article.

This paper proposes a very simple way to estimate the Gini coefficient, particularly when the data are divided into K open-ended income intervals without information about the interval mean incomes: The measure proposed is based upon the assumption that income is distributed according to the log-logistic distribution. This assumption can be readily checked using a simple plotting procedure and the Gini can then be estimated by applying OLS to the plot. The model is shown to work very well for two very different sets of data from the UK and Iran. The log-logistic has the following important implication in the present context. Any income level (y) divides the population into two parts. The ratio of the population with income less than or equal to y to those with income more than y is a log-linear function of the y .The slope of the line can be interpreted as an equality index and the inverse of the slope is the well-known Gini coefficient. This can be compared with the Pareto Law of income distribution, which states that the proportion of people' with income greater than y will be a linear function of y on double log scale. However, whereas the Pareto Law applies merely to the upper-tail segment of the income distribution, the log-logistic constitutes a model, which pertains to the complete range of incomes.

Nowadays, organizations try to utilize various methods and information in performing their management duties and using their resources optimally. One of these instruments is to use financial management information to serve the needs of the managers at various levels of planning, resource control, evaluation and decision making. The significance of financial management system in running companies provides impetus for research activities. The main objective of this research is to cultivate the applicability of financial management techniques in the companies run by the government of Iran. The paper makes it clear that companies under the jurisdiction of the government use traditional ways in handling their financial affairs and modem methods of financial management are not utilized. The present research also reflect the views of financial managers concerning the applicability and the significance of the modem financial management techniques and elaborates on the reasons why these techniques are not utilized. These elaboration could enhance and encourage the utilization of the new techniques in question.

Empirical evidence on capital market shows the pricing of securities is in such a way that by considering a long-term investment horizon, accepting more risks leads to a higher rate of return. One of the common models to illustrate the relation between risk and return is Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). In this article, while reviewing the theoretical framework of the model and related empirical tests the simple positive linear relationship between systematic risk and return on common stock at Tehran stock exchange (TSE) was tested. Data on stock returns of sample companies and the market for the period of Farvardin 1370 to Shahrivar 1375 were collected and analyzed. The results show that the companies stock return changes cannot be explained merely by systematic risk.

The service quality measurement scale (SERVQUAL) has been widely used in research to measure quality of service. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the use of SERVQUAL for measuring patient's perception of health care sector quality in Fars Province. The paper also examines the validity and -reliability of SERVQUAL and analyzes its applicability to the health care sector in Fars Province. The results indicate that SERVQUAL appears to be a consistent and reliable scale to measure health care service quality. The results also indicate that perceived health care service performance generally falls short of expectations. Timely, professional and competent services are what patients expect from health care providers.

The concept of capital maintenance is of utmost importance in measuring performance and financial position of enterprises. Thus, true profit is the amount that can be distributed without impairing physical capital and therefore is known as "distributable income". Yearly, every enterprise must pay interest, dividend and tax (if it is operating profitably) to creditors, owners and government. Therefore, it is necessary to determine if distributable income has caused erosion of capital or not (that is paying from increased physical capital). In this research, the effect of inflation on profit and tax was studied. The survey contained fabricated metallic industries registered in Tehran Stock Exchange market. Firstly, relevant information and data were extracted from financial statements (from 1376 to 1378), journals, periodic report presented by Tehran Stock Exchange market and Central Bank. Then, they were adjusted and examined according to estimating technique developed by Davidson, Stickney, and Wail. Results show that there is a meaningful relation between actual and adjusted income. In the other words, inflation resulted in capital erosion.

Base on a research carried out to design a strategic control system in Azarab Co., this paper describes the steps necessary to be taken in order to design such a system appropriately. First, the role and importance of the strategic control systems in formulating and implementing good strategies in project-oriented strategic management model- the one in use in Azarab Industries Ltd-is discussed. A brief description of Azarab environment, as a large industrial complex trying to enter the world markets, is also included. Finally, while discussing about the actual steps that have been taken in this research, a few important findings are mentioned. Such findings which are suitable for Iranian firms that are trying to compete in today's world markets include: the critical importance of defining their own strategic direction, formulating their own dynamic and flexible strategies, and designing appropriate strategic control systems to fit their particular situations.

Stock Exchange Commission is a place for allocating resources to corporations. A significant attribute of SEC is timely reporting. Timely reporting contributes to the prompt and efficient performance of stock markets in their pricing and evaluation functions. Timely reporting helps to reduce insider trading, leaks and rumours in the market. So most stock exchanges in the world demand from their listed companies prompt release of interim financial reports to the markets. Timely reporting is a function of some company-specific factors. This study investigates some of these factors such as: size profitability, complexity of operations, age of companies, amount of share trading, shareholders component and sufficiency of cost accounting system. For this study a sample of non-financial companies was selected from the 239 companies that were listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Time of releasing reports is the dependent variable and factors mentioned above are independent variables. Data were gathered from financial statements of selected companies. Results of this study are: 1-There isn't a relation between timely interim reporting and size of companies. 2-There isn't a relation between timely interim reporting and profitability of companies. 3-There isn't a relation between timely interim reporting and complexity of operations of companies. 4-There isn't a relation between timely interim reporting and age of companies in the stock market. 5-There is a positive relation between timely interim reporting and amount of share trading of companies. 6-There isn't a relation between timely interim reporting and shareholders component of companies. 7-There isn't a relation between timely interim reporting and sufficiency of cost accounting system of companies.

Financial information is the basis for evaluating stock exchange activities. Financial invoices contain crucial information utilized by shareholders to make decisions for investment. Thus investigating the relationship between the information content of cash circulation and share interests gains significance. The main hypothesis in this research is to cultivate the relationship between the major components of cash circulation invoice and the interests gained by the shares. Statistic population of the research embodies all companies in Tehran Stock Exchange during the years of 1375 to 1379. This is a library research utilizing the financial invoice of sample companies, stock exchange yearbooks and computer systems. EXCEL program in utilized in relevant computations and regression, and F, T methods with SPSS software are used for the analysis. The result showed that our main hypothesis was not confirmed or wealdy confirmed with the exception of the year 1379, of course, the reason could be due to the fact that the components of cash circulation could neutralize one another.

In the process of stock investment, investors attempt to predict the profitability of various companies and decide accordingly, which is usually approached by considering the various profit concepts. This paper studies the issue by comparing the prediction powers of the net and the operating profits in Tehran. Stock Exchange Market. It is conceived that the concept of operating profit is more relevant in estimating the profitability by the investors.

The objective of this article is to survey hedging translation exposure practices of top D.K multinational corporations. According to the results, a very notable variation exists among the surveyed corporations as to the degree of importance they place on hedging this type of exposure, i.e: while translation exposure is principal currency risk with a few of them, a number of the said corporations are of the view that such an exposure is immaterial and need not be hedged. Likewise, while in case of the latter corporations no hedging instrument is being utilized, as far as the former corporations are concerned, some of them are resorting to a package of corporate internal and market external hedging techniques to manage translation exposure. Furthermore, those firms  that employ solely the internal techniques are widely using matching technique (natural hedge), an indication which they are more concerned with their net asset translation risk exposure than earnings exposure. The results also indicate that there exists differing practices toward managing and hedging translation exposure among the surveyed corporations in the same classes of business, an indication which might lead to a suggestion that firms as such might adopt their policy in this regard according to their discretion and their own specific position.

This study is designed to investigate the ability of earnings prediction in industries level. The time series of past earnings and relation with future earnings have been examined. The sample for the study was selected from listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange whose data was available during the Iranian calendar 1368-1379. The information gathered from ten industries include food, wood & paper, chemical & medical, plastic, mineral, metallic, equipment, furniture, electrical plant and vehicles. The results indicated for earning prediction, two lags autoregressive moving average models preferred when compared with f6lIr lags ARMA models. Random walk model for earnings prediction in food, plastic, mineral and vehicles preferred of two lags ARMA models. Earnings production process is similar only for vehicles, electrical plant and medical companies.

While administrations and organizations are leaving behind their traditional economic and management models in favor of pseudo- variable and variable models of basic skills and their relationships, these variable models turn out to be highly significant. This development is being analyzed in this article, and the following questions will also be answered: what are the basic skills, and can the basic skills be taught? The article will conclude that educational centers such as schools universities and training centers can play crucial roles in the development of basic skills, though there are still ambiguities in the ways these skills could be verified and developed.