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Why isn't the whole world as rich as the United States? Conventional views holds that differences in the share of output invested by countries account for this disparity. Not so, say Stephen Parente and Edward Prescott. In Barriers to Riches, Parente and Prescott argue that differences in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) explain this phenomenon. These differences exist because some countries erect barriers to the efficient use of readily available technology. The purpose of these barriers is to protect industry insiders with vested interests in current production processes from outside competition. Were this protection stopped, rapid TFP growth would follow in the poor countries, and the whole world would soon be rich.Barriers to Riches reflects a decade of research by the authors on this question. Like other books on the subject, it makes use of historical examples and industry studies to illuminate potential explanations for income differences. Unlike these other books, however, it uses aggregate data and general equilibrium models to evaluate the plausibility of alternative explanations. The result of this approach is the most complete and coherent treatment of the subject to date.

https://www.sfu.ca/%7Edandolfa/barrierstoriches.pdf

Barriers to riches

Our thesis is that poor countries are poor because they employ arrangements for which the equilibrium outcomes are characterized by inferior technologies being used, and being used inefficiently. In this paper, we analyze the consequences of one such arrangement. In each industry, the arrangement enables a coalition of factor suppliers to be the monopoly seller of its input services to all firms using a particular production process. We find that eliminating this monopoly arrangement could well increase output by roughly a factor of 3 without any increase in inputs.

/pdf/monopoly-rights-a-barrier-to-riches-2uz2i53dcn.pdf

Monopoly Rights: A Barrier to Riches

Big Data Analytics (BDA) is increasingly becoming a trending practice that generates an enormous amount of data and provides a new opportunity that is helpful in relevant decision-making. The developments in Big Data Analytics provide a new paradigm and solutions for big data sources, storage, and advanced analytics. The BDA provide a nuanced view of big data development, and insights on how it can truly create value for firm and customer. This article presents a comprehensive, well-informed examination, and realistic analysis of deploying big data analytics successfully in companies. It provides an overview of the architecture of BDA including six components, namely: (i) data generation, (ii) data acquisition, (iii) data storage, (iv) advanced data analytics, (v) data visualization, and (vi) decision-making for value-creation. In this paper, seven V's characteristics of BDA namely Volume, Velocity, Variety, Valence, Veracity, Variability, and Value are explored. The various big data analytics tools, techniques and technologies have been described. Furthermore, it presents a methodical analysis for the usage of Big Data Analytics in various applications such as agriculture, healthcare, cyber security, and smart city. This paper also highlights the previous research, challenges, current status, and future directions of big data analytics for various application platforms. This overview highlights three issues, namely (i) concepts, characteristics and processing paradigms of Big Data Analytics; (ii) the state-of-the-art framework for decision-making in BDA for companies to insight value-creation; and (iii) the current challenges of Big Data Analytics as well as possible future directions.

A survey towards an integration of big data analytics to big insights for value-creation

Abstract This survey reviews the existing macro-level empirical literature on the link between infrastructure and development in a critical light. After providing a general framework that casts the problem in the context of an aggregate production function, it signals what are the relevant empirical questions to be addressed. This guides the systematic review of a number of empirical studies and the discussion of the main econometric challenges to the identification of the effect of infrastructure on output and productivity. Finally, building on related research, in particular in contract theory and political economy, the article spells out several promising research avenues.

Infrastructure and Development: A Critical Appraisal of the Macro-Level

Professional accounting organizations, accrediting bodies, and accounting educators have invested substantial effort defining entry-level accounting and broad management competencies for accounting students, particularly those interested in a career in public accounting. Much less attention has been given to explicitly defining the competencies accounting students — all accounting students — need for their long-run careers, clearly distinguishing these competencies from the determinants of entry-level demands, and helping to develop these long-run competencies within the formal accounting curriculum. In 2010 the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the Management Accounting Section (MAS) of the American Accounting Association (AAA) formed a Task Force to address these competency issues and to make curriculum-related recommendations for all accounting majors. This paper contains the initial completed report of the Task Force and is responsive to the recent call to “connect the accounting body of knowledge to a map of competencies…” and to create “…curricular models for the future” (Pathways Commission 2012, 37, 75). The paper provides a comprehensive review of the academic and professional literatures in three areas: (1) the scope or focus of accounting education; (2) the value proposition for accounting (i.e., specification as to how accountants today, working in a variety of settings, add organizational value); and (3) the importance of competency integration to the value proposition of accounting. These reviews lead to four recommendations regarding accounting curricula. First, accounting education should be reoriented to include a greater focus on a curriculum oriented toward long-term career demands. Second, the breadth of accounting education should be broadened to include a wide array of organizational settings including, but not limited to, public accounting/auditing. Third, the educational objectives of accounting curricula today should reflect how accountants add organizational value. Fourth, these objectives (represented as knowledge, skills and abilities) should emerge and be developed as integrated competencies. These recommendations lead operationally to the competency-based educational Framework presented in this paper. This Framework is general in the sense that it is meant to apply to a wide variety of career paths and options, including but not limited to public accounting. The paper concludes with a call to accountants in all functional areas to provide additional inputs and refinements of the general competency Framework espoused in this paper and with an appeal for an assessment of the proposed educational Framework. In two follow-up papers, the Task Force offers (1) specific curricular recommendations regarding the role of management accounting (MA) in implementing the Framework, and (2) guidance for the development of student cognitive skills in the MA portion of the accounting curriculum (IMA-MAS Curriculum Task Force 2013a, 2013b).

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2343180_code565406.pdf?abstractid=2342306&mirid=1

Focusing Accounting Curricula on Students’ Long-Run Careers: Recommendations for an Integrated Competency-Based Framework for Accounting Education

Professional organizations, accrediting bodies, and accounting educators have defined the competencies that accounting students need for entry-level success in public accounting. However, definitions of the competencies required by all accounting students for long-term career requirements are lacking, as is an understanding of how to develop these competencies within the accounting curriculum. In 2010 the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the Management Accounting Section (MAS) of the American Accounting Association (AAA) formed a Task Force to address these issues and make curriculum recommendations for all accounting majors. This paper is a report of that Task Force. It is responsive to the recent call to “connect the accounting body of knowledge to a map of competencies” and to create “curricular models for the future” (Pathways Commission 2012, 37, 75), and it includes a literature review that spans the scope and focus of accounting education, the value proposition for accounting...

Focusing accounting curricula on students' long-run careers: recommendations for an integrated competency-based framework for accounting education

In the interwar period, Japanese textile firms were able to greatly increase labor efficiency and become the world's main exporter of cotton textiles. Meanwhile, the Indian industry stagnated and was forced to retreat behind tariff walls. This paper argues that the flexibility of the Japanese work force stemmed from its high turnover; the Indian laborers were collectively inflexible in defending lifetime careers against technical changes that reduced labor demand. As the industry requires only a few easily acquired skills, a committed work force was actually a disadvantage to Indian management.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022050700014492

The Perils of Lifetime Employment Systems: Productivity Advance in the Indian and Japanese Textile Industries, 1920–1938

Newly collected data on India's textile industry over the years 1921–38 show strike rates far higher than those observed in the British or U.S. textile industries when they were at a similar stage ...

Strikes in Colonial India, 1921–1938

The textbook explanation for Britain's high unemployment in the 1920s is that the return to gold at $4.86 left the currency overvalued. Recent estimates suggest that an 11 percent devaluation would have eliminated roughly half the unemployment in 1925. This article questions the validity of that conclusion. It measures the power of exchange rate devaluations to decrease unemployment in the context of sectorally distinct labor markets. The results suggest that though a devaluation would have been helpful, eliminating half of 1925's unemployment would have required one much greater than 11 percent and would have caused significant price pressures. W inston Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1925 when Britain formally resumed the gold standard at the prewar parity of $4.86. John Maynard Keynes's famous essay, "The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill," argued that the resumption would require deflation, and that deflation would lead to severe unemployment. His arguments had little impact on policy in the twenties-Keynes referred to his writings as "the croakings of a Cassandra who could never influence the course of events in time."' But his views later achieved wide acceptance. According to Barry Eichengreen and Jeffrey Sachs, the decision to allow the pound to depreciate in 1931 was influenced by a perception that resumption had been a mistake.2 And 60 years later, The Economist stated categorically that "to virtually everybody today, it was a disastrous decision."3 The estimates of Donald Moggridge and S. N. Broadberry seem to confirm this judgment.4 They implied that the 11 percent revaluation policy of 1925 may have been responsible for more than half of the 1920s unemployment.

Susan Wolcott

Papers

Focusing Accounting Curricula on Students’ Long-Run Careers: Recommendations for an Integrated Competency-Based Framework for Accounting Education

Focusing accounting curricula on students' long-run careers: recommendations for an integrated competency-based framework for accounting education

The Perils of Lifetime Employment Systems: Productivity Advance in the Indian and Japanese Textile Industries, 1920–1938

Strikes in Colonial India, 1921–1938

Keynes Versus Churchill: Revaluation and British Unemployment in the 1920s