No abstract

This project investigates the relationship between student performance, past mathematics experience, and perceptions of statistics education for two groups of university students studying statistics in different learning environments. One group received the traditional form of teaching with lectures, whereas the other group studied in a more flexible learning mode where lectures were replaced with a computer-managed learning tool and optional small-group workshops facilitated by written lecture notes. The results on student learning experience show that, for both groups, student enjoyment of the course is positively related to their learning attitudes and to their perceived value of statistics education, and is negatively related to anxiety with regard to their performance in the course. There is some evidence that the group studying in the technology-supported flexible learning environment experienced more assessment anxiety and consequently less enjoyment of the subject. There is also evidence that assessment anxiety has a negative effect on student performance that is exacerbated by a lack of prior mathematics experience. Hence, the flexible learning approach in statistics education, with minimal face-to-face teaching, may be especially inappropriate for these students.

This paper describes a number of models used in bankruptcy studies to date. They arise from two basic model designs used in studies of financial distress: cross-sectional studies that compare healthy and distressed firms, and time-series formulations that study the path to failure of (usually) distressed firms only. These two designs inherently foster different research objectives. Different instances of the most recent work taken from each of the above research groups, broadly categorized by design, are described here including new work by this author. It is argued that those that investigate the distress continuum with predominantly explanatory objectives are superior on a number of criteria to the studies that follow what is essentially a case-control structure and espouse prediction as their objective.

Purpose – As a result of the Australian Government Productivity Commission's recommendation to mandate remuneration committee independence for ASX300 companies, this study aims to investigate whether voluntary remuneration committee independence aligns chief executive officer (CEO) total pay and bonuses with firm financial performance. Design/methodology/approach – A series of hypotheses test the research question using multiple regressions for a sample of 143 ASX300 companies during 2001. This time was prior to strengthen corporate governance regulation, but after mandated executive remuneration disclosure, thus capturing varying levels of voluntary remuneration committee independence. Findings – This study shows firm size is an influential factor in the relationship under investigation. ASX300 large firm remuneration committees link CEO total remuneration and bonuses to firm financial performance. Smaller ASX firm remuneration committees do not link either type of CEO remuneration to performance despite remuneration committee independence. Findings are mixed for medium-sized ASX300 firms. Research limitations/implications – Limitations include the necessary time restriction to 2001 for sampling the ASX300 firms. The implication of this study's findings is that the proposed public policy for mandatory remuneration committee independence is not universally effective in linking CEO remuneration to firm financial performance for ASX300 firms. Originality/value – This study contributes to the limited research on voluntary remuneration committee independence in relation to CEO remuneration and firm financial performance in the Australian context.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether IFRS-based data improve bankruptcy prediction over Australian GAAP-based data. In doing so, we focus on intangibles because conservative accounting rules for intangibles under IFRS required managers to write off substantial amounts of intangibles previously capitalized and revalued upwards under Australian GAAP (AGAAP). Our focus on intangibles is also motivated by empirical evidence that financially distressed firms are more likely to voluntarily capitalize and make upward revaluations of intangibles compared with healthy firms. Design: We analyze a sample of 46 bankrupt firms and 46 non-bankrupt (healthy) firms using a matched-pair design over the period 1991 to 2004. We match control firms on fiscal year, size (total assets), GICS-based industry membership, and principal activities. Using Altman's (1968) model, we compare the bankruptcy prediction results between bankrupt and non-bankrupt firms for up to five years before bankruptcy. In our tests, we use financial statements as reported under AGAAP and two IFRS-based datasets. Our IFRS-based datasets are created by considering the adjustments on the AGAAP data required to implement the requirements of IAS 38, IFRS 3 and IAS 36. Findings: We find that, under IFRS, Altman's (1968) model consistently predicts bankruptcy for bankrupt firms more accurately than under AGAAP for all of the five years prior to bankruptcy. This greater prediction accuracy emanates from smaller values of the inputs to Altman's model due to conservative accounting rules for intangibles under IFRS. However, this greater accuracy in bankruptcy prediction comes with larger Type II errors for healthy firms. Overall, our results provide evidence that the switch from AGAAP to IFRS improves the quality of information contained in the financial statements for predicting bankruptcy. Research limitations/implications: Small sample size may limit the generalizability of our findings. Originality/value: Although bankruptcy prediction is one of the primary uses of accounting information, the burgeoning literature on the benefits of IFRS adoption has so far neglected the role of IFRS data in bankruptcy prediction. Thus, we document a new benefit of IFRS adoption. In this paper, we demonstrate how the restrictions on the ability to capitalize and revalue intangibles enhance the quality of information used to predict bankruptcy. These results provide evidence to international standard setters of what they can expect if their efforts to remove nonrestrictive accounting practices for intangibles are abandoned.

This study investigates carer perceptions of the adequacy of assistance received by comparing two populations: those with a mental disability and those with a physical disability in Australia by using data representing 12.5% of the total population. This very large sample provides robust evidence for the study's findings. Of those caring for individuals with severe core disabilities, 21.6% of those with a mental disability compared to only 8.3% of carers of those with a physical disability reported inadequate service assistance. Greater involvement of consumers and their families in health care service planning will provide opportunities to deliver more appropriate services and enhance equities within this sector.

Purpose-The perception among carers and health professionals is that the health care system remains limited in its effectiveness and accessibility to non-institutionalized people with a mental illness. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of the care recipient's main disabling condition (either physical or mental) on the carer's perceived need for assistance in their role as carer. Design-Based on the data collected from the Australian Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, the investigation involved the non-institutionalized recipients of care with profound and severe disabilities, aged 15 years and over, residing in private dwellings and their primary informal carers. Findings-Regression analysis revealed that carers of those with a mental disability were 2.7 times more likely to report care needs unmet compared to carers of those with a physical disability. Further analysis using interactions showed that carers who were the adult children of mentally disabled parents reported a comparatively very large amount of perceived unmet need. Originality/value-If equity is measured in terms of perceived need rather than finite resources a case is made that primary carers of people with a mental disability experience greater burdens in care.

This paper emphasises the inappropriateness of continuous measure predictors for both the logit and MDA models when dealing with the measurement errors that exist in much of the private company data used to model financial distress in that sector. Also, it is argued that the step function logit model that we get as a consequence of the necessity to categorise the predictors, may be more appropriate in explaining underlying nonlinear behaviour of firms at risk than the usual continuous response linear function. Within this context, the two models are compared using data from 140 private Australian companies. A logit model based on only three discrete‐valued ratios gave an overall accuracy rate comparable to that of an existing continuous‐valued multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) model based on six ratios. Of interest is the very different order of significance of the predictor ratios in the two models although neither model remains trustworthy for predictive purposes.